The case for family meetings

"Wait, I didn't know you were going out tonight. What are we to do about dinner?"

"Well it's not like I overdrew our account on purpose. We needed those things!"

"Oh really, and how was I supposed to know I needed to do that? I'm not a mind reader!"

Any of these questions familiar in your home? Possibly with more passion and expletives? :) It's common for couples and families to have miscommunication, especially around finances and schedules. But I have a simple suggestion to help get everyone on the same page -- weekly family meetings!

Stop rolling your eyes, I'm serious. They don't have to be long, they don't have to be boring, but if they cover some basic household management topics, you can prevent a lot of confusion and irritation later. My husband and I try to meet every Sunday for 30 minutes or so. When my sister was living with us for awhile, she also joined our meetings. The cats are optional attendees (sometimes they do have grievances to report, ha ha). If we had kids, I'd make them join us too.

Our typical family meeting (or family check-in, if the word "meeting" makes you break out in hives) covers these basic topics and gives us a chance to voice any concerns, make requests for the household, etc.:

• The F.U. (Financial Update) - how much $ in our accounts, upcoming bills and expenses for next week, etc. We sometimes transition this into larger financial goals, such as discussing life insurance or investments, or a big purchase we want to make.
• Where's Waldo (scheduling) - overview of each person's schedule for the week so there are no surprises later (in theory) and meals can be planned more easily
• Keep It Clean (chores) - if you split chores amongst family members, this is a good time to get everyone to agree to the schedule and make adjustments if needed
• Making Progress (goals) - we like to set family or household goals once a year, and then check-in occasionally, like when and where we want to take our next trip or the next home improvement project we want to tackle. Meetings are a great time to set priorities!
• Plus any other topics regarding the household
  

We've been doing this for over five years now and find it works well for us. We always know there will be time to talk about things on Sunday, even if we have busy weeks and feel like we've hardly seen each other. And I'm never in the dark about how much money we have (my hubby handles all of our finances but that doesn't mean I don't need to know the information - it's my money too!)

Do you have a creative approach for staying on top of finances and schedules for your family?

Time-Saving Tips to Get Organized

I recently stumbled across this article on HGTV.com and wanted to share. It has some great ideas for how you can squeeze in tasks while you wait -- at the doctor's office, for something to finish baking, for the bathtub to fill... It can feel very satisfying to get a few important items crossed off the list!

And speaking of, there is a pile of school work calling my name :)
-amy

p.s. For example, just now as I was waiting for something to print, I took the over-flowing paper recycling basket to the bin outside. Yay.

Fantastic book on time & life management

I just finished reading, "The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management," by Hyrum W. Smith and highly recommend it. A bit dated since it was written in 1993, but some great advice and techniques for getting your life in order and feeling, as the author puts it, "inner peace." I especially appreciated that he focused on getting your values and beliefs in order first, and then using your values to guide your goal setting, and your goals to dictate your daily activities. It's not just about being busier or more efficient or more productive, it's about spending your time doing those things that matter most to you. Only then will you feel fulfilled.

This book really struck a chord with me. I have always had many "to do" lists going at once and managed to get a lot of stuff done...but there were many times when this still didn't leave me with a true sense of accomplishment. I'm excited to embark on this new adventure and try out the Franklin system for scheduling and task lists, tied to my values and goals (it's named as a tribute to Benjamin Franklin, by the way - because he lived his life by governing values). A side note: the book was a bit "sales-y" at times, with pushes to purchase his products like the Franklin Day Planner, but it doesn't overwhelm or take away from the book's very valuable messages.

If you're looking for some motivation and a refreshing way to look at time and life management, I suggest you give this book a read.

Cheers,
-amy

P.S. In an earlier post I included a list of time management books that my friends and colleagues recommended, of which "The 10 Natural Laws" was one of them.

Time for better time management

Many of us feel pulled in many directions at once with our busy schedules, but I've always managed to stay pretty on top of things. Or so I thought! After missing my self-imposed deadline for reorganizing our kitchen, I had to rethink that perception. I do tend to miss deadlines at times, especially those I assign to myself. And I seem to excel at procrastination, especially of unsavory tasks... So, I've decided that it's time for better time management!

I'm looking forward to improving my skills in this area, which will benefit me and my future clients. As I started looking for resources, I turned to my "social network" for book recommendations. Turns out I have quite a few friends that are just as geeky as I am about organizing and self-improvement! :)

Here are the books I've now added to my reading list, which can all be found on Amazon:

• The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith
• The Luck Factor by Brian Tracy
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• Managing Your Goals by Alec MacKenzie (audio book)
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

I'll share my thoughts on these books in future posts. In the meantime, do have any time management or productivity books you've found inspiring? Please share!

Thanks for reading,

-amy