For many families, the start of the school year catapults once-calm schedules into calendar chaos.
Leisurely-paced mornings are swapped with frenetic ones. Mental math becomes a honed skill as parents attempt to make it anywhere on time. The feeling you’re running behind or forgetting something becomes constant.
You are always on the go, Go, GO!
Sound familiar? Yeah…we thought so. But we’re not just here to empathize, we’re here to help!
Here are seven hacks to keep calm in the middle of calendar chaos:
You know that twinge of anxiety you get when a waiter takes your order but doesn’t write anything down? We accept a similar risk when we store upcoming plans in our head or to ourselves on paper. Share the knowledge with your entire family in a place that’s visible to everyone. The bigger, the better.
Channel your inner middle schooler and grab some highlighters, washi tape, pens, or markers in different colors. Then, apply a system to your scheduling. Just make sure everyone knows what the colors mean.
Gather your whole crew together at the start of each month to chat about how things went last month. Ask questions like, what’s going well? What needs to change? Are you feeling fulfilled with your current pace or are you feeling stretched too thin? Then, talk about what’s to come and update your calendar in real-time.
This is your opportunity to avoid any confusion or assumptions over the “Big Five” of the upcoming week: the who, what, when, where, and how.
It may sound harsh, but consider limiting sports and extracurricular activities to one (maybe two) commitments per person each season. This will give your family some room to breathe and allow each person capacity to think creatively and try new things.
Establish a daily plan for tackling chores in small doses so nothing gets out of hand. You might do a daily 10-minute tidy where everyone pitches in to clean up before bed, or assign each family member a room that needs to be cleaned—top to bottom—by the end of each week.
Consider your calendar and the personality of your family to settle on a sacred time when you can all be together without distraction. Maybe you’ll do pizza and a movie on Friday nights. Or perhaps you’ll declare the first Saturday of the month an adventure day. Whatever you decide to do, be intentional about protecting those moments.
Having intentional conversations has never been so fun.
Looking for ways to spend that sacred time with your kid? Level Up is a fun card game where players ask a mix of silly and serious questions to get to know each other. You’ll not only grow closer, you’ll be challenged, you’ll be surprised, and you’ll definitely be doubled over in laughter!
