With the start of the school year and fall activities, your family’s schedule can begin to feel hectic and overwhelming. Now is the perfect time to simplify your organization to reduce stress and help your family stay on top of all their fall to-dos. Keep reading for tips on managing work, school, extracurricular activities, and anything else that comes up along the way.
Understanding the Effects of a Messy Schedule
While it might not seem like much, a disorganized schedule can be detrimental to your mental wellbeing and stress levels. Having a muddled calendar can cause feelings of stress, anxiety, and burnout. These feelings can be compounded when you’re managing multiple schedules at once for everyone in your family. Common symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Difficulty sleeping
- Increased irritability
- Headaches
- Muscle or jaw tension
Rather than recognizing these symptoms once they’re already occurring, it’s best to get ahead of your stress by planning and organizing your schedule before it becomes frenzied. The Jed Foundation says that “by prioritizing and getting organized we can reduce stress which helps make us feel more confident about our tasks at work, school, and home.” While organizing your family’s schedule can be time-consuming, the resulting ease and structure is well worth it.
Start by listing everyone involved in your family's schedule. Then break down any events, assignments, or tasks that make up their agenda. Once you have everything written down, you can sort it however works best for you, perhaps by individual, type of task, or priority.
By organizing your schedule in advance, you can reduce stress, get the bigger picture, and manage time commitments more effectively.
How to Manage Your Family's Schedule
Keeping a Synced Digital Calendar
If you and your family are running in all different directions this fall, it might be time to set up a collective digital calendar. The following apps can help you plan out any activities, events, or meetings your family may need to know about:
- Google Calendar
- Notion
- FabFam
- iCloud Calendar
When your whole family participates, a synced digital calendar can help to keep track of each person’s schedule, all on your phone. You can further coordinate this digital system by giving each person a specific color for their personal schedules and picking a ‘family color’ for family events. Color coordinating your calendar will help you to visualize what everyone is up to throughout the week. This tip works best with teens or adults, but there are plenty of ways to keep your young family organized and on track.
Using a Task Tracker
With little ones, sometimes it’s easier to keep their calendar a bit more tangible. By writing up a chore chart or task tracker and hanging it up in a common space, the youngest members of your family can participate in your organization efforts. Consider including the following on your task tracker:
- Household chores
- School assignments
- Sports practices
- Musical lessons
- Playdates
In addition to sorting out any scheduling snafus, teaching your kids to use a task tracker can help them develop responsibility and accountability, while staying organized in all areas of their busy, little lives.
Set Aside Family Time
Even when life is pulling you in a million different directions, you still need to make time to be together. Instead of hoping for a few minutes to chat between school and soccer practice, block out family time on your calendar. Maybe even have a set date and time every week, that way everyone can schedule around it. Here are some recommendations for some great family time activities:
- Have a bowling night at your local bowling alley
- Make some fun snacks and have an at-home movie night
- Go for a hike or a walk at your local park
- Visit an art museum and have everyone pick out their favorite piece
- Go to your local library and pick out a few stories to read together
Whether you choose to schedule some physical activity, a relaxed night in, or an educational excursion, spending time with each other is important. By setting aside family time within your calendar, you ensure that everyone has time to unwind and relax, regardless of how chaotic the rest of the week is.
If you’re interested in organized group activities to participate in with your little ones, Acenda’s Family Success Centers offer family game nights, storytimes, and crafting sessions every month.
Be Flexible
Life is messy and things come up unexpectedly. Sometimes you have to miss your son’s soccer practice for an emergency vet visit, or you agree to a shift at work on the same night as your daughter’s dance recital. It happens to the best of us. Take a deep breath, define your priorities, and reschedule for a later date.
Reaching Out for Professional Services
If you and your loved ones are still experiencing significant stress from your busy family schedule that is impacting your daily lives, it may be time to consider how a professional might help. A family therapist can identify issues outside of your schedule that are affecting your collaboration and communication. They can even offer personalized recommendations and strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and burnout. If you are in New Jersey, Acenda offers family counseling and therapy services like Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Parent Management Training, and telehealth services.
Conclusion
Managing your family’s schedule is, while necessary, an inherently stressful responsibility. By utilizing these tips — keeping a digital calendar, creating a task tracker, setting aside family time, being flexible, and asking for help when needed — you can avoid the chaos and mess of a full-time family schedule. By taking charge and clearly organizing your to-dos, you can ensure that your family is happy, healthy, and ready to take on the world.
Ready to talk to someone about family stress? Reach out to one of our family counseling and therapy programs for support. Our mental health professionals are prepared to help you and your loved ones come together and improve your collective wellbeing.
For more helpful tips on maintaining your mental well-being, visit our mental health resource center!
About the Author
Riley de Jong, Communications Strategist at Acenda, attended the University of California – Los Angeles for her undergraduate degree in Communication and minor in Entrepreneurship. She enjoys supporting her community, telling engaging stories, and connecting with others.
Sources:
https://jedfoundation.org/resource/how-to-reduce-stress-by-prioritizing-and-getting-organized/
The Importance of Keeping a Routine During Stressful Times (verywellmind.com)
https://psychcentral.com/stress/practicing-self-care-during-stressful-times#self-care-methods