Are we really that busy or just bad at time management?

[Littleloaf]

Basically as it says in the title. I feel I never have time to get everything done and only ever seem to deal with the most urgent of tasks while everything else falls by the wayside.

MIL, on the other hand, comes over to look after toddler DC for the afternoon and manages at the same time to clean the kitchen, do the recycling, cook up some vegetables that were starting to get a bit past their best and call the garage for me about broken car.

I always make excuses for myself about why I don't get stuff done, and I'm not the only one of my friends to be in the same situation, but starting to wonder if it's more about being organised and willing than actually physically having the time to get things done?

My Ex In-laws are very efficient and fit everything in but they plan it all in advance.

Shopping - they get everything at the same shops and have lists. They don't browse. It's straight in then out. They use coupons etc and saving schemes.

They pre-book tickets and get very good deals.

Their house is very organised and they don't keep clutter. They don't waste time looking for things. There are routines (housework, gardening etc) they stick to. They get up early if they need extra time. They don't dawdle or get sidetracked. They stick to the plan.

It feels like there is no room for spontaneity.

I find that it is mostly about time management and multitasking so that there's no dead time and it makes life easier later on. Whenever I am waiting for something, I will invariably find some other task to do.

If I'm waiting for my toast in the morning I'll wipe down the kitchen surfaces or take the washing up from the drainer and put it away or take the recycling out to the recycling bin because none of those jobs takes more than a minute or two that I would have otherwise just spent watching the toaster.

If I'm waiting for DD at an extra curricular I will check and reply to emails from my phone. That means the time I was planning to check them later has been freed up to do something else.

Washing gets put on after tea when DD goes in the bath/shower so that it can be put in the dryer and then folded while I watch TV before I go to bed. In summer I put the washing on a timer so it washes overnight and is ready to be hung outside to dry first thing in the morning.

I also keep lists to keep me on track - When I go shopping I take a list as it helps me with meal planning and budgeting and not just buying chocolate and pizza thats not to say i won't go off list and buy something if it's on a good offer but I make sure I can actually use it with what I have.

I also make sure that my organising systems are easy to use and I have more storage space than I need - DD has a labelled Ikea cube storage unit with boxes that all her toys go into and none of the boxes are more than 3/4s full so that she can just dump it all in when she's tidying up rather than have to spend 5 minutes ignoring my increasingly loud requests to tidy up putting it away carefully so that everything fits exactly.

My Mum can do everything a bajillion times faster than me
I’m putting it down to experience and when I’m her age I’ll whiz through a full basket of ironing in 20 minutes too

That and MN - she doesn’t MN, this place eats a frightening amount of my time

OP I am a house cleaner. I can achieve so much more in my clients homes than I can in my own in the same time. I have yet to work Out why I think we got distracted at home with som much to do but when it isn’t your home you can focus on just a few tasks and get them completed.

Yanbu. My mums the same. She used to look after my toddler dd1 whilst I went to work, and all day I'd see posts on fb 'gd and I at the park' 'gd and I at the zoo' 'gd and I swimming'. I'd think they were having a lovely day out. Then I'd get home and somehow the house would have also been spring cleaned from top to bottom.

I think that's it @DonaldDucksTowel
It's social media and our phones. Whatever I'm doing, I'll stop every ten mins to check my messages, have a quick look on mn. My mum just doesn't do that. Like now, I'm supposed to be cooking dinner.

All those tasks you’ve described could be done in less than an hour easily. How much time do you spend on SM, MN etc?

That sounds just like my mum OP! She always puts me to shame when she comes to child or dog sit. Perhaps because she doesn't fiddle on her phone like me.

Maybe it is just wasting time on social media and WhatsApp after all. I should put my phone away for a day and see what I can achieve.

That's a great idea op. I might try that too, just for one day though, my hands will be itching to check it.
I was reading an article the other day about how it isn't our dc who have problems with screens, it's us, our generation.