157 - Using a Timer in Motherhood
- May is for Mamas -
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Show Notes:
This is the epitome of combining Work and Play for mamas there's work to be done. Plenty of it. Folding clothes, meal planning, unloading the dishwasher, picking up toys, tackling the junk drawer, cleaning out the pantry, cleaning up the kitchen and on and on and on. Well, why not turn those work items that are not optional in our lives into some play?
The magic missing link for you could be using a timer.
When you set a timer before tackling a task, you turn it into a game. And before you know it, you're trying to beat your personal best and the kids are actually helping and using the timer, too—and it's really kind of fun! Today's episode for May is for Mamas is all about using a timer in motherhood. This is going to be fun.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.
Let's talk about using timers in everyday life and how wonderful it is. Okay, I'm so nerdy about this. I just raise my hand and totally admit this is so geeky of me, but it helps in anything that helps in motherhood. I am here to share it with you now, before we jump into the 10 different ways, I like to use a timer in motherhood.
I first want to say there's two ways you can do it—
Number one is use an actual timer, like set a timer. And I like to use the time timer. This was recommended to me a few years ago. It is a game changer, especially when using it for your kids because it's 60 minutes, and as you kind of turn the knob all the way around the time left turns red.
It's a visual timer, so you and your kids can actually see how much time is left versus just saying, “Okay, we've got 10 minutes to go” and like a two year old has no idea what that means.
The other way you can do it is to time yourself with a stopwatch. So you're just trying to see how fast you can do something, but you're not trying to do something in a certain amount of time. Both are helpful in different ways. And I'll tell you how I use them differently.
All right. Full disclosure: I Marco polo with my sister about this because she's so good at using a timer in her home and in her life, and she gave me some great suggestions. So I'm just gonna be talking about her all episode. She's got six kids. She knows what she's doing. She knows how to work her timer. So we're going to start with five ways you can use a timer for yourself.
ONE: Reading
I don't know about you. I never feel like I can read enough. Like, what I mean by that is I always want to be reading more and I feel like I can never keep up with the amount of books I want to read. I like reading, but I'm always behind and I can never read. Setting a timer, just telling yourself “I'm going to read for the next 10 minutes” makes it digestible. That feels way less overwhelming than like, “I need to read this whole book and I'm so behind.” It brings reading into bite size pieces, so that you can just actually accomplish your reading goals, which is great. Just try 10 minutes a day and see how much reading you get done.
TWO: Folding
My sister said she really likes to use a stopwatch for this and not a timer. So you're not racing against the clock, but you're just folding at the pace you normally fold up, and then you see how long it took you to fold a basket of laundry.
I dare you to try this this week, because what happens in my head is I look at a full basket of laundry and I think that's going to take me approximately one hour and 15 minutes. And I don't have that right now. But do you know what my sister told me the other day? She said, I timed myself in folding a basket. It took me seven minutes. And for some reason I'm thinking it's like 45 minutes to an hour in my head, it's going to take so long.
So just using a timer or a stopwatch to see how long has this actually going to take me really helps you just accomplish tasks that feel like a mountain, but they're really, really not.
THREE: Five Minute Room Pick-up
This right here is, is the gold one of the podcast episode. This is so brilliant. I don't know why I haven't done this before, but she sets the timer, not the stopwatch, but an actual timer for five minutes. And she picks up a room. So if the house is a mess, right?—five minutes to pick up the living room. When the timer goes off, no excuses, you move to the next room. You'd get as much done as you can in one room, then you move to the next room. She said, you have to include bathrooms in this to tidy up the bathrooms, pick them up and all in all, it takes you 30 minutes to clean your house.
Now, if you have a lot bigger house than me or my sister, it might take you longer. If you don't have as big of a house, then this won't take you as long. But you know about six rooms, six times five is 30 minutes, which is awesome. You get to pick up your entire house in 30 minutes. Now I did this this week with my kids. I said, guys, we are going to play a game, it's called the five minute room pick-up. I'm going to set the timer and let's see if we can beat the timer and clean up this whole room. And so they were, they were into it. I mean, they got very competitive. And then as soon as it went off, we like went to the next room. And a couple of times we definitely beat the timer and they were so proud of themselves.
So I challenge you to try that this week. It was really, really helpful for me.
FOUR: 20 Minute Kitchen Tackle
Now the kitchen. The kitchen… Can we just talk about the kitchen? When the dishwasher's full and there's dirty dishes in the sink and there's stuff all over the counter from breakfast or lunch and, oh, it's just, it's a whole thing. You can't do that in five minutes—there's no way. So, what I like to do is set the 20 minute kitchen tackle timer, which that's just what I made up where you just try to clean up the whole kitchen, in 20 minutes. For whatever reason, that number feels right.
It’s a push, like I don't know that I can really do it in 20 minutes, but it's a really good challenge. And it helps me not just get lazy because sometimes it'll take me 45 minutes to clean up the kitchen because I'm listening to a podcast and taking my sweet time, but I don't want to be spending 45 minutes cleaning up my kitchen.
FIVE: 20 Minutes on a Project
You can use this for yourself, which, disclaimer, this is something I'm about to try. And I've never actually tried, but I'm going to do it. This one is setting a timer and spending 20 minutes a day on a project that feels insurmountable for me right now—that's catching up on their baby books.
Listen, four kids all back to back. It's just really hard to stay on top of the baby books. And my fourth baby's nine months old. Have I touched kid number three or kid number four’s baby books? No I haven't, but maybe, maybe if I set a timer for 20 minutes a day and just start putting it together little by little, I won't feel as overwhelmed by that. I'm going to have to get back to you on that and let you know. I'm just not sure it's going to work, but I have hope because if you make things smaller and related to a timer, they just feel less daunting because I'm not looking at the whole baby book anymore. I'm just looking at the 20 minute timer. Like what can I do in 20 minutes? Great. I'll just do that. And then when it goes off, I walk away done.
All right, those are the five ways you can use the timer for yourself.
Using a timer with kids, 1: Getting out the door in the morning
Let's talk about your kids, how to use the timer for your kids. Let me preface this by saying, this has really, really helped me in two areas specifically, which I'll talk about. Getting the kids out the door in the morning, which believe me, I have not perfected, but it's been helpful, and getting them to bed on time.
So in the morning I will set the timer again, using the time timer and I will put it on the kitchen table and they know this is how much time we have until we have to leave and get in the car and go out the door to Milly’s school and to preschool. So they also know that rule is if they are fed, they've gone potty, they've brushed their hair, they have their clothes on, they have their socks and shoes on and they put their waters in their backpacks that they've done all of that, they can watch something, they can watch Paw Patrol or some other show that they love to watch right now.
So I always just point to the timer and I say, here's the deal guys, all three of you have to have this done. All three of you have to have socks and shoes on sitting on the couch before the timer goes off.
Does it happen every day? No, it does not. Because usually there's one straggler who kind of messes it up for the other ones, sorry, kids, but you know, positive peer pressure the next day, they kind of get on that person and they're like, come on, let's watch something. So they'll like encourage the other ones. So the downside is sometimes there are meltdowns if, you know, as we're leaving, if they don't get to watch anything because they didn't do it. But I just say, sorry guys, like, I know you'll be faster next time. I know you can do it next time. Let's try really hard next time. And it just teaches them those time boundaries. And it really has helped getting them out the door because they know when they're going to leave by looking at the timer.
2: Bedtime Routine
Also, like I mentioned, the bedtime routine. So we always say, when you get your jammies on, you've brushed your teeth, you've gone potty, you've brushed your hair. When your bedtime stuff is done, then you can read a book and we'll read and we'll snuggle. We'll do all these things until the timer goes off. And then when the timer goes off, lights out and it just helps them to understand if they're playing around, if they're running up and down the halls naked, which happens quite a bit, if they're goofing off, if they're playing and they are not brushing their teeth or brushing their hair, doing the things they need to be doing, getting dressed, then they're not going to have time to read and snuggle into the fun things.
And again, sometimes it results in some meltdowns if we have to just turn the lights off, but it in the long-term really teaches them the time management that, if I want these fun things, I need to be proactive.
And so one thing we've done just recently in the girls room kind of unintentionally is so the girl's room, they just moved into our old guest room, and in the guest room was my desk and it's also where I'm standing right now to record this podcast. I kind of work in the guest room slash the girl's room. I've got a desk here and then the podcast recording closet. So when my desk was in there, there is a timer that I got from target, which I looked up, I don't think they sell it anymore, but it was one of those sand timers. And I think it's like 30 minutes or something like it's quite a bit, maybe 15 minutes of just sand pouring from like one part of the glass to the next. And I had it for my work because I would time myself for different tasks in my work, and I just left it in here.
And now the girls, we get them all ready for bed. And they're so big. They're so sweet, but we'll turn that sand timer and that's their journaling and reading time. And we just close the door and we say, girls, the timer goes off, lights out. And because we've been using a timer for so long, we kind of kiss them, pray, sing a song, and then we close the door with the lights still on and they put themselves to sleep.
Now, occasionally we have to go in there and say, guys, you're not paying attention to the timer. But for the most part, they just put themselves to sleep and have like a little bit of quiet time to themselves as sisters, which is just so precious to me.
So using a timer for bedtime lights out is, is really helped our household and move some little people along.
3: Quiet Time
Another reason that we love the time timer is for resting quiet time used to be the, you know, they would have an hour of rest time or an hour or two of quiet time in the summers or in the afternoons and they're little and oh my goodness, they would come out a million times.
Mom, can I come down yet? No, sweetie. There's 30 minutes left.
Mom, can I come down yet? They would just ask us because our play room’s upstairs and they would always want to come down and be with me. And I would just say, guys, you gotta stay up there until the timer goes off.
Well, they couldn't see it. So when I got the time timer and I put it in there, they stopped asking questions. I said, guys, you can see how much time is on here. When it goes off, then you're allowed to come downstairs. And so I have loved that feature of just having their quiet rest time with the timer that they can see because it cuts down on a lot of questions.
And also I'll say, if you stay in here without interrupting mommy for an hour, then you'll get a reward at the end of your rest time. Like they get to watch a show or maybe they'll get like a piece of candy or something like that. And that is major motivation, but honestly it helps me get the things done that I need to get done.
Whether that is closing my eyes for a few minutes, spending time with the Lord or most of the time, it's just working on things that I just need focused work on.
4: Playroom Pick-up
Okay. The fourth way you can use it with your kids is a quick playroom pickup. Now this is going to be a little bit different though. It's different than the five minute room pickup.
This is when for us, our playroom, our toy situation is just a total disaster. So what I do is I sit them in the middle of the room and instead of using a timer, I use the stopwatch. I say, okay, we're going to play the game where we clean up the playroom and I time each of you to see who's going to be the fastest.
And so I'll say Milly, go clean up all the books and I'm going to time you and I'll hit the timer. I'll say ready, set, go. So she'll go clean up all the books and then she'll come back and sit down when it's done and I'll stop the timer. I'll say, great job. You did that in 58 seconds. And I'll say, okay, Lyndon, you go clean up all the dolls in the dollhouse and put them away. So I'll say ready, set, go. And she'll go and clean up all the dolls in the dollhouse and come back to and say, you did that in one minute and 20 seconds. Awesome. Do these kids know what these numbers mean? Not really, but they think they're going super fast and it's really fun for them. So we just keep doing it and then I'll make a big deal. If they get faster and faster, I'll say. “That was amazing. That was super fast.” And so we use kind of a stopwatch method and I just tell each kid to do something. And then they come back and sit in the middle and they all take turns, cleaning it up.
And this is particularly helpful when you have to be sitting on a chair, nursing a baby and you can't move and actually help them clean it up. It's like a way that I got the playroom clean without actually picking it up myself.
5: Practicing a skill
The fifth and final way to use the timer is when your kids are practicing a skill, for example, Milly is taking piano. And so we try to get her to practice about 15 minutes a day. Doesn't usually happen. But when I remember to get her to practice, I'll set that timer right on top of the piano and say, you've got to practice for 15 minutes. And a lot of times I'll kind of coach her through it.
So she's got a recital coming up and I'll say, okay, you need to start with your recital pieces. And if you practice, you know, the whole time on one recital piece, you're not going to be ready for your second recital piece. So you need to make sure you split up the time. So also she has this little iPad app that she uses for her lessons and she would spend the entire time on the iPad.
So I would say maybe you split up the time and do five minutes on one recital piece, five minutes on the next, and then five minutes on your iPad. So it again helps teach them the time management. Another thing that she loves to do is practice her reading. Read aloud revival is a great website, just to encourage your kids to read a lot.
And they have this little chart that you can follow for your kids, that if they read aloud for 10 minutes a day, then they get know little prizes as they go along this chart. And we did that earlier this year, and it really motivated her to read out loud a little bit every day. So whenever you're trying to teach your kids a skill, sometimes it's overwhelming to the child.
When you just say, okay, it's time to practice piano. That feels daunting. But if you put that timer on top of the piano or whatever it is, they're doing say, you need to practice for 15 minutes and then you can go do whatever you want. That's a little bit more digestible for them, and it helps them keep on top of things.
Guys. There's so many ways you can use a timer. Please do not limit yourself to these 10 ways. I'm even thinking of more as I'm standing here. More ways I want to try it, more ways I've done it in the past. Like I've even used it for working out just to get myself moving a little bit.
You won't regret it. If you start using a timer in your everyday life, especially in cleaning up, especially in tightening the kitchen and doing things that just feel a little bit like a dread it's it makes it more fun. And bonus points if you turn on some fun music while you're doing it.
William Penn said,
“Time is what we want most, what we use. Let's use our time wisely.”
Thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time.
