Save Time & Lower Stress: Back to School Tips

By Helene Segura | August 6, 2016 |

back-to-school-tipsWhy are back to school tips so important? Going back to school is a big transition in the year. Kids go from playing (or sleeping) all day to needing to think, be active, and pay attention for an entire school day. Adults go from making sure the kids stay safe yet out of their hair to a frenzy of keeping tracking of activities, practices, school events, tests, performances, chauffer schedules…and the list goes on.

If you’d like to avoid some of the headaches that can occur during this transitional period, consider doing these four back to school tips:

1) Have conversations now about the family’s fall plans.

The fewer surprises, the more smoothly things will run. Even if plans aren’t set in stone, share your thoughts now with your family so it’s not a surprise later if Dad wants to go on a golfing trip in October, Mom will be president of the PTA, and Suzie plans to try out for soccer.

2) Reflect on last year.

Have you thought about what systems you want to have in place for the upcoming school year? Did everything go swimmingly last year, so you’ll just set up the same routines with some fine tuning? Or did it not go smoothly, and you ended last school year telling yourself that things would be different next year? If it’s the latter, now is the time to make those changes. What worked? What did not – and needs to be addressed? Was paper a problem? Was finding study time a difficulty? Sit down with your children to plan for the fall semester.

3) Decide on your schedule.

When will your kids leave for school? When will they get picked up? When will they study? Begin examining how to better use your time so you don’t feel so rushed and frazzled.

4) Check your inventory.

Gather up all of the school supplies in the house. Donate to Goodwill all of those you never use or no longer care for. Examine what’s left. Using your supplies list from your school, create a shopping list for your back to school supplies so that you don’t over-buy.

After implementing the above back to school tips, considering doing the following throughout the year:

1) Have weekly family meetings to make sure everyone knows who needs to be where with what supplies and who’s picking up whom.

2) Pack your lunches at dinner time.  (EasyLunchboxes are nifty containers to use.)

3) Choose your next day’s outfit while you’re brushing your teeth before bed.

By investing a few minutes in planning, you’ll save yourself oodles of time – and prevent stress – in the long run.

Have a glorious fall semester!

For more productivity tools and ideas – like these back to school tips – from time management keynote speaker Helene Segura, click here.

About Helene Segura

As The Inefficiency Assassin™, Time Management Fixer Helene Segura empowers professionals on the go with the tools to slay lost time. Personal inefficiency at work leads to increased stress levels, lower morale, higher absenteeism, more turnover – and rising spending on employee health care and hiring. Why not improve productivity, decrease stress levels, and increase profits instead?The author of four books – two of which were Amazon best-sellers – Helene Segura has been the featured organization expert in more than 200 media interviews. She has coached hundreds of clients to productivity success and performance improvement by applying neuroscience and behavioral modification techniques to wipe out destructive, time-wasting habits.Helene turns time management on its head by sharing both client case studies and pop culture examples to teach her mind-bending framework for decreasing interruptions, distractions and procrastination so that companies can spend more time generating revenue.

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