From One Busy Parent to Another: Five Tips to Make Life Easier
By Nadav Naaman, CEO and Co-Founder of Docady
One of the most abrupt and lingering realities of parenthood is the sheer volume of new tasks and responsibilities. As a father myself, I know the stress of the seemingly endless parade of duties that come with managing a household. This is especially hard to consider when our daily schedules tend to be rather full. As 21st century parents, we’d love to be organized at maximum efficiency levels across all parenting departments. Now that might sound like a tall order, but here are some proven tips that any parent can introduce today. You’ll thank me later.
- Huge family calendar: The home-front equivalent of the office water cooler for information dispersal and communication exchange, a massive calendar with plenty of room for each day is a fantastic way to keep track of what everyone is up to. Sure, there are shared digital calendars available these days, which have their benefits – but in my experience, a larger than life physical calendar is the best way to anchor a family’s dynamic schedules.
- Digitize your documents: Paperwork and official documents are unavoidable aspects of modern life. With kids, the paper trail never ends. Birth certificates, medical documents, report cards, passports, social security cards, the list goes on. Docady is a great new mobile app that lets you scan and store everything, and organized according to category. Parents can share their family’s documents with their spouse, and can be notified with upcoming expiration dates. It’s free – and that’s one less thing to worry about. Your documents are safe and accessible on the go.
- Online bill pay: As you may be able to tell from the above tip, I am a big fan of using technology to improve life’s chores. Online bill paying is efficiency to the max, and if you’re not doing it already – please look into it. A few minutes at your computer is all it takes to handle your monthly bill roundup, and many companies even have systems in place where bills can be payed automatically – without you doing a thing.
- Delegate chores to kids: Whether you have a large family or a single child, assigning chores will be beneficial to both you as parents and your children. Depending on their age and maturity, kids can be assigned chores like taking out the trash, clearing the table, and helping out with younger siblings in many instances. This not only helps in freeing you up, but instills good responsibility habits in your children.
- Big batch meals: Preparing healthy, wholesome meals for our children is of paramount importance – but very often, the healthiest and most wholesome meals require the longest prepping period. To save tons of time, make two or even three times the quantity necessary, and freeze the extras for a future day. A fresh salad can be added in just a few minutes, and you’ve just saved hours of your week.