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You know that old adage – failing to plan is planning to fail? Well what about when you feel like a failure at planning? Because that’s how I felt for a very long time.
As a chronic overachiever, I would buy a new planner, sure that those beautiful pages held all the answers to success. And it took me a long time to learn that the problem wasn’t in the pages, but it was in what I was filling those pages with.
After a long time, I came to understand that people fail at planners & schedules because they stuff them full of every goal and habit they have ever wanted to accomplish instead of purposefully choosing what to fill their days with.
So instead of something like: 7am get ready and make breakfast, followed by 8am homeschool, and 10am snack; their schedules look more like: 6am go for a run and hit the gym, 7am shower, get ready, and make breakfast, 8am homeschool, 10am clean the bathroom while the kids eat snack.
You know exactly what I mean, don’t you?
Me too. I’m super guilty of thinking that just because I write it down that means it’s going to happen. But what actually ends up happening is that I hit snooze at 6, and because I’m already behind, I decide I might as well sleep until the kids wake up. And shower? Who needs a shower. I’ve got to throw cereal in a bowl so we can actually get through math and reading today before the toddler has a meltdown.
And it feels like too much, because it is.
So today I want to share my method of creating a simple daily schedule while still making progress on the goals that matter to me.
Start With The Essentials
The secret is to start with the essentials. Now when I say essentials, I’m actually talking really basic things here – like the things that have to be done just to keep your people alive and not super stinky each day.
For me, the bare bones basics are quick devotions with my First5 app, brushing my teeth and hair, and getting dressed, and making breakfast. Then laundry, dishes, and homeschool. Lunch. Putting baby down for nap. Work. Dinner. Showers all around, and sleep.
That’s it. Clean clothes, clean people, food, and sleep.
Now, even keeping it simple like that takes up a lot of my day, so I have to be very intentional about anything else that takes up my little areas of margin.
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Add One Goal At A Time
After you boil it down to just the essentials, you can add in one habit or action-step that you want to work towards accomplishing right now.
If you’re just getting started with simplifying your day or digging out from under the overwhelm, my suggestion would be to start with the foundational things that have to be in place for you to build the rest of your life in a sustainable way.
So I always recommend a dishes and laundry routine as the number one best place to start, because if you can’t get those on a regular routine, you’ll always end up behind, playing catch up, and not being able to make tangible progress on the other things that matter.
If you know this is something you need, I want to invite you to check out my five day Out of Overwhelm Challenge for Moms where I walk you through the first steps of setting up your foundational routines as well as scheduling.
Habit Stacking
Now, once this first habit becomes a routine, you can add in another action-step. So if you started with dishes, you can move on to laundry, and then a daily walk, or whatever your goal might be.
But I, personally, try to give it a good 30 days before taking action on anything new. It’s always good to feel really comfortable in your new rhythms before shaking things up again.
I’ve found that habit stacking like this creates super big results without all the overwhelm. But it all has to start with a simplified daily schedule.
Now, before all you type A go-getters out there brush me off, let me tell you – I am one of you! But I finally got to the point where I was willing to try it another way because my way of do it all and do it now was just not working.
The Short And Sweet
In my experience, most people fall into one of two camps when it comes to schedules and planning – they’re either amazing at it or they stink. But over the years, as I’ve become better at both schedules and goal planning, I’ve come to learn two things:
First, the people who are awesome at it, are usually the same people who used to stink at it. Only they didn’t let their failure keep them from trying again.
Second, the secret to creating a realistic daily schedule that allows you to prioritize what matters without feeling like you have to do all the things is to keep it simple and start small.
So I challenge you to give it a go. You don’t have to go out and buy a fancy planner – pen and paper will do just fine. But sit down today and write down all the absolutely essential things you have to do. Then decide on the one action-step you’re going to work on this week.
Write it down – there’s power in putting pen to paper – and make it happen!
You’ve got this, mama.
Resources we talked about in this episode…
Simplify Your Mom Life 7 Day Email Challenge
Freebie ALERT!
Unbusy Your Mom Life!
Hey mama, I see you – hustling hard. Doing all.the.things. But mom life doesn’t have to be ruled by your to-do list. Let me show you how to Take Back Your Time with my FREE toolkit!
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