by Enoc Flores

Created on: March 03, 2011   Last Updated: March 06, 2011

The duties and responsabilities for stay-at-home mothers are enourmous. These duties if not taken cared of properly can create frustration, stress, a messy home, and even child neglect. This is why knowing how to manage time wisely is essential for stay-at-home mothers.To better understand the value of time, we should look at it in terms of money.

For example, there are 1,440 minutes in a day. Let's assume that someone deposits $1,440 dollars in you bank account everyday with the only condition that you spent it all on that same day. The money you don't use will be gone forever. If you waste 120 minutes watching a TV show, then it should be seen as burning $120 dollars.

Time mangement should fit the needs of each stay-at-home mother individually. There are several types; such as mothers who have newborns or small children, mothers who have school children, a combination of both, and mothers who have more than two children. Because of this each person needs to indentify three things to properly manage time.

First, how are you currently spending a day? Are spending four or five hours in the TV and the computer? Identify where are you spending too much time doing something and where you are spending too little. Second, what other things would you like to accomplish in a day? Working out? Studying? Read a novel? Identifying the areas that you would like to also accomplish.This will help you get the most out of you $1,440 dollars.

Finally, identify "all" your responsabilities and calculate, more or less, the time it takes to accomplish each task. For example bedrooms. "The main bedroom takes me 20 minutes to clean, kid's room 30 minutes, and hallway 10 minutes." Areas like the kitchen can have sub-categories such as washing dishes and sorting out food items. Identifying resposabilities and knowing the time it takes to complete them will help you see how much time your resposabilities require in a week. This will also help you to better determine how would you distribute that time in that same week.

Once you have properly identified these time management elements you can start making a weekly schedule. Keep in mind that there are some items that must remain the same in order to avoid conflicts. Some examples are the wake up time, meal times, nap time (in the case of small children), drop off and pick up times (in the case of school children), etc. Stay-at-home mothers have the privilage of deciding how to use their day. Make sure you use the most of it everyday.

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