Finding Time: Part 9 - Creating and implementing a workable full-fledged schedule
Yesterday I shared about how having a full-fledged schedule has impacted our lives in so many wonderful ways. For those of you wondering where you start in establishing and implementing a full-fledged schedule, here are some of my thoughts:
1. Determine what are the most important things to be accomplished in your day. If you are married, ask your husband what is most important to him that you accomplish in a day--you just might be surprised!
My most important things would be: my relationship with the Lord, honoring and serving my husband, training and caring for my children, managing our home (laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc.). Your list may look entirely different depending upon what season of life you are in--whether you are married or single, have children or not, and so forth.
2. Write down a basic order for your day allowing time for these most important things first. If you've never had a schedule before, don't try to make up a big, complicated spreadsheet with time slots. Keep it simple and start slowly. In fact, I'd recommend that you begin with no more than 10 things on your list. Perhaps you could start with your five morning routine items and then expand on that by adding five more things to accomplish by the end of the day.
It might be helpful to break your tasks up between morning and afternoon and evening. Assign five things to do in the same order every morning, three things to do after lunch, and two things to do after dinner.
3. Try different things for three to four weeks at a time and determine what works best for you. Maybe eventually a detailed every-30-minute spreadsheet will be just your thing. Maybe not. Test the waters slowly and adapt ideas to your own situation.
Again, keep it simple. You don't have to have a perfect schedule the first time around. Anything
is better than nothing at all.
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You can see what our written schedule looks like here. I've tweaked it a tiny bit since then, but the basic schedule is still the same.
Now, to give you an idea of what a real day in our home looks like (remember I said that we allow for some flexibility depending upon what interruptions arise?!), here's a quick peek into today:
7:15- Wake up, nurse Kaitlynn, read the Bible, pray, journal
(If I get up early, I get extra time in the morning to spend reading, doing household projects, or blogging. If I get up late, like this morning, I just skip this time.)
8:00- Make Jesse's lunch and spend some time with him before he leaves for work
8:15- Put Kaitlynn back down in bed, hop in the shower
8:16- Hop out of the shower to go help Jesse find his glasses which are not in their usual spot and thus he can't drive to work!
8:30 - Still looking for glasses, wake Kathrynne up to see if she has any idea where they are
8:45 - Still looking and getting a bit worried--finally discover them in the sewing closet. Kathrynne definitely got ahold of them last night and put them in the last place we'd think to look!
8:50 - Hop back into the shower and finish as quickly as possible since both girls are now up. Get dressed, give Kathrynne a quick bath and get her dressed.
9:15 - Exercise and then take a few minutes to quickly check email and moderate blog comments while girls are playing.
9:30 - Breakfast and Bible time with the girls
10:00 - Clean up breakfast, sweep floor, start laundry, girls play with Legos on the kitchen floor
10:30 - Stop to play Legos with the girls for a little bit, have girls help me pick up and vacuum main floor
11:00 - Switch laundry from washer to dryer, call my sister for a quick chat while cleaning, pick up the upstairs
11:30 - Bring girls upstairs and fold up a load of laundry, make a double batch of banana muffins with Kathrynne
12:00 - Call Jesse and talk with him while playing the girls in the "house" Kathrynne made in the hallway with pillows, blankets, and books. Do school time with the girls in the "house".
12:30 - Eat a quick lunch, clean up, finish dinner preparations (We're having leftover soup and chicken broccoli casserole tonight, so I just set the table, put the soup in the crock pot, set out some muffins in a bowl, and mixed up a fruit salad and mixed green salad.) Kathrynne helps and Kaitlynn plays on the floor.
(I try to have dinner all finished, including having the table set, by 1:00 p.m. It doesn't always happen, but if I shoot to have it finished by then, I at least normally have a very good head start on it!)
1:00 - Violin time with Kathrynne - I play a piece for her, help her with her bow hold, and then we play songs together (she pretends to "play" on her violin while I play).
1:30 - Sewing time - I work on my redwork while Kaitlynn plays nearby and Kathrynne works on her "sewing". (I have a bag of fabric scraps, canvas, yarn, etc. that she uses for her sewing.) We listened to this podcast while we sewed.
3:00 - Reading time - we read some of The Little Princess today. Nurse Kaitlynn. Put both girls down for their quiet time/naps.
3:30 - Blogging/computer work until girls wake up--usually around 5:30.
5:30 to Bedtime - Quick pick up, dinner, family time, family worship, ready for bed, bedtime.
And there you have it! No two days are alike at our home, but having a written schedule serves as a helpful guide to direct us and keep us on track. When interruptions arise, we can just skip a few items on the schedule or re-arrange things as needed. The written plan ensures that there is normally at least some sense of order and structure in our home--which greatly helps to create a somewhat calm and peaceful atmosphere, even in the midst of lots of interruptions!
Next week I'll share more about my personal planner, our cleaning schedule, and the various planning pages I use to help keep me on track and organized. I also have some great guest posts lined up on the topic of time management and organization. Stay tuned!
posted by Crystal Paine at 6:00 PM
18 Comments:
Crystal ~ Do you actually take a 1 minute shower? If so, I want to know how! LOL
Suzy--I wish! I've gotten it down to about 6 minutes but not one minute. :) I had to hop out and help Jesse find his glasses this morning and then hop back in later on. Such is life sometimes! :)
i can so relate to having my schedule change a little bit every day due to...life :) I am pregnant right now and more tired than usual, and my chore time i had scheduled during my son's nap today turned into MY naptime as well. It was wonderful!! The bathrooms didn't get cleaned, nor the clothes ironed, but this wife and mommy has been in a wonderful mood and was able to cook up a nice, easy meal, so needless to say my hubby and son don't mind a bit! It's so hard for me to take naps because i like order and tidiness...but i am seeing i get more done when rested.
I want to know how you get your daughters to have quiet time from 3:30-5:30. From the time my daughter (she is almost 4) is up, usually 8-8:30, until bedtime, which is around 9, she is running at full speed. Which honestly gives me no time to do much more than the basics these days.
Thabks for sharing. I have really enjoyed this series. Thanks for having such a encouraging blog!
Chrissy T
Crystal, I am loving this series! As an older Momma I can vouch for how valuable a schedule is. We don't follow ours to the minute, but we do in general. It is truly security for some children. Out of my 7 I have 3 that just get completely out of whack if they don't know what comes next. One of my daughters turned 13 the other day, and on that day and the 2 preceding it she was miserable. I learned two things at that time #1 surpises are not fun for everyone, we had really fun surprises planned for her, but her not knowing the plan for the day made her miserable. She really could not cope. #2 Somebody foolishly said, you have to grow up now that you are 13, now to someone else that might have been ok, but for her it meant "on this day you must _______" but no one filled in the blank. It caused her great anxiety. It took me a couple days of trying to figure out what the problem was. She, and some of my others find security in managed time. Not that a schedule can't be changed but it is like your "vision" for the day. And we know without the vision the people perish. Thanks for all the reminders you give us older Mommas, we are learning too! Love you!
blessings, Penny Raine
http://www.pennyraine.com/blog
Hi Crystal,
Thanks for sharing your day. It gives me encouragement to keep tweaking and working to stick to our little routine too.
At your recommendation, I bought and read Getting More Done in Less Time by Donna Otto, then went straight to GraceWorks and bought some pages. I just got them in the mail the other day and they are functional and beautiful. I'm setting up my planner now, so I'd love to hear about yours and what worked for you.
Phebe
For Jacki - my daughter stopped taking naps when she was 3, she's now 4 1/2. In place of naps we have quiet time where she is required to be in her room for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. She can play or read books or listen to music; but she's upstairs and I'm downstairs with one hour of complete quiet. It makes a huge difference in my energy level and attitude!
Amy
Crystal-
My daughter suggested I check out YOUR blog. Wow, I will make your blog a regular stop for my week! You are truly and inspiration, shining God's light!
Thank you!!!!
I'm wondering how you've gotten Kaitlyn to play so much on her own, such as when she simply plays on the floor while you work. Does she ever cry for you to hold her or read/play with her or is she just content to let you go about your business? Does she just play on her own, without coming to you, when you are working with Katherine on homeschooling or violin? Thanks.
How do you get your kids to play on their own? I have one 2 1/2 year old daughter and I have to be ALWAYS paying attention to her every moment or she can get into so much trouble so fast! I could never be doing any chores or sewing or reading or using the computer when I am watching her. Fortunately she still naps from 1:30pm-3:30pm so I have a couple free hours to do housework etc. When do they start playing safely on their own?
I think we have a pretty good schedule but I am at a loss sometimes with what to do with my toddler all day. She gets up promptly at 7am- fortunately hubby gets her up so I can shower before he leaves for work. Breakfast at 7:30 followed by a very long morning. We usually go somewhere because I get so bored stuck in the house- the library or the park in summer. Then lunch at 12:00 and nap by 1:00 if I am lucky. She naps for about 2 hrs while I frantically try to get all the cleaning, laundry, mail, computer, cooking, etc. stuff done. Then the rest of the afternoon is long until daddy come home at 5:30 and we have dinner. Off to bed by 7:30. She just doesn't really like to sit and play or sit and read or anything. I don't know what I am doing wrong- she will take out a million toys and just want to start something new in 2 minutes. No attention span. She doesn't play house or tea party or with dolls or anything yet. She won't even play with play dough. I am at a loss- help the days are so long.
Thanks, Amy!
I am really gonna have to start this thing called "quiet time in the bedroom." My daughter is not bad or hyperactive, just very active. Wanting to play and read and sing and do activity books and play games and.... I will try it today.
And Crystal, sorry for hijacking your blog, but Amy did not leave a link to a blog.
Crystal, several women who have left comments seem to be in the same predictament I am in...our toddlers/preschoolers are not content to play by themselves. My daughter especially wants my attention ALL DAY LONG. And that is difficult to do when she wakes up between 7-8am and doesn't go to sleep until after 9pm with no nap in between.
And I have to admit on days like today, it leaves me near tears.
She just wants me to constantly read to her, play with her, do school work with her (writing letters, numbers, that sort of thing), crafts, etc. When I am not paying 100% attention to her she drags out toys and makes huge messes but hardly ever plays constructively.
How do I get her in a routine of having "quiet time" in her bedroom for at least an hour a day? You have done a wonderful job of sharing your schedule, but how did you get your daughters to go along with it? :-)
Jacki: Based upon the comments and questions I've received, I'm planning to start a series on "Successful Homemaking with Toddlers: Is There Such a Thing?"
I just sat down and outlined it earlier and I'm planning to share what little I know on having an semi-organized, structured home with little ones underfoot and how to keep them happily and productively occupied during the day. I'll be sharing lots of practical ideas and what has worked for us as we've sought to train our children in this regard.
Hopefully, I'll begin this in two weeks so stay tuned. :)
If you could expand your series on "Homemaking with Toddlers" to "Homemaking and Homeschooling with Toddlers and Babies," that would be very helpful. I'm sure you have a mixed crowd who reads your blog, but for me personally, I am particularly looking for ideas that do not involve leaving a baby/toddler to cry, leaving them alone (e.g., in their room or a playpen) or having them watch TV, videos or DVD's. Although we do have our younger ones take naps and our older ones take a one-hour quiet time, other than that, they are always with us, which is what we prefer, but it also makes it more challenging to accomplish homemaking/homeschooling tasks. I am interested to read your future series, but I would also love to have the opportunity to hear from seasoned moms on tips for caring, nurturing and stimulating babies, while homeschooling 1-1 with other children, so I'm hoping some of them will respond in your comments or perhaps you could have some of them "guest post."
Anonymous: Lord-willing, we'll have some guest posts since I can't really write on homeschooling and toddlers except for sharing what my mom did (and she had lots of great ideas so, come to think of it, I'll try to devote a post to sharing some of those!).
I also try to have our girls with me (or in my eyesight) pretty much all day long besides naps/quiet time (we don't really do DVDs but maybe 1-2 times per week most of the time and if we use the playpen for babies, unless it's naptime, it's close by where I can see them), so I'll be sharing from that perspective and what has worked for us in order for me to accomplish things while keeping them close and involved and productive.
Stay tuned. :)
My daughter won't let me out of her sight or she is wailing. She is age 2 and 1/2. I can't put her in a packnplay as she can climb right out. I really don't know what to do with her half the time as she has to be always right underfoot. I can't even wash dishes or get dinner started- it is too dangerous as she has tried to touch hot pans on the stove before. She will not sit and play with a toy or game or color by herself- I have to be right there with her. At what age do they begin to pretend play by themselves? She is not interested in dolls or playdough. She will watch DVD's somewhat if they are singing songs like Cedarmont Kids. If she plays outside obviously I have to be right with her or she will run into the street. I tried to have her help with some of the chores but it ends up such a huge mess I don't have the energy to clean the house twice!
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