If you’re feeling as if you never have enough time, you’re not alone. It’s not just caregivers who feel that way, although as a caregiver you have a much bigger reason to get your time management under better control.
Measure out What You Can Realistically Do
Caregiver Bay Shore NY – Four Ways to Get a Little More Time When You’re a Caregiver
You’ve got to account for what you can realistically do. What are you saying yes to? Likewise, what are you saying no to? Those are both important categories to examine. For everything that you say you’re going to do, that means you don’t have time, energy, or some other resource available to do something else. That matters and it adds up. So from that standpoint, you need to know what you can realistically get done.
Determine What Your Biggest Priorities Are
Where are you headed? When you understand your biggest priorities, both as a person and as a caregiver, that’s going to help you to understand more about what you’re saying yes and no to doing. All of that gives you even more information about what you can delegate to someone else and what you need to be handling personally.
Batch Activities to Get More Done
Multitasking doesn’t help you to get more done, but batching your tasks really can. Whenever it’s possible, try to look at your to do list and find the tasks or activities that are similar in some way. They might all be tasks you need to be in the kitchen to do, for instance, or you might have several pieces of paperwork you need to handle. If you “batch” those tasks and do them at the same time, you’re more likely to complete them faster because you’re not having to switch your attention as much.
Prioritize Time for You
No conversation about making more time for yourself as a caregiver would be complete without also mentioning that you need time that is just for you. If you’re ignoring taking time away, you’re naturally going to find that everything takes longer, because you’re running yourself down. Take time for yourself more often and you might be surprised how much more efficient you get at handling tasks.
As you look deeper into what takes up your time and your energy, you’re going to get better at managing both. That’s going to be the key to helping you to have all the time you need as a caregiver and as a human being.