Time-management tips from multi-tasking women

When Tricia Fockler Beaty is not driving one of her five kids to piano, flute or cello lessons -- or shopping, cooking, cleaning or attending parent teacher interviews -- she has time for her other job.

Beaty, 46, is a medical doctor. She works three to four days a week as a general practitioner in a Vancouver clinic. To stay sane and also to keep her household running smoothly, she has developed a routine, she says. But first and most critical is her attitude: "I try not to take on too much," is her mantra. For instance, Beaty attends parent-teacher meetings and knows what's happening in her children's schools, but she volunteers only once or twice a year. Setting limits is a necessary skill that ensures she can manage the tasks she's already taken on.

A critical tool for communicating with her husband, Ross, a geologist and businessman who travels frequently, is the household calendar. Kept beside the telephone, it's the "backup" when the couple can't talk face-to-face.

Although the family would seem like ideal candidates for big-box stores like Costco, Beaty says that you need to consider the time it takes to drive to those stores, and the hours spent patrolling their giant aisles. She finds it's more efficient to shop at her local supermarket where she knows where products are, and she can get in and out quickly -- because time is in short supply for doing laundry, if nothing else.

"Laundry is a big issue in our family because there's a lot of it. I just get up and do it in the morning, when I'm fresh. I walk into the kids' rooms and drag the dirty laundry out," Beaty says. In really organized homes, she muses, the kids do their own laundry -- a nirvana she can only dream about. Cleaning is reserved for her days off. Though Beaty doesn't hire cleaning help regularly, she does call someone in when the "little details" she ignores start to bug her. Otherwise, she makes a mental trade-off: time spent with her kids is more important than dusting.

Any mom who does a lot of driving knows that's the time for one-on-one conversations with children, Beaty says. The key to getting all her kids where they need to go is planning. When she signs them up for courses or activities each fall, Beaty seriously considers how much she can realistically take on in a day. Even with limits, Beaty ends up improvising a lot -- another key to success for her family. But despite all she packs into her days, Beaty says she doesn't feel very organized.

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For Brenda Small, 55, who is in charge of her Ottawa church's annual rummage sale, a system is critical. She contacts people well in advance of the dates she needs help, and lines up community advertising with letters that are quickly revised each year with a new date. "I have it all on the computer," she says.

Small, an artist and former English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, is equally organized at home. She keeps paper and a pencil at her bedside in case a good idea awakens her at night. Instead of always cooking two portions for herself and husband Doug, she cooks extra portions and freezes them for later meals. When she cooks potatoes, for instance, she boils enough to have them mashed one night or in potato salad another. Small also sticks to an exercise routine, working out three mornings a week, and often walks in the afternoon. She keeps an old wastebasket filled with labelled envelopes to file receipts for income tax.

Small is equally diligent with her personal commitments. She and Doug make regular dates to care for their two young granddaughters. "If we say we're going to do that with the kids so many days a week, we get out and do it," she says.

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Clearly, it helps to have energy as well as a system. In Thornhill, just north of Toronto, Cathy Snowball has both. Now that four of Snowball's children are doing undergraduate or postgraduate studies, Cathy and her husband, Al, are paying for their tuition by taking in foreign students.

With daughter Heather still in high school, daughter Kristin back home attending her second year of medical school, and four boarders, Snowball, 49, has her hands full. If the high-school teacher isn't ending the day marking calculus papers, she's making six weeks' worth of sandwiches that her family and boarders can pull out of the freezer for lunches. She buys ground beef on sale in bulk, and cooks and freezes it. "There's spaghetti real fast, tacos real fast, casseroles real fast," Snowball says.

Each week, she takes an envelope; on one side she sketches out a rough calendar for appointments, events and meetings. Down the edge she lists errands and phone calls, and on the back is her grocery list. "I have to have my lists or I'll forget something," Snowball says, laughing. Coupons or notes are tucked inside.

Buying staples on sale is a key component of the Snowball system. The freezer is kept stocked so there's always a meal on hand, and Snowball stocks up on items like juice boxes and favourite cereals when they're on special.

Like the Beatys, the Snowballs use a calendar that resides in a kitchen drawer for birthdays, dental appointments and shifts for those with part-time jobs.

When all the kids lived at home, there was often a separate schedule just for Saturday activities. The Snowballs used to plan dates with each child. The children chose what they wanted to do: Daddy with Rachel to the pet store, or Stephen with Mommy bowling. "It was just special time for one-on-one," says Snowball. "You've got to put that as a priority, so you don't just lose it in the busyness." The Snowballs still schedule dates with each other and with Heather, their youngest.

Despite her own need for organization, Snowball says everyone should work to their own comfort level. "If you're so disorganized that you lose your cheques, that's a problem," she says. "But I don't think everyone needs to be super-organized -- that's more of a personality trait."

Whew.

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