How does everyone cope with the busyness of everyday life?

[saturdaycoffee]

I feel completely swamped by it all at the moment.

I feel like I'm failing everywhere; forgetting things, late for everything because I'm always rushing, feeling like even though I am doing one thing I need to be doing something else or be somewhere else.

I feel like I need to be more organised, but I'm not even sure that would help.

I just need to be less busy, but I'm doing the bare essentials only at the moment and it still feels too much!

How does everyone manage?!

I am naturally extremely disorganised, but people think I am the opposite. Only because I write everything down - we have a shared family calendar with a column for each person which my husband and I always use so we know what the other is doing, a timetable of the kids' endless activies, another timetable for household jobs, etc. Then I also have appointments and regular activities on my phone, along with reminders the day before for getting all the various sporting kits together, etc. I would be totally lost otherwise because I also organise all my father's medical appointments and tablets, and organise his paperwork as well. It would all fall apart without my phone and calendar but I would be glad to see what other people do for tips!

Ditto what someone else said about meal planning etc. I always have a shopping delivery on the same day of the week (also book it on the same day - again phone reminders!) and a running list on the kitchen wall for shopping, so when anyone sees something is getting low, it gets put on and ordered. On the activities list I also make a note if I have to prepare a meal in advance because we're out and about in the car too much to cook (eg slow cooker meal that day)

I fuck it all in together
Hahaha!!!

Cleaner.
Shared calendar with DH. And on Friday night we sit down and go through the coming week or so.
Buy cards and gifts in advance. Book People is great.
Get the kids to tidy up before going upstairs.
30 mins of dedicated chores after kids are in bed.
Wake up at 6. And get stuff done.
All extracurricular stuff in the week. Weekends are kept free.
Do a small load of laundry every 2 days.
DH irons all uniform and his shirts and my work clothes on the weekend.
I cook on Sunday night. And that lasts us for Monday and Tuesday- I make dal, a veggie curry, chicken curry, a fish thing, and a big tub of pasta sauce. Wednesday I will make fajitas or something. Cook again Wednesday night and that suffices for Thursday and Friday.
And yes I have plenty of lists on my phone.

The key to this is that during the week we are indeed pretty tired and in bed by 10/10:30 and we have to be ruthless about housework. The flip side is that the weekends are free and can be family time. We also deliberately don’t do much on the weekends. Get up, breakfast, park, bike ride, lunch, nap for the toddler, go back to the park, come home, dinner, bath and bed is a perfect weekend day.

I am one of life's list-makers. I think that there are three things I actively do to avoid feeling as you describe.

1. I use a bullet journal nearly every day.
2. On a Sunday afternoon I plan the week ahead. This ensures that the things that are important to me get done as much as the urgent or loud tasks do.
3. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about my values and priorities and setting goals that help me live in line with those. I find that having a theme for each month works for me.

List journaling (basically a notebook of lists, eg day to day, ongoing, specific lists for my projects etc, all in one place)
Meal planning- plan the meals and write the shopping list at the same time, use your freezer so the stuff lasts the week.
I painted a massive blackboard on my kitchen wall which really helps
Use your calendar
Do a Sunday night 'week ahead' plan and offload some tasks to Dh!

If all else fails, I stick my headphones on and go for a run. Somehow everything seems a bit clearer after that.

Write things down immediately and set timely reminders- I use Google calendar and Keep, and a physical family organiser type calendar in the kitchen.

I spend about an hour planning meals and writing a shopping list on a Saturday before going shopping.

If we run out of any item, we write it on the blackboard near the fridge, so there is also a rolling shopping list.

Cut down on anything you don't want to do. I cook every day but most meals take < half an hour. Build a repertoire of easy, quick meals.

Thanks all for the replies and suggestions! I will look through them fully later with a pen and paper to write down some suggestions!

Life just feels madly busy at the moment:

I'm a single mum (well, I've got a partner, but I've got a whole other thread about him!)
My eldest has ASD, so looking after him is tricky, and this is currently impacting on my relationship with my youngest
I've increased my hours at work (but only temporarily)
On my one day off, I'm doing a course about Autism (which is great, but it's just another thing I have to do)
I'm currently taking care of a friend's dog
I'm also trying to buy a house, so I've got 3 different sets of people asking for 3 different sets of paperwork!
I've decided on top of this to write a will, so that's more paperwork
Yesterday school sent 4 emails through in 10 minutes, all of which have forms to complete and money to pay out

I just feel overwhelmed and want to bury my head in the sand!

I like to idea of trying to respond to emails as soon as I read them, but I often read them on the run, when I don't have time/opportunity to reply, and then of course I forget about them...

Can anyone recommend any particular apps?

Have bought a bullet journal for list writing!

I think organising myself will help, and online shopping will def help, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day!

Google Keep and Calendar.

And Gin, (not an app). You have a lot on.

Maybe leave the course until another time and put off the will.

Perhaps you've just got too much on? I've finally learned to take "self care" very seriously and try to make one day completely free of commitments. I don't always manage this, of course, but the aspiration is important.

Rest first. I find everything still gets done but I am happier.

I work Mon-Wed. I’m supposed to do 8 hours a day and start at 8 but in practice I’m there til 8-5.30 most of these days. The extra flexi I make up means I can take extra leave though and early finishes for things on at school.
On my working days I do very little cooking, housework and shopping other than loading/unloading the dishwasher. We eat very simple meals on a Monday and Tuesday and I ignore the state of the house.
Things get a bit better on a Wednesday as my H is off but he doesn’t do housework to my standard. He does enjoy food shopping and cooking though so I get him to do things like that on that day as well as make phone calls as he’s good at that. I hate speaking on the phone. Yesterday he took a load of stuff to the tip.
He works longer days the other four day though.
On a Thursday I blitz the house. We have a cleaner once a fortnight which really helps. Today I’ve also gone through our money for the month (husband’s salary goes up and down every month as he gets commission), made a meal plan, cooked a meal for tonight for family, booked a holiday for the summer and also planted bulbs in the garden and weeded.
Tomorrow I’m getting my nails done and having time with my Mam. I’ll also go and help with reading at nursery.
I keep social arrangements to once a month, this year is busier as it’s a big birthday but I have still said no to a lot of things as my immediate family come first. I say no to things I don’t want to do.
I try to mostly keep seeing friends to Thursday nights most of the time. This means the weekends are still free to spend time with the kids.
I periodically go through mine and the kids clothes to get rid of stuff that they don’t wear. I don’t have too much clutter so it makes it easier to keep on top of things.
I know I’m lucky to work part time. I don’t think my mental health could deal with being full time.

Interesting thread. I've just started saying no to some stuff. I have young kids and have given up two volunteer roles I was involved with. I've just said no to being on the pta. I need to focus on my family for a few years and then when they're a bit older I've promised myself I'll volunteer again.

I feel awful about it but I think there's so much pressure to do Everything and some stuff just had to take s back seat.

There is a saying- if you want something done, ask a busy person. Sometimes the more you have to do, the more you can do. I’m much more effective at work when I’m busy.
But it’s ok to postpone some less important things. I do find it better to decide on say 3 priorities for the week and focus on those rather than do a little bit of everything.

So, I'm finally managing to find time to look at these replies

I think organisation will be the key. Last year I went through a phase of getting up earlier (6am rather than 7) and getting LOADS done in that hour, but at the moment my alarm goes off at 6 and I just feel so knackered I reset it for 7. Maybe if I got into the habit of it, it would be easier, and now it's Spring time it might improve.

I feel like I just need to make ONE MASSIVE CHANGE to my life.

Everything feels pretty unsatisfactory.

I turn 40 later this year, so maybe it's just a (minor) mid life crisis!