Is Your Day Running You?

How much easier would your life be if you had a daily routine in place? What could you accomplish? How would you feel at the end of each day? Let’s walk through {5} steps you can take to create a daily routine!

1. List it Out

Write down ALL the things you need to get done on a daily basis {at home & at work}. Don't worry about making this list perfect, just get it all out of your brain onto paper, or use an app. Think through all the things you do each day and all the things you need to do, but may not always get done. You can write down the big tasks/chores you have like getting the kids to school/daycare and even include things like load the dishwasher, if that's a chore you want completed each day. Creating this list may take you 5 min. or it may take an hour. Don't feel like you have to rush this process. Consider taking a whole day to log things as you go about your day and see what tasks pop up that are reoccurring. Note, this list may change as the seasons in your life change. For example, if you are in the midst of Spring activities/sports, you may have a daily to-do list that is different than when your kids aren't actively involved.

2. Build a Simple Structure

Now that you have your tasks listed out, think about the pockets of time in your day in which you'd like to get your tasks completed. Think not only about the time that makes most sense to get a task done, but when you have the most energy to devote to certain tasks. You can build a simple structure by dividing tasks into morning/afternoon/evening.

Build out your daily structure to make sense for the tasks and your energy/frame of mind/willingness to get the task completed.

3. Time Block to Rock Your Day

Within the loose time frames above, you can get even more specific and targeted with time blocking and map out each and every day to the hour when specific tasks will be completed. You may not want to be detailed with how you spend your time each day, but if you feel it will help you stay on schedule, consider implementing it and see how it goes {more on this below}.

4. Build in Flex Time

The most important promise you can make to yourself in building a daily routine is to give yourself grace and space to just be. Be flexible with yourself when things don't go according to plan. If you don't get something done because you needed a rest break or something urgent popped up, just P.I.V.O.T. It's okay to not get it ALL done ALL the time. The goal with this is to create daily habits that can ultimately give you more time back in your day with some structure. By doing that, the goal is to feel less stress and overwhelm to run your day more efficiently. Take rests, build in some you-time, move things around if you need to, and reset at the end of each day.

5. Take it for a Test Drive

If you feel burnt out at the end of the day and wonder what the heck you actually accomplished and your motivation is dwindling, then all I suggest you do is try this out for 1-2 weeks/1 month and see how it feels. Adjust the sails as you need and find what works well for you. Assess after a period of time and ask your self how the scheduling of tasks is helping you. If you feel like it's serving you well, then keep it up!