With three kids, three businesses, a marriage and trying to carve out a little time for myself, short to-do lists rarely have a place in my life. Despite that, I believe it’s imperative to find ways to live an intentional and meaningful life, even amongst the overwhelming day-to-day. I attempt to prioritize what’s most important and then work within that framework to be as productive as possible and make the most of my days, both for myself and with my family. Here are a few ways that I’ve been successful so far…

1. Powersheets

Powersheets are my secret weapon. I’m naturally over ambitious and easily get overwhelmed with all of the goals I set for myself, but using Powersheets allows me to put everything that’s in my heart and on my mind in one place, and then through a series of exercises, uncover what’s most important to me. From there, I follow a process that lets me work on my goals little by little. Finally, checking in every month keeps me accountable for staying on track and keeping my priorities straight.

2. Goal Planner for Parents

With two teens in my house, I’m trying to demonstrate good habits so they can start to implement them a lot earlier than I did; hopefully, as a result they will develop skills that keep them from getting overwhelmed throughout their lives. To start, we sit down together and discuss what their goals are for the year – what they want to accomplish, what they want to learn, and how they want to feel in the upcoming year. It helps me understand their needs, plan thoughtful family time and give them some personal responsibility for how they want to spend their year. We use this guide to track their goals and check in on how we’re doing as a family together.

3. Family Bucket Lists

Have you ever looked back at the year and wondered, where did the time go? I know I’ve asked myself, how did we not really spend time doing anything fun or meaningful together? Having to say it once was enough for me to want a big change for our family.

We decided to create a bucket list together – one that lets everyone participate by adding their own ideas. Then, when we have a weekend or a day with nothing on the calendar, we pick something from our bucket list to do together. It helps us do more out-of-the box activities, because we aren’t trying to come up with ideas at the spur of the moment, and everyone gets excited with the anticipation of what activity we’ll draw. Some items don’t cost anything, some are things we can do at home, others are local adventures and a few are things we have to plan for in advance. Each of my kids looks forward to when it’s their turn to choose something they’ve added to the bucket list, and as a result, the bucket list has created intentional time spent together as a family – battling something that only gets harder and harder with teenagers!

How do you and your family spend time together? Are you intentional about it? I would love to hear your ideas, too!

 

Photo credits Rebecca Cerasani and Janet Howard Studio