As a mom, we never get enough of those 24 hours of a day. From the moment we wake up in the morning, our struggle starts to keep up with all the things to be get done while dealing with our kids “mood changes” and demands!!
We keep trying to do all everyday chores and try to scratch off (at least one) task from the long to-do list when we get free time from our kids and it’s never enough! Our kids consume almost all the time of our day, right? And at the end of the day, we feel like we have accomplished nothing, forget about the “me-time”!
I always felt that way!! No matter how much work I did the whole day I always ended up with the feeling of loss of accomplishing anything! I am a person who needs my “me -time” almost everyday to keep myself going and after becoming a mom It was really hard to find that time for just myself!!
It was hard for me. I was loosing myself and often felt very purposeless until one day my mom told me to plan my days. ” Why don’t you plan your day, Sneha? That’s the first thing you should do when you wake up! You must have a schedule for your day!”, my mom said over the phone when I was complaining her about my days.
It made me think and I decided to try. And believe me, my days have become better and better with those planning and my scheduled days!! And I also manage to read my book every night and have that “me-time” to refuel myself!
Why planning is NECESSARY?
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We have all the things going on in our brain. All the to-do tasks, the appointments, the deadlines AND our KIDS!!! Sometimes it feels like our brain has stopped working or has lost the ability to think straight, right? And we can not decide the order of the tasks to do. We always get overwhelmed about what to do first and what to do next!
Planning helps us avoid that overwhelm and shows a path to lead on! It helps us to decide the order of tasks to accomplish according to our priorities.
Planning is very powerful and essential in order to most of your tasks get done! So schedule your day with following tips and make some free time for yourself.
1. Write it down
The very first thing you should do when you start to plan your day is, write everything down!
Write all the things you need to get done on a paper! Writing them all helps us to clear our mind.
Once you wrote it all, now divide those tasks in three categories : Must do, should do and want to do.
Your most important tasks like an appointment of your kid for vaccine goes in the “must do” category. Other tasks that are not-so-urgent like organizing your drawer or doing meal-prep goes in the “should do category” and last the things like buying a book that you wanted so much or decluttering your wardrobe can go into “want to do ” category!!
Once you decide the priorities of your work/tasks it gets easy to plan them accordingly.
2. Assign tasks to your day
Once you have decided the priorities of the tasks, decide top 3 priority tasks to complete in the day. Don’t burden yourself with more tasks in a single day. We moms don’t get that much time easily and our kids need us more than anything!
Assigning more tasks can lead you to overwhelm and make you feel stuck. So assign 3 -5 important tasks for your day no more than that.( well, if you manage to do more than that then it’s a great thing but remember you are planning your day to reduce your stress and overwhelm so don’t get stressed over the to-do things).
3. Fit those tasks in your day
There are many different ways to planning and scheduling but the one I use is time blocking.
As a mom I have very few opportunities to complete my decided tasks through out the day. Once my daughter wakes up in the morning, all my time is spent over her till her afternoon nap time. And again when she wakes from her nap my attention returns to her!
So I have following time blocks to do the tasks that I need to do :
- Early in the morning before everyone gets up (4 am – 7 am)
- When my daughter takes nap in afternoon (2 pm-4pm)
- In the evening when my husband comes home from work and takes care of my daughter (6pm-8pm)
- At night when my daughter goes to sleep (9pm onward)
You see, at the times other than above my daughter won’t let me do anything because all she wants me to do is play with her (she is 2 years old and it’s hard to convince her otherwise!!) . So once she gets up in the morning I try to do everyday household chores like cooking meal, cleaning, or sometimes meal prep while playing with her. I usually give her something to play while I am doing those chores but nothing can hold her interest for long and I have to return to her!
So I manage to do all the decided tasks in the time when she is sleeping!! And that gives me enough time to complete my 3 top priority tasks! Like,in the morning before everyone is up, I get my writing done for my blog. Then my time fly with all the breakfast making and giving my daughter a bath and make her eat her breakfast and lunch!!
When she is napping in afternoon I manage to organize my home or do some more blogging whichever is my top priority. Then when my husband comes home, he looks after our daughter for extra hour if I have any work pending!
And when she goes to sleep at night, I have some “me-time”! This is the time I read books or watch a show or listen my favorite music!! You see, I need this me-time to refuel me and plan my next day and have the energy to accomplish my tasks.
You can use this method to schedule your day and plan your important tasks.
Find your free time blocks from your kids and assign your top 3 priority tasks for those time blocks. If you could manage then do some regular chores, like doing laundry or folding your dry cloths or organize your home or maybe meal prep for lunch/dinner, while playing with your kids (may be ask them to help you out a little if they are old enough), because everyday chores are need to be done and it’s better if you’d manage to do them with your kids around so that you won’t have to share the time of your priority tasks with the everyday household chores!
Get up early in the morning before everyone gets up, and plan some of your important task in this time. You can also enjoy some “me-time” in the morning while sipping your tea or coffee. Or enjoy a walk or do some work out. It will help you set your mood for the day and accomplish more!
Don’t forget to add the “me-time” to your schedule and keep it in “must do” category so that you actually make time for yourself by scheduling your day! Don’t just get burn out with all the work. Do some refueling and enjoy your day!!
So start scheduling your days moms, and you’ll be amazed at the results!
I hope you find this post helpful and you’ll start to try out these tips to make your days better and find some time for yourself!
Let me know what you think about scheduling and planning your days, Do you have any other strategies for scheduling your day? I would love to hear them, so let me know about your methods, thoughts and strategies in the comments below.