If you want to sell me a magazine, or get me to click on a webpage, just throw a tagline of “12 timesaving life hacks” or “follow this easy plan to free up hours of your life!” They get me every time, and every single time I think to myself, “I already knew that.”

One of my favorite bloggers had a post recently about how she recently changed her life by implementing a few small organizational changes. First of all, she started meal planning on Saturday, taking into account her work schedule, the after-school schedule, and special events like doctor appointments or parties. Sounded like a great idea, but I already do this. It wasn’t going to change my life.

The next “small change” she made was that instead of spending all day, one day a week cleaning her house, she focused on picking up one room every night before she went to bed, and always cleaning up the kitchen after every meal. Again, a great idea, but the Wonderful Husband already does a great job of cleanup in the kitchen. I make dinner and the mess, and he orchestrates the cleanup effort. As far as picking up one room every night, I have tried this, and instead of a day of a clean house, I get seven days of one clean room and several others that are disasters. It made me crazier than having a house that gradually deteriorates through the week.

I have yet to find one of these “simple life hacks” that actually changes my life, but that doesn’t stop me from being optimistic that the next time I come across one, that might be the one that sticks. At some point, I should probably accept the things I can’t change and focus on the things I can. Unfortunately, that mainly involves me imposing my will on several young people who have absolutely no desire to be changed.

Every day, I walk in the door and trip over three bookbags. My kids’ after-school process is to walk in the door, drop everything, run up the steps, scarf down any junk food that they can find, and then crash onto the couch, exhausted after their “marathon” of a day. Thanks to everyone getting older, not in the same school any more, and a different set of after-school activities, everyone is on a slightly different schedule.

When they were all on the same schedule, I picked them up at the bus stop every day, walked them home, neatly hung up their outerwear, directed them to the kitchen table, where the three of them unpacked their lunchboxes, pulled out their homework, and got busy completing it while I started dinner. I was available to help them with any questions, and right around the time they were finishing up, dinner was usually ready to be eaten, the WH was walking in the door and we could all sit down to dinner.

We followed this routine for years and years and years. I thought I had ingrained the after-school routine into their psyches. I thought I had them well-trained enough that they would follow the pattern, even when they were on their own time. I didn’t. They quickly devolved into chaos.

I tried delegating a little more responsibility. A, having been through all the grades the other two are currently in, could be available and responsible enough to help them with any homework problems they had, freeing me up to tidy up a room or two, or get the next day’s ironing finished. That didn’t work either.

So, every day, I tried to restart our schedule. Once I tripped over their book bags, I immediately called them to collect the bags and pretend like we just walked in the door all over again. Unfortunately for me, physics wasn’t on my side. Good old Newton’s First Law struck again. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Once parked upon the couch, the three little potatoes were reluctant to get moving.

Despite repeated attempts by me to discuss how the disruption to our routine has impacted all of us negatively, from missed homework assignments to me not being able to get dinner on the table, no one seems that eager to change back to their old ways.

I tried some of the trap that I fall for regularly. “Hey kids, do you want to put Mom in a good mood in three easy steps?” They all jumped at the idea, until it was explained to them. Then they collapsed back onto the couch and said that it sounded like too much work. Clearly, I wasn’t dangling the right carrot in front of them.

So, I tried a different approach. “How about if we get all our homework done, everyone spends half an hour cleaning up their room and putting laundry away, we tidy up the living room, I make dinner and then after dinner, we all watch a movie together?” The whirling dervishes they turned into almost knocked me off my feet. I guess if I’m going to use all these timesaving hacks, I’d better have something valuable to invest all of that free time in, and it seems to me everyone can get on board with some well-deserved quality time with each other, especially when it came with a tub of hot popcorn and some hot chocolate.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.