Single Parenting and the Time Crunch

If there is one thing single parents can get stressed about, it is lack of time to meet all their responsibilities. Most say they have too little time and too much to do. Learning to manage time is a problem for most people--not just single parents. Everyone has 24 hours a day; no one can get more. However, to have enough time to do the things that are important to us, we need to learn to control and manage our use of time. Start by making a list of your priorities and another list of things you spend time on that are not very important.

We can make a promise to ourselves to take control of our time. We can learn to cut out less important activities in order to free up time for more important ones. Sometimes events, other people, and our feelings keep us from accomplishing what we want. Everybody has a few of these barriers--barriers that take up time that we could be using to reach our goals. Typical time wasters include spending too much time on the telephone, spending too much time watching TV, not using short blocks of time constructively, "breaks" that turn into "vacations," and being impatient. Another example of a time waster is anything “high maintenance,” which can include morning routines, hair styles/make up, household clutter and simply having too much stuff, such as toys and clothes. A time waster and distraction for children is often television – so you may want a “no TV rule” on school mornings so they can stay focused.

Many people also have unrealistic time expectations and underestimate the amount of time it takes to accomplish a task, get the children up and ready for their day, time needed for homework, or to drive somewhere.

The next step is to decide if we can delegate tasks to others in the household. Even young children can help if we teach them how. Make a list of chores that your children are capable of doing and remember to add more responsibilities as they get older. For more information on time management for single parents, so to: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HE/HE33900.pdf.