A couple keep on top of their busy family life by scheduling a weekly admin meeting with an agenda – and say it has strengthened their relationship.<br /><br />Rachael Shepard-Ohta, 34, and her husband, Marley, 37, began arranging the sit downs after her therapist suggested it may help - and set an agenda each week together.<br /><br />The pair keep a note of anything they want to mention throughout the week before bringing it up to each other on a Thursday morning – when their three kids, aged five, three, and three months, are at school or sleeping.<br /><br />Rachael and Marley, a clinical social worker, start off by expressing their gratitude to each other before planning the tasks that need to be done that week – such as booking appointments and checking for any birthday parties coming up. <br /><br />Rachael says the meetings have made Marley “appreciate” her more as she had been "struggling with the mental load" she was taking on.<br /><br />Rachael, a sleep consultant, from San Francisco, California, US, said: “We treat it like an appointment at the same time each week.<br /><br />“We sit down with our computers.<br /><br />“Over the week we keep track of what we want to talk about in a notes app in our phones.<br /><br />“We start with gratitude and appreciation.<br /><br />"So we'll say what things we liked the other did that week and have a moment to connect.<br /><br />"We choose who books the appointments or do it together if it's urgent. <br /><br />“I feel it has definitely strengthened our relationship.<br /><br />“It’s made my husband appreciate me more.”<br /><br />Rachael and Marley started giving the meetings a try four months ago when Rachael’s therapist suggested it may help.<br /><br />Rachael said: “I was talking to her about how I feel I take on a lot of the mental load.<br /><br />“She suggested we give this a try.”<br /><br />Now the couple sit down once a week to plan what needs to be done.<br /><br />Rachael said: “It makes both of us feel more organised.<br /><br />“By doing this we don’t spend the week checking in on each other about a million things.”<br /><br />They try to limit their meetings to 20 minutes but will sometimes spend up to an hour talking things through.<br /><br />Rachael said: “If we need to make travel plans or something like that it will often take longer.<br /><br />“We always start off with what we appreciate as it starts the meeting off with a nice tone rather than it being just business.<br /><br />“It gives us time to connect.”<br /><br />Rachael says she would encourage other couples to give a weekly meeting a go.<br /><br />She said: “Everyone can put their own spin on it.<br /><br />“You could do it on a date for example.<br /><br />“I feel so much more appreciated and supported.<br /><br />“It’s taken some stress of the day to day.<br /><br />“We feel like more of a team.”<br /><br />Marley said: "It gives us structure for sometimes annoying or uncomfortable conversations so they don't leak into our entire week.<br /><br />"It's made me less stressed knowing I have a designated time to get things done for our family.<br /><br />"It's nice to have a time to reflect and plan together and I didn't realise before how much my wife was managing."
