Organise your family: Five easy hacks for when classrooms and offices reopen

Make the return to school and office easier with morning, afternoon and weekly routines. Here’s how to make good habits stick.

Family routines have been thrown into chaos over the past two years, but as children begin returning to classrooms and parents are back in the workplace, now is the time to get the family organised again.

Time Stylers director and founder Kate Christie – who is running a Power Up Your Productivity workshop on February 15 – says establishing a new habit takes work and repetition and ritual are key to making them stick.

“As an adult, you need to consciously implement each new strategy with intent so that the new time habit becomes second nature to you,” she says.

“The same goes for establishing good habits for your kids.”

Christie shares her best advice:

START INSOURCING

“This is where you identify everything you do around the house for the people you live with that they can do for themselves and you don’t have to pay them for,” she says.

“All kids can get involved in insourcing, no matter their age, but when they are young, they are enthusiastic, compliant, tasks are a game, and they don’t talk back,” Christie says.

“If you leave insourcing until your kids are teenagers you will be fighting a losing battle.”

Her top three insourcing tips are:

1. Sit down as a family and discuss who is going to do what.

2. Everyone is responsible for their own room and their own stuff.

3. Divide up family-based tasks and rotate them so no one gets stuck permanently with the really bad ones.

Time Stylers’ Kate Christie says all kids can help with chores. Picture: Supplied

DRAMA-FREE MORNINGS

Make the morning routine as easy as possible by teaching your kids age appropriate levels of independence, Christie recommends.

This includes how to make their own breakfasts, put their bowl in the dishwasher, and make their lunch.

“In your fridge, have two readily stocked buckets of food: fruit/vegetables and snacks,” she says.

“This way, even if you are still the sandwich maker, the kids get used to being responsible for choosing two pieces of fruit or veg and one snack.”

AFTER-SCHOOL ROUTINES

Regardless of age, Christie says there are basic tasks children can easily undertake themselves.

For example, as soon as they get home from school, they unpack their lunch box, clean it out and put it in the dishwasher, then take all school notes out of their bag and put them on the kitchen bench.

Another routine could be getting their uniform, socks and underwear out each night ready for the next day.

PLAN YOUR MEALS

“Once a week, sit down (with) the people you live with and write up a meal plan,” Christie says.

“Work out what meal you will have each night and who is the cook.

“At the same time, have someone check the fridge and pantry to make sure you have all the ingredients you need, and write up a shopping list.”

Paul and Elly Murray – with their children Finn, 11, Neve, 17, and Enna, 13 – use meal times for planning. Picture: Supplied

SUNDAY FAMILY MEETINGS

Each Sunday night, Christie recommends discussing over dinner what is coming up that week for each family member, and marking up a calendar.

“This ensures that nothing will fall through the cracks and it also reminds the kids what their obligations are for the week,” she says.

Mealtimes are a vital part of the family routine for Elly and Paul Murray and their four children – Griffin, 19, Neve, 17, Enna, 13 and Finn, 11.

“We all eat dinner together because I find sometimes that’s the only opportunity we have to discuss what’s happening the next day or what has happened that day or to plan something that’s coming up,” Elly Murray says.

“I can rely on it being a time we are all together.”

Like many families, the Murrays were forced to work and learn from home during the pandemic, but Elly is hopeful that routines will return when classrooms reopen.

“All of us are fully vaccinated – even the 11-year-old has had his first jab – so we are feeling ready,” she says.

BENEFITS OF ROUTINES

Increases feeling of control in your life;

Helps you cope with change and feel less stressed;

Brains are hardwired to recognise and respond to patterns;

Helps you find time for self care.

Source: Queensland Health