Warning: this post is going to be *extremely* transparent. It’s the sort of post that you won’t typically see on a home improvement/DIY blog. This is where our third word of the tagline comes in- Parenting. I guess you could also make a case for “home,” too.

A common misconception in the blogging world is that we mom-bloggers and home-bloggers have it all together and we never get frazzled or overwhelmed, our kids always look and behave perfectly, and our homes are immaculate. I can’t claim any of those things.

While we can’t be perfect, and we can’t expect to be, we can set goals and improve. This fall, I am noticing that my time management skills seem to be, well, not as good as they used to be. Our plate isn’t any more full, we just seem to have less time to fit everything in. I thought this fall, I’d make this one of my personal growth goals.

Goal one: improve time management

Improving time management is a very vague goal, when you think about it. I tried to zoom in on what I really want to accomplish and develop a clear plan for how to make it happen. I want to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier. I want a cleaner house and vehicle. I want my children to be on a more consistent schedule. I want to eat at home more and eat take-out less. All of these things require more time.

To accomplish these things, I am designating the 90 minutes between school ending and dance class starting as “homework and chore time.” The kids will work on homework while having a snack. I will use that time for helping with homework and completing the chores for the day. If the kids have no homework, they can snack and “chore,” too. On late evenings when I have less time to cook, we can utilize the air fryer or slow cooker to ensure we still have a healthy meal on hand for the night. While my kids are in dance class, I can exercise and run home to work with our dogs (who are currently being trained), or finish any chores that remain. When returning home from dance, we can take the 90 minutes before bath and bed time to get ready for the next day and either read or watch a bit of a movie/TV program together.

Here is a vision board for my visual people. I made this on Canva and it’s an excellent way to make your goals visual. You may click on it to enlarge it.

There are a few other ways I plan to accomplish these goals: by meal planning, using checklists and to-do lists and creating a chore chart for my children. I have found that it is exceptionally helpful to focus on one specific task at a time, such as having a designated cleaning schedule with certain chores on certain days.

What are your fall goals? What tools are you using to implement them?