Want to Gain 10 Hours a Week with Your Kids? Here’s How

What would you do with 10 extra hours a week—just for meaningful time with your family?

Most of us assume we’re too busy . . . that there just isn’t enough time in the week to slow down and connect. But often, it’s not about needing more hours—it’s about how we’re using the ones we already have.

In today’s episode, we’re sharing the one simple shift that can help you reclaim up to as many as 10 hours a week—without overhauling your schedule—so you can spend more intentional, connected time and build more memories with your family.

Topics we dive into this episode:

• Anthony’s fascination with TIME.
• A surprising statistic about the time the average adult spends on social media.
• Breaking down the math to show you how you can EASILY gain 10 hours in your week to dedicate to your kids.
• Tips to keep yourself accountable to stop wasting time.

So if you’re looking for 10 extra hours of meaningful family time each week, this episode is for you—press play.

00:00 Introduction: Finding Extra Hours for Family
00:27 The Phenomenon of Time Perception
01:36 The Social Media Time Sink
04:11 Consequences of Social Media Addiction
06:27 Strategies to Reduce Social Media Usage
07:34 Tools to Control Screen Time
10:01 Conclusion and Free Resource
11:02 Teaser for Next Episode

When you finish listening, we’d love for you to connect with us on social media!

Follow us on Instagram and like our page on Facebook to keep the conversation going. It’s the best way to get quick tips, encouragement, and resources to help you make time for what matters most—your family.

Get our FREE resource, "30-Second Micro Moments of Intention with Your Kids", by going to: parentsmakingtime.com/freeresource

Parenting is hard. Intentional parenting can seem even harder. Motherhood, fatherhood, marriage, and all that goes with those important aspects of life can make it difficult to prioritize tasks, embrace intentional living, focus on present parenting, and build family bonds. We're here to help ease your parenting anxiety so that you can stop feeling overwhelmed, find joy in your parenting journey, and build family bonds that last for generations. Here at Parents Making Time, we are all about that parent-child connection, self-care for parents, and helping you overcome mom guilt and dad guilt. If you have a question or would like to share an experience about your own parenting, please feel free to reach out to one of us! Please note, we may use your question and/or comments as a part of a Q&A Parenting Advice segment on one of our episodes.

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Transcript

Jennifer: [00:00:00] Is it really possible to find 10 extra hours a week to have meaningful connections with your family? For most people, it is today will tell you the one thing you need to change to do that.

Anthony: This is parents making time. The show that helps busy parents put family first without burning out. We are Anthony and Jennifer Craiker. We don't just give parenting tips. We help you become the parent you want to be. 

So as our kids have gotten older over the years, I've developed this deep interest in time and I've noticed this phenomenon that the older.

That my kids have gotten, the older that I've gotten, the more quickly time seems to pass. And there's actually some science behind that. We're not gonna get into that today, but it, it, it is a real phenomenon. The way that we perceive time speeds up the older that we get. And that kind of obsession, it's not an obsession, but that, that kind [00:01:00] of fascination, if you will, with time has led me to think a lot about how I spend my time, how we spend our time as a family, because it seems like there's never enough time in the day to give all of the time to everything and everyone that I want to. And so as I kind of had this realization several years ago, I knew something needed to change because time is our most precious commodity.

It's the one thing that we're always running out of. 

Jennifer: Yeah. So that leads you to think and to question like, what mistake am I making with my time? We're gonna talk about that today and, and you're probably, maybe you even already know the answer, but social media, I think. Yep. We all, we already knew that. So what's, we found a stat, right?

Anthony: Yeah, yeah. So, the average adult. And I think that this might be average adult in the United States, but it, it probably holds true throughout most of the world. The average adult [00:02:00] spends almost two and a half hours a day on social media. That's just on social media. That's not including other things on your phone, like checking the news, responding to texts.

Yeah, text messages, just social media now. Lest. You think that you don't spend that much time on your phone, the chances that you're not an average adult are pretty slim. Now, maybe there are some of you out there that just don't use social media. Kudos to you. More power to you. That's amazing. But for the average adult, the average person listening to this episode right now.

You spend two and a half hours on social media every day, 

Jennifer: and if you really wanna know if you're an average adult, go to your screen time and check it out yourself. Yeah, it's, it's there. It will. I, I, I think other phones other than Apple have screen time situations where that you can see that and take that inventory, take the inventory and [00:03:00] find the real truth.

Anthony: Yeah. So why do we do this? Why do we waste so much dang time on social media? 

Jennifer: I mean, boredom, I think is number one. Yeah. I, I mean, when I am at a doctor's office, I'm waiting anytime I have any period of waiting. It's so easy to pull up my social media and, and see what's happening. 

Anthony: Yeah. And we get a dopamine hit from it.

Right. Especially like if we post something and then somebody likes or loves our post or they respond with a comment, there's a actual physiological occurrence in our brain that makes us feel good, and so we become addicted. We want to go back to social media over and over and over again, and the apps are designed with that in mind.

The tech companies know that that's what they're doing that, that they're pulling people in and keeping us addicted to our phones. 

Jennifer: Yeah. And I like to think I'm above that. Right? But when we have a big [00:04:00] event in our lives, or I share some picture that I think is really good of our family or whatever, I find myself sneaking back to see what it is.

Yep. To see who's liked it, to see how many people viewed it. 

Anthony: Yeah, but the reality is that the time that we waste on social media can have really significant consequences because you're losing time that you could be using to do other more productive things. And there there's two ways that we do that.

Right? 

Jennifer: Yeah. There's two ways that we do that. So like. There's the obvious way, right? When you're on social media, you're not present with your life. You're looking at other people's lives. You're sucked into the vortex of whatever's happening there. But not only that, uh. You are taking away from time you could be doing something else. 'cause you might think, oh, well I'm looking at social media when I'm not with my kids, so I'm not being pulled away from my kids. Well, what would you have been doing if you weren't looking at social media? Could you have gone grocery shopping? Could you have done the laundry? Could you have made dinner?

You know? And then those tasks need to happen later. 

Anthony: [00:05:00] Yeah. Or even like you mentioned, sitting in the doctor's office where all you're doing is waiting. Right. Like there's, there's nothing else you can be doing other than waiting to be called back from right to the doctor. But could you be making your grocery list during that time?

Could you be responding to messages that are demanding your attention so that you don't have to do that later? Could you, heck, could you be doing something that is more fulfilling, on a personal level, like reading a good book or something like that? 

Jennifer: I was even thinking, could you just be sitting in silence and being okay with it?

Anthony: Yeah. 

Jennifer: Like we are no longer okay in our society with. Any minute moment of boredom and that used to not be a thing. We used to be able to sit and contemplate and clear our minds and not be so rushed. There is value in that and we have lost it. 

Anthony: Yeah, for real. So the average adult then is spending approximately 17 hours a week.

On their [00:06:00] devices using social media. 

Jennifer: Yeah, that's just plain math there. Yeah. 

Anthony: So if you were to E, even if you were to just cut that in half, that's gonna be a significant. Savings of time, but we're encouraging you to try to carve out 10 extra hours a week for your life and that still leaves plenty of time.

That leaves an 

Jennifer: hour a day 

Anthony: to doom. Scroll on social media. Seven. If you 

Jennifer: take 17 minus 10, you have seven hours left. That is one hour a day on social media. It should be plenty. 

Anthony: Yeah. So how do you do that? I mean, easier said than done, right? If, if you're addicted, which most of us are to some degree, how can we actually stop using social media so much?

Jennifer: Well, there's things set up in your phone. There are ways to set up time limits so that you can allow yourself, and then it's gonna pop up and say, you've exceeded your time limit. Don't. Don't push the button to extend your time. You resist the urge. Um, maybe you're telling yourself every time I start to scroll and I've scrolled maybe three, three reels or whatever it is, [00:07:00] put that in your brain.

I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna stop immediately. And what you, but you can't just stop and do nothing. You need to have a something in mind with what you're gonna replace it with. So you realize you've scrolled three reels. I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna replace it with something more productive. Yeah. 

Anthony: Thinking ahead of time of what you're going to replace the time with is key because if you don't have a direction to go, you're just gonna keep scrolling. 

Jennifer: Yeah. And I think what you can do is say, okay, I'm gonna try this for a week. I'm gonna set these goals, I'm gonna set these limits, and I'm gonna live by them in a for a week. And then let's see what happens. Let's see what I gained. 

Anthony: So one of the things that I've done is I use an app to help me control the amount of time that I spend on social media.

There are different. Apps out there that you can use, that you give it permission to only allow you to access, certain apps, like whether it's Instagram or Facebook or whatever, so many times a day and for a certain period of time each time that you [00:08:00] use it. And I have found that to be tremendously helpful to me in reducing my screen time.

The app that I use is called Clearspace, but I think there are others out there, so, that might be something to look into. There is a cost to it. I think I pay 60 bucks a year or something like that to use Clearspace, but I have saved so much time because it forces you out of the app, right?

It says, and it'll give you a little warning. It'll say, you have one minute left. And so I have it set up to where most of the social media stuff that I use, I can access like three times a day for like five to 10 minutes at a time. And that's it, right? And then once you reach your limit, you can't access it.

, Anymore, so, 

Jennifer: and doesn't that app, if I don't, I don't have the app. Doesn't the app, if I remember correctly, like ask you some questions before you get in so you're more mindful when you're getting into social media? 

Anthony: Yeah, that's the really cool thing about Clearspace and I,, I, I can't speak to the others that are out there, but, with Clearspace, it actually has you take a breath.

[00:09:00] Like you take, you inhale and then you exhale and it'll give you a little quote, like a, a, you know, like a motivational type quote about how you spend your time. And then it will ask you. Do you want to use one of your times to access social media right now? So it forces you not only to not use social media very much, but it forces you to think about whether you actually want to get onto the app in to social media app in that specific moment.

And there have been plenty of times where I've clicked on. It to go to Instagram or X or Facebook, and then it asks me, do you really want to do this? And I'll realize, eh, not really, not, not right now. And so I, so I won't use it. Right. Okay. 

Jennifer: I was gonna ask you that after you had that moment of truth Yeah.

That you've ever got out because of what it asked you. 

Anthony: I, I absolutely have. I've found that to be worth every penny that, I've paid for it. And just so, you know, we're not affiliates with Clearspace or anything like that, so we don't get any kind of kickback. I, I'm just sharing.

This is something that's worked for me. [00:10:00]

Jennifer: Awesome.

 So this reminds me of why we started our podcast in the first place. It's because life as a parent is busy and if we let it, time will just pass on and we'll miss out on opportunities to really connect with our kids. So to help with that, we put together a free resource we are calling our 30-second micro moments of intention with your kids.

It's a simple list of things that you can do in less than a minute to really connect with your kids. Now, some of the suggestions on there are gonna seem very obvious. Because they are. But if you do them with intention, they really will help you to connect with your children. So how do you get it? You go to parentsmakingtime.com/freeresource.

Put in your email and we'll send it right to you. Print it or store it on your phone, wherever it is helpful to you, because those small, consistent moments, they really do add up and they're often what our kids remember most.

Anthony: And if you enjoyed this episode and you found, our ideas helpful or useful, we would be so grateful if you'd leave us a rating or review an Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and [00:11:00] bonus points if you share this episode with a friend.

Jennifer: Alright, so next week we're gonna continue to talk about Anthony's obsession with time. But unlike this week, we're not going to talk about having time for your kids. We're going to talk about the surprising reason why you don't have time for you. 

Anthony: Yeah, so you won't wanna miss that episode, but until next time, make time to become the parent you want to be.