Guest post by Tony Kouris
Despite the fact that engaging in sports, such as ice skating and tennis fitness training, can benefit the entire family, some parents refrain from letting their kids play youth sports for one reason or another. An oft cited concern of parents is that sports could be taking their children’s attention away from their classes.
Low or failing grades in class are not something parents should worry about if they can teach and help children to properly manage time. It is a critical life skill that will serve them well not only as students and athletes, but also in the workplace. With proper and effective time management, you will be amazed at how much the family can accomplish in a day. Kids can apply the tips and parents can use them as well on their own scales.
Here are three helpful time management tips that every busy sports family (like yours) must consider implementing from now on.
1. Learn to prioritize your responsibilities and activities
There are activities and events that you and your kids would like to do, but you won’t always be able to fit it all into the schedule. To make it work, you just have to shuffle things around. If this is not possible, you have to accept the fact that you simply can’t do everything. And this can mean sacrificing the less important things, such as attending every birthday party, social events, and other activities that your family is invited to or is interested in.
However, sacrificing things you want to do is not easy. To arrive at a happy medium, you can create a list of all the activities that your family members need and want to do, and decide what must be prioritized and what can be left off or scheduled for sometime in the future instead of immediately.
After creating a priority list, budget your time accordingly and make sure to stick to the schedule you created. This means that if sports practice takes an hour, it should not exceed that allotted hour, even when your kids plead to extend for five more minutes, so that everything on your schedule can still go on as planned. Always remember that planning and following your schedule will ensure that the day is well spent.
2. Create a master schedule
Creating a master calendar that includes every family member’s events will help your family stay organized and always updated on everyone’s schedules and plans. Make sure to display this somewhere inside your home, perhaps on one wall of your kitchen, so everyone can see it daily.
It would also be helpful if you get everyone connected through Google Calendar. This way, everyone can have access to your master schedule on the go.
For example, if you need to make an appointment to learn more about ice skating for beginners, you can easily do so without guessing when to fit it in your schedule, especially if you are out. And this can greatly minimize conflicts on everyone’s schedule. The best part is that you can notify the other family members of the changes you just made to the master schedule.
3. Set some down time
Downtime is crucial. You do not want everyone to be active and doing things every minute of each day; your family will only become exhausted.
Including idle time in your daily schedule will allow your family to have a few minutes to relax and reflect, which is essential when you have a hectic daily routine. Everyone should have a day or two off to rejuvenate, either by going to the spa, hanging out with their friends at a community event, or watching the latest blockbuster movie. This will give your mind and body enough time to relax and renew for more busy hours or days ahead.
Managing your family’s time, especially if everyone is engaged in sports, is an ongoing process. Most importantly, this will require practice, time and learning. Don’t hesitate to try different time management techniques and tools, because only then you can determine the most effective ways to optimize how each family spends the most of their time daily.
About the Author
Possessing more than two decades of experience in the leisure and hospitality industry, Tony Kouris joined Zayed Sports City as General Manager in January 2018. With extensive career experience, a value on interpersonal relationships, and strong negotiating experience, he is positioned to support Zayed Sports City’s strategic growth and continue to innovate the site as an internationally recognised sport and entertainment destination.
I’ve never used the google calendar but I’ll have to check that out. Just like you said it’d be awesome for when I’m out and want to make plans. I can easily just check my calendar.A big thing for me making time for myself and family things is cutting out t.v. Most people have no idea how much time they actually spend in front of the tube so just keeping it off frees up so many hours-just in a day! Thanks for the write up and tips:)
OMG, right? We watch a lot of shows and I’ll bet I could get a lot more done if I cut down on that. 🙂
As a single parent for many years myself, I can definitely see the value in the tips provided in this article! I was a single dad, but does that really matter? Also, it was my daughter that I had to do time management with to attend to her athletic needs. Again, needless to say, the advise you offered was universal, practical and very good!
Usually, single parents are reactive to everything that life throws at them, but yours is a proactive approach, both welcome and practical to all… single moms or dads!
Hi there. Single parents do have extra worries with time management so yes, it’s really good to be proactive. I know it’s hard to stick to it, but at least it’s a guide. 🙂
Hi
You have simplified time management which is a really good thing, but quite often really hard to do when you find yourself on the go and on the go all the time.
Re-learning these three tips is going to make my life much easier and I am so glad that I came back to your website.
I am so glad that you included down time because relaxing is so important. We all need to re-charge our batteries and it is important to include relaxing within time management plan.
Thank you
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer. I’m glad these tips helped and thank you so much for visiting my page. 🙂
Being a busy Sports family myself is hectic and if you don’t have any organization everybody will be going in different directions but once I incorporate the 3 time management tips for busy Sports family.
I know I’m going to have everything under control especially with managing the down time for us to sit back and reflect on what been going on with each other. This will help me be more responsible and assertive with my decision making.
Thank you for this wonderful article it really will help me out with this new information
Hi Quinn. It can be hectic, right? But it’s so worth it. 🙂
These are great tips – I am probably the worst at setting some down time, but having a Master Schedule also sounds like it will work good.
I like your writing style, very straightforward and easy to read and how you got the time management tips down to 3 easy to remember and master skills to improve our day and make it less hectic.
Thank you for the great advice. Cheers
Thanks Alexander. I appreciate your support. 🙂
Hi Shannon,
Congratulations on your webpage. I really like the thought of time management for parents that have their kids in sports or even different school activities. I know everyone does not have the skills for managing time.
When you think about the various age groups that have children, starting from about age 16 to 50 years of age.. You may appreciate what I am saying. If you have worked and have had training on time management and understand how to determine what’s important but not urgent, what’s priority, what’s not needed until a certain date, or what has to be done in a certain time frame, it can be mind boggling.
The younger generation there is a very low percentage that will follow a schedule and manage their time to where there is no conflict of schedules. I look at parents that have children with disabilities and how they make attempts ot work their schedules even with doctor’s appointments, school events, and community sport involvement.
Then I look at parents that have more than tow or three children and how they try to manipulate their schedules to be actively involved in what each child is doing.
I think you hit the key topics such as prioritize, Master Scheduling and have downtime. Burnout can put you in a position to where everything falls apart. I think that is an important and valuable information. If you realize people can become sick, stressed, have finical problems, and on a downhill state where the children suffer.
I believe context of delivering results is the most important challenge. You will want to have a group of parents follow your topic and review a final survey to see what’s working for the different families.
I like the Must have Stuff page and Baseball Names and quotes. You put a lot of work into this website.
Good Luck to you!
I hope I have invited some addition thought to help.
Regards,
Hi Ronald. Thanks so much for taking the time to write your thoughts and for looking over my website. I really appreciate it! 🙂