10 kids and a tight ship
Posted by Troy Forrest on September 25th, 2009 at 10:29am
My team went country this past weekend, and we visited some wonderful rural friends that have 10 kids (the eldest is just 13). Pick up your jaw.
Aside from managing a chaotic farmhouse, she’s studying undergraduate Medicine (requiring 3-4 hours travel each day to and from the city) and he owns a busy electrician business employing six blokes.
3 time management tips I gleaned from masters over a roast lunch;
- Get a system – there are rosters on the fridge(s) with times and tasks that all the kids have to follow. Too much to remember, so it’s on display. Fewer fights when it’s in black and white.
- Incentivise for action – after the nagging got too much, a $4 bounty was offered to the child that cleaned their room the fastest & most comprehensively. The dirty clothes didn’t stand a chance.
- Every 5 minutes can achieve something – the 9-year old told me “At 8:15am, my job is to wipe the bathroom sinks, and then we’re off to school.”
Now I know you’re clever and the stuff you need to do today is clear in your head… humour me, write the tasks down. Free up that valuable neuronal real estate for the client challenges and the new opportunities that will present themselves today. Give yourself a time support scaffold.
The 10 minute block you’re using to read your emails and surf the excellent THINK! site right now… can you shrink it to 5? What can you do with that extra 5 minutes? Maybe map and prioritise the tasks you need to complete by hometime? Or call one more client? Incentivise yourself – “If I get these 3 things knocked over by 5pm, I’m treating myself to a (insert your guilty pleasure here)”.
After we’d finished lunch, our friends got the eldest two to hide lollies in the garden for the younger kids to find. This is a house of noise and efficiency; routine and delegation and schedules… but they make the effort to inject spontaneity and fun along the way.
It is an effort, but the time goes fast.
Are you planning to have fun today?!
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