Many parents find it useful to have a calendar or day planner in a
central place in their home. This allows everyone to see what is
coming up the next day, week, etc. You may instead prefer to keep your
schedule on your computer. Don't feel obligated to use the system that
works for your best friend, husband or anyone else. It needs to work
for YOU. This only works if you are consistent about marking your
schedule. If not, you will find this to be a very frustrating
exercise. However, a good schedule can greatly simplify your planning
for each day.

Be realistic about how much time it takes to get any school age
children ready for school each day and get yourself and them out of
bed appropriately. If you get up a bit earlier than the children,
you'll have time to make them breakfast and lunches for the school
day. Alternatively, make the lunches the night before. A good
breakfast can be very helpful to your child throughout the day.

To do lists can be very helpful. You might keep a detailed one with
everything you need to get done during the day, from feeding the baby
to pickup up the kids from school, or just a simple to do list with
the activities you do not do regularly listed.

Know your internal schedule. By this, I mean, know when you are most
likely to complete certain activities. If you are most in the mood for
house cleaning first thing in the morning, make sure you schedule it
immediately. If you'd rather wait until after lunch, do it then. Don't
forget to include plenty of time for family activities.

If you have work at home job or home business, make sure you have
plenty of time to get your daily tasks done there. Once again, knowing
when you will be most productive will help you tremendously. Not all
opportunities will give you flexibility to change your schedule to
meet your preferences, so you may have to find ways to deal with work
schedules that are not ideal. Businesses, too, have a way of eating
into other plans, so keep a certain degree of flexibility in your
daily schedule.

Everyone has things they do that just waste time. Know what you tend
to do that is unproductive. This doesn't mean skimping on personal
time. However, if you get too interested in tiny details, perfecting
things, and so forth, you can waste a lot of time better spent
elsewhere. Being disorganized also wastes tremendous amounts of time.
Write down important phone numbers, addresses and so forth where you
WILL find them easily later.

Don't forget to include everything that uses time in your day. Your
children get out of school at a certain time, but how long does it
take you to walk or drive there?

Make sure you aren't spending an excessive amount of time doing
activities such as watching television, surfing the internet, checking
email, gossiping with friends, and so forth. While these are certainly
enjoyable activities, if they take up too much of your day you can
feel frustrated while trying to get other, more important things done.
Know how much time you can spend on these things. Can they be moved to
less stressful times of the day? A VCR or Tivo can make it very easy
to switch the time you watch your favorite television programs. The
internet and email will be there when you have time. Friends will
understand if you're too busy for an involved conversation if you tell
them so.

Much of time management is simply being aware of what you need and
want to do and how much time you will need for it. It need not take
much time at all out of your day to plan how best to use that day.

Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that
knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just
business. From money saving tips to parenting and marriage tips, to
work at home jobs and businesses, you can get information and support
here. You can visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com and
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