We survived the first week of August which around here means the first week of school! I'm jealous of the people who get a few more weeks of summer, because our kids started back on Monday! It's going to take a little while to get back into the groove of getting up early, but so far we are off to a great start. It's time for this month's post in the Everyday Organizing for Busy Moms series.
This month's topic is how to stay on top of it all! Three different school schedules and multiple fall sports makes our fall extremely busy. One week in and I already feel like I have filled out a million forms, gotten a ton of school emails, added hundreds of things to my to-do list, and my sports scheduling app notifications haven't stopped. It's enough to make your head spin and certainly easy to feel like you are drowning in the overload of information. Staying on top of it all is more important than ever at the start of the school year so I thought I would share some tips!
Avoid Procrastination
My first and most important tip for staying on top of it all is to avoid procrastination! If you have an email or alert come through asking you to sign an online form, make a payment, RSVP to an event, etc....do it right away. It might not be convenient to stop what you are doing, but I promise taking two minutes to take care of that task is going to save you feeling like you are drowning in the overload of to-do's in a few days.
Write it down right away!
Can't take care of something right away? At least write it down right away. Add it to your to-do list so you can be reminded of it later.
When you get a notification from one of the many sports apps we all use for various teams, add it to your calendar right away.
Thinking to yourself, "I'll do that later when I get home" will likely not happen and it will end up causing more stress and confusion in the long run.
Manage Emails
A lot of people have their own ideas and systems for managing their emails, but after talking to a friend the other day I realized not everyone does! A lot of information comes through email and it can be overwhelming to sort through it all.
If I read an email and know that it requires something of me that I can't do right at that moment I mark the email as unread. That way I know to go back to it later and it won't get buried in my inbox. When I finally sit down at my computer or look on my phone later in the day that little blue dot beside the unread emails easily shows me something I need to read or take care of.
I am also an email saver. I know some people like to delete and be done with it, but I save anything that I think might be handy info down the road and it aways proves to be helpful! I have folders in my inbox for so many things...each kid's school year, every sports team, house stuff, etc.
I recently needed to call the air conditioning repair company and couldn't find the number, but I knew I had saved the invoice he sent me from the last time so I was able to quickly find it.
I needed to check the time for a meeting at the school and because I saved the newsletter I was able to pull it up quickly instead of having to try to navigate the website to search for it.
It just makes it so much easier to go back and quickly find what I need!
I'm sure there are lots of other tips for staying on top of it all during back to school time, but those are the ones that work best for me. Managing multiple kids' school and sports things, along with everything for the house is a lot of work, but I promise staying on top of it will help make it more manageable. Hope everyone has a great start to their school year!
January {Keep a Family Calendar}
February {To-Do Lists}
March {Time Pockets}
April {Declutter}
May {Laundry & Dishes}
July {Paper Planners}
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