Figure out how to reduce chaos as a working parent with these life hacks

Have you ever fallen for a headline that has the word “hack” in it?

Cleaning hacks, kitchen hacks, exercise hacks… the list can go on.

Well, it’s safe to say that I have fallen for these time and time again. Life hacks have easily become one of my favourite things. Especially now as a working parent I appreciate anything that brings more ease to my day-to-day routine and ultimately gives me more time to spend with my family.

What are life hacks?

I think we can all agree that time is truly precious and there’s only so many hours in the day to get you through that long to-do list. Life hacks are meant to be little tips, tricks, or shortcuts to improve efficiency in any part of your life. It’s to earn you back that much needed time that you can use in other areas you may not have as much time for, like self care!

I’m going to share with you 5 of my favourite life hacks that have really helped me juggle work and family life.

Now, life hacks are very personal. Everybody has different habits and ways of operating and so not every life hack is a fit for everyone. Some of the below you may think are really cool, some you could revise to better fit into your lifestyle, and others you just may not need. But either way, I hope it gives you some inspiration to reassess your current routines and unlock ways to make your life even just a little bit simpler.

1. Jazz up Google Calendar

I know, this seems so basic! But I have a couple of ways that I believe can really change the way you use Google Calendar for your family planning.

I was the type to use an old-school day planner. I love putting pen to paper and physically seeing my to-do list. But since becoming a parent my schedule changes so frequently that the day planner becomes messy and hard to navigate.

My husband and I did what a lot of you have done which is set up a shared family calendar. One way that I jazzed it up was I connected my work calendar to the shared calendar so that it shows time blocks. It doesn’t show the details of the event but at least you can see the times when calendars are blocked.

For those in the corporate world, I understand that there are sometimes privacy restrictions in sharing your work calendar. But a workaround, or “hack”, to that would be to forward the events to your personal calendar so that it still blocks the time off.

Another game changer for me has been using a separate “calendar” for meal planning within Google Calendar. Having one calendar for everything can get cluttered, and so having a separate one for it with its own colour helps to differentiate the calendar's purpose. We don’t plan out every single meal by any means, but it can be a useful short-term tool or even to see what you had in the past for inspiration.

2. Better organize your meal delivery services

Meal delivery services… *chefs kiss*! They have changed the game in terms of grocery shopping, reducing food waste, and mixing up meal inspiration.

I use one in Vancouver called Fresh Prep, but there are others like HelloFresh and Chef’s Plate that you can check out. I also love SPUD which is an organic grocery delivery service in British Columbia and Alberta.

The problem my family had when starting out with a meal delivery service was that we wouldn’t plan out what day we would make the meals. It became a source of stress because days would go by and we would realize that we need to make that meal before it goes bad, and sometimes it might even go to waste.

To reduce that stress I found it really helpful to plan out the days that the meal delivery service meals would be made. I.e. For the coming month I would select the meals we want to have, drop them into my meal planning calendar, and voila I felt more organized with meals for the month ahead AND less food waste!

Use my referral link here for 3 free meals with FreshPrep meal delivery (BC & Alberta)!

3. Have a takeout & administration night

It’s only human to have one of those administration lists of tasks that often weigh at the back of our mind.

I noticed that after a long week all I wanted to do was spend time with my family and relax on the weekends. But then the Sunday scaries rolled around and my husband and I realized we hadn’t yet accomplished those life administration tasks, like paying bills or booking travel plans, and we were taking that stress into the next week.

What we implemented was one night a week we would pair yummy takeout with the daunting task of getting through that admin/life to do list. We would do this biweekly and on the off weeks we would have a date night. Date nights range from going out and getting a babysitter to tidying up the house and watching a movie together.

Starting off the “takeout and admin” night can be quite slow and sometimes boring. But stick with it! You will notice that over time you will get quicker at tackling those tasks and maybe even finding efficient ways to complete them in advance so that the list doesn’t grow out of control.

So go crush those admin tasks, and have some yummy takeout while you’re at it!

4. Use Trello for your personal life

Trello has been one of the best organizational tools that I’ve added to my personal life. You may have used Trello at work in a more project management capacity, or even for random at home lists, but I have found it most useful in home maintenance and packing.

My family’s “home board” collects all those little things related to home maintenance. For example, tracking when you changed the water filter or when you last got the car serviced. These are less common tasks that can easily add up and cause mental fatigue, especially if you can’t quite remember when you last did that task.

Instead, once you tackle an at home task you can throw it in your Trello board which can be easily referenced in the future.

I’ve also found Trello helpful for packing lists. Since becoming a parent the little bits and pieces that you need to pack have tripled and it’s become easier to forget them. I have created packing lists for different locations or similar types of trips (i.e. road trip vs a longer flight). This makes packing more repeatable and not having to start from scratch every time you’re packing for a trip.

To take it one step further you can add items to your Trello packing board that you may have forgotten or would have been a nice-to-have on your last trip!

5. Get Apple TV 4K for those home and entertainment nights

Disclaimer:

• This is not as much a “hack” but more so a product;

• I may be a bit late to the bandwagon; and

• By no means is this sponsored or endorsed by Apple!

But that all being said, the Apple TV 4K has been one of the best purchases in the last few years and it has greatly improved my family's leisure and entertainment life.

My family has a smart TV and truthfully the smart TV function is not that great. The remote is hard to use, it's an older interface… you get the idea.

Instead of getting a new TV, we opted to get the Apple TV where we can watch all of our streaming services AND cable in one place. The remote is really easy to use and you don’t need multiple remotes (seems so simple but it’s such a win!)

This has made our TV watching experience so much more fun and enjoyable, an activity that shouldn’t be stressful to begin with!

I hope you find some use in these 5 life hacks! Connect with me on Instagram @andreabarrcoaching and let me know if you tried any of the above life hacks or if you have any hacks that you want to share, I would love to hear your thoughts!