We all know it's coming—the dreaded back-to-school crunch—but every year we seem to be caught off guard. Plus, as we struggle to prep for a new school year, work projects on hold for the summer suddenly go into overdrive as fourth quarter/year-end is just around the corner.

It’s a double whammy recipe for disaster unless moms and dads take action now. 

As I explain in my new book, Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, parents can add of the mayhem by adding these simple “tweaks” to their weekly work+life fit practice in early August:

First, identify, breakdown and plan the back-to-school activities typically encountered every year. For example:

• Add 2013–2014 school dates into your calendar, including extra-curricular sport and activities.
• Review the "summer pre-work" your child may have and count back from the first day of school to set a reasonable schedule for completion
• Buy school supplies early, before the line is out the door and the shelves are picked clean.
• Take advantage of back-to-school sales to buy a couple of basic needs but count on shorts and t-shirts for the first few weeks.

Next, think about projects and responsibilities at work that will require attention after Labor Day:

• Sit down with your boss to clearly identify projects and priorities for September and October.
• Ask if there is anything you and the team could do to prepare and get a jump start now.
• Share dates you may need to take off or have additional flexibility around back-to-school, such as first day(s) of drop off and pick up.
• Leave the evenings and weekends the week before and two weeks after the start of school as free and uncommitted as possible. If you have to schedule out of town travel or evening work activities, make sure you coordinate with your partner or friends for child care coverage well in advance.  

A little bit of thoughtful planning, discussion and action now, can limit the back-to-school stress, and the fourth-quarter work frenzy later. Remember, just “tweak” it!

Win Your Own Copy of Cali Yost's New Book!

As the CEO and founder of Flex+Strategy Group/Work+Life Fit, Cali Williams Yost has help hundreds of businesses and thousands of individuals partner to create award-winning flexible workplaces. An honors graduate of Columbia Business School, Yost offers pioneering work+life “fit” advice in the recently released, Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, and in the critically-acclaimed Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You. She has appeared on the Today show, NPR and in the New York Times, USAToday and the Wall Street Journal, was named one of Mashable’s Top 14 Career Experts on Twitter, and her Work+Life Fit blog has been recognized as “Best of the Web” by forbes.com and workingmother.com. To learn more, visit www.worklifefit.com.