The proverb says that “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”.
This is very true for me. If I don’t plan, very little will get done the next day… or I spend a lot of time doing things that are very unproductive in my home, such as: blogging, sleeping, watching tv, etc.
So, I MUST PLAN to be PRODUCTIVE in my day.
How to Plan for a Productive Day?
- Identify your daily needs–Ideally, things that you feel you can’t skip during a day:
- Cooking and Eating
- Cleaning
- Time with kids
- Showering
- Kids’ baths
- Time with God
- Time with hubby
- Rest time for me
- Nap time for kids
2. Determine these important times in a day:
- Wake up: 8 am (shower and get dressed for day/make bed/5 min decluttering bedroom–just a sidenote for me.)
Most of the time I’m productive if I wake up earlier than the kids since I can get more done. This was impossible when my baby girl was a newborn. Now that she sleeps through the night, I can get my 7-8 hrs of sleep and actually wake up with energy. Beware of picking a day to sleep in–I do this, it’s okay… just beware. This can be counter-productive for some people since it can be harder to go back to getting up earlier–our bodies adapt to what we teach them.
- Bed time: 11:30 pm
I give myself 8 hours of sleep, ideally… I don’t do any of this perfectly–I’m aiming for it though.
- Make breakfast 8:45 am
- Breakfast: 9 am (clear up table/5 min. cleaning kitchen/begin a load of laundry)
My son wakes up at this time to eat breakfast these days…
10 am: chores/time with son (alternate)
- Morning snack: 10:45 am
11:00– time with son/chores (alternate)
- Make Lunch: 12:30 pm
- Lunch: 1 pm
- Nap for kids: 1:30 pm (ALERT: my children without a nap = terrible day for all of us)
- Afternoon snack: 4 pm
- Make dinner: 6 pm
- Dinner: 7 pm (We have late dinner because daddy comes home late from work–it doesn’t disrupt anything thus far.)
- Bath time for 2 y.o: 8 pm
- Bedtime for kids: 8:30 pm (this was agreed on because daddy wanted to spend some time with kids after work.)
Check out an idea of my daily schedule at my other blog.
And for your sake…
BE FLEXIBLE!!! Go with the flow. Things will always happen that are out of our control… let’s adapt without the guilt.
This is just a backbone, in case you need it… If I wake up late… I begin from there, etc. I may skip some things here and there.
Have fun and enjoy whatever you decide to do.
Time Management 