Being a stay-at-home mom of two very small children is a job within itself. Not to mention the fact that I also run an online business, clean my husband’s elderly grandmother’s home and do her laundry, have committee obligations at church, and I am currently keeping my brother’s two young children two days a week while they are out of school. Without a schedule, I would be running in circles and never accomplishing anything. Anyone can benefit from a little structure in their days and weeks.
Some people cringe when they hear the word schedule. Those who work outside the home may consider it something else that dictates to them what to do. Someone who works from home may not like the pressure of having set days to do something. However, the beauty of a personal schedule is that you can plan it to fit your needs. It also helps to free up some of your time, because you only do certain things on certain days. If you schedule to do laundry on Monday and Thursday, you can forget about it the rest of the week. Schedule your errands on one or two days of the week and complete all of them on those days. Try to arrange doctor and dentist appointments on the day you would run errands.
Try to think of things that you have to do on a regular basis. Such things may include vacuuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, laundry, dusting, running errands, carpooling, grocery shopping, kids’ activities, etc… Now sit down at your computer or even write it in a notebook and come up with a schedule for these everyday things.
For the very detailed person, you can go a bit further and select times for these choirs. This may motivate some people to get tedious jobs done quickly so that they can move on to something more fun. Setting times may not be for everyone though. If it puts too much pressure on you, just stick to the daily schedule. I worked by time frames when I only had one child. As soon as the second child arrived less than two years later, those times flew out the window. A daily schedule worked just fine!
Keep in mind to schedule fun things too. Plan a day or a couple of afternoons a week just for play time with your children, and keep everything else to a minimum. You may be surprised at just how little quality time you spend together as a family. Also, don’t forget to schedule some time for yourself and for you and your spouse as a couple. Even if it’s just watching a movie together after the kids are in bed.
For busy people, it may be hard to fit everything in to a 24 hour day or a 7 day week. It can be done. We may find that by planning a schedule, we actually need to leave some things off. If you have too much going on to even have family time, you may need to re-examine your priorities. A schedule may help you do just that.
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