Thanks, Mamas. Guilt has been devouring me lately, and your encouragements mean a lot. I love this place here!

Other mamas may be able to do more, but when comparing yourself take all factors in consideration. Like for example I get a lot of stuff done but I have school age children, one of whom is a teenager. I am also married. The bulk of what I do now I could not have done when my kids were small or when I was single, just because of those 2 factors. So don't beat yourself over what you think you can be doing with your time as compared to other mamas. You are doing a lot just by raising your kids and going to school.

That said, the best time management tool I use is a planner. You can get a fancy electronic one but I prefer an old-school paper planner. I got mine from Daytimer, but you can make one from any old 3 ring binder you have lying around. Your planner should include a monthly calendar and sheets for every day. Put sections in it that reflect your life and what you want to accomplish. Like you might have a school section that includes stuff for your classes, a section for your prescool teacher work, a section for your kids stuff, whatever. I keep everything in my planner, from my business stuff to my kids' stuff to my exercise schedule to my housecleaning schedule, everything. I have found it's the best way to keep on top of all that I have going on in my life.

Everyday write down at least 10 things you want to accomplish, from calling to make a dental appointment to seeing about schoolwork. You can start by making a list of all that you want to accomplish for this month, then seeing how you can do it/work on it on a day-to-day basis.

Mama Gathering 2006 | Songs

Cut yourself some slack. No, you have a two year old - cut yourself yards of slack.

Don't get trapped by "comparing mind" and always remember that appearances can be deceiving.

And the number of tasks you can scratch off a to-do list in a day is not a measure of your worth. If the only thing you "accomplish" some days is spending time with your son, go to bed happy at the end of that day because that is what matters more than anything.

When I only had one kid, I felt overwhelmed too. I was in a different situation with Uber-Mom next door. Now, don't get me wrong, she was an incredibly sweet, kind, wonderful woman. She was a year older than me (I turned 21 just a month after Riley was born), and she was pregnant with her first. She had the baby at home and made dinner for family that night...seriously. From then on, she kept a perfect, well-decorated home; she made everything from scratch, and she somehow managed to take care of her DD.

While I sat next door, dirty clothes in the basement, upstairs everywhere, with my DS that watched more TV than he should.

There were differences: I went to school full time and worked. My husband was gone overseas a lot. She had planned for her parenting to be this way, while I had just jumped in feet first. She was definitely more organized than I, but she had just as much to do. Her husband helped out some, but she did the majority of everything house related.

It's all about perspective I guess. While I sat next door, thinking she was the Uber-Mom of the world, she sat wondering how I got so much accomplished. Neither of us got ahead any more than the other, but we just managed the day the best we could.

You have one kid. Everything is new. You're learning everything all at once. When there's more than one, you kind of grow numb to it after awhile, and you just learn and go.

Basically, in my own roundabout way, I'm saying, please don't give this too much thought. It doesn't really matter that other moms seem to get more done than you do. You have a lot you accomplish each day, and you do it. That's what's important. You're doing a good job.

Some people, like me, are more perfectionistic than others. So while other people set their sights on doing things well, we say we are trying to do things well, but really we are trying to do things perfectly. If you can relate to that, maybe the shoe fits, and you could try to realize that doing things perfectly is just going to take longer and require more thinking-time than doing things well.

For me, a dayplanner works. I can write upcoming stuff like PTO meetings and doctors appointments in it, keep track of the day of the month I should give my kitty Frontline, and I even write down to remember to take my vitamin supplements and lift weights every day. Then I get all this stuff crossed off as fast as I can in the morning leaving me time to relax and enjoy my crossed off list. I tend to try to save the more enjoyable tasks for last, so I don't say things like "Well, I got so much done, so I'll just skip that" about some shitty chore.

Especially, I think the dayplanner could work for you because of school assignments, you can write them in there and their due dates. You can visualize how the preschool will affect your week more easily, etc.

But, I think all that you do already sounds pretty big, so don't put yourself down. I like to have friends who are more productive than I am, but one of them just called me to freak out about how bad parking is at her school. My point is, being productive may just look like the greener grass.

***Hurricanes, animal corpses and your potential new tattoo have a lot in common. Think about it. From: http://www.msxnet.org/humour/terror_alert

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would be keep a schedule, keep a calendar, and keep *prioritized* to do lists. Refer to these at least daily.

There are many more time management ideas, but to me these are the biggies.