Routines that Shape my Days

I’m taking some time revisiting and revamping my routines as our new school year gets underway, and I’m taking you along for the ride!  Yesterday, I told you why routines are so important and got you thinking about what routines would help you conquer your day.  If you missed that post, you can find it here along with the printable for that part of this Routine Project.

Here are all the posts in this series in one place:

• Post 1:  Developing Discipline with Routines
• Post 2:  Routines that Shape my Day
• Post 3:  Nourishing Routines:  Framing our days…. (with lots of planning printables)
• Post 4:  Delegating and Creating Routines for our Children

Today, I want to share with you the routines I currently have in place in my life.  Now, before I show my routines to you, I need to give you a few thoughts.

1.  I’ve been at this awhile.
2. My youngest is over a year.
3. I am currently not expecting.
4. This is what works for MY life.
5. I delegate many things to my children.

My life is not YOUR life, and your life is not mine.  To some of you, my routines seem jam packed, but to others, I’m not ambitious enough.  I offer them here as a source of inspiration in how you develop your own routines, but not as a unit of measurement.

My routines have remained basically the same over the last few years.  As the season of motherhood is ever changing, I find such peace in these established parameters for my day.  If anything, I’ve slowly tacked more on to the routines as life has gotten busier.  The more habits and tasks I can incorporate into my natural rhythms, the less mental energy I expend on the mundane.

Daily Routines:

Morning Routine:

• Wake, dress/ready
• Start coffee, start laundry
• Coffee and prayer/Bible time
• 20 minute Run/Workout, shower, dress/ready (M,W,F,S)
• Get breakfast for everyone who hasn’t eaten
• Clean kitchen and pack Husband’s lunch
• What’s for supper? (Check menu plan, set out things to defrost if needed)
• Hair, face, teeth, and make bed
• Check kids’ morning chores
• Switch laundry
• Family devotional
• Start School

Midday Routine:

• 5 minute quick pick-up (mostly school mess)
• Fold laundry/put away
• Make/eat/cleanup lunch
• Pre-supper prep (anything that can be done ahead of time?)
• Read aloud hour
• Quiet hour (this is blogging time for me and quiet/reading time for the kids)

Early Evening Routine:

• 20 minute pick-up/clean
• Weekly Routine Tasks
• Make/eat/clean-up supper
• Set out breakfast dishes, coffee, prep Husband’s lunch
• Check planner and plan the next day

Evening Routine:

• Get ready for bed with the kids
• Quick wipe the bathroom
• Lay out workout and regular clothes for tomorrow
• Read and tuck in little ones
• Spend time with Husband
• Get to bed at a good time so I can do it all over again tomorrow!

If you are new to establishing routines, begin with the daily stuff, but note other repeatable tasks that need to be done at regular intervals as you come across them.  Later, you can create weekly and monthly routines to help you with the things that are a little less constant.

Any task that is less frequent than monthly is something to note, but doesn’t necessarily become routine.  I keep these to-do’s in list form and schedule them in my planner and off my brain.  I talked more about those in my post on my cleaning schedule.

When moving beyond daily routines, scheduling a time for these tasks and writing it down  becomes even more important.  Daily tasks become second natural, but less frequent tasks can be harder to remember.  Make sure you have a time slot to complete your weekly and monthly routines.

My Weekly Routines:

Sunday:

• Plan my week (meals, tasks, goals, appts., etc.) in planner
• Extra time learning about God and faith
• Family day (no shopping, no technology)

Monday:

• Workout
• Kitchen day ( I keep a list of cleaning, baking, and other tasks to do on this day)

Tuesday:

• Office day (menu plans, shopping lists, bills, filing, school prep, etc.)

Wednesday:

• Workout
• Cleaning Focus:  Zone Room(s)
• Monthly Routine Tasks

Thursday:

• Whole house pick-up/dusting
• Upstairs bath

Friday:

• Workout
• Scrub kitchen/zone

Saturday:

• Workout
• Project day
• Church prep (lay out clothes, diaper bags, tithe)
• 20 minute family cleaning session (finish zone cleaning not done earlier in week)

Monthly Routines:

Week 1:

• Zone:  Entry, schoolroom
• Bill paying/ office day

Week 2:

• Zone:  Laundry and baths

Week 3:

• Zone:  Bedrooms
• Test fire detectors

Week 4:

• Zone:  Living Room
• Plan goals, tasks, birthdays for next month
• Dog meds

Yearly

Again, these less frequent tasks do not become routines, but they are something to remember to do.  I prefer to keep them in list format and then schedule time for them in my planner.

• Establish goals for the coming year
• Seasonal clothing change (2x yearly)
• Update homebinder
• Deep filing of paperwork (move from temp. folder to permanent folders or trash)
• Summer Appointments:  Doctor, dentist, haircuts
• Clean out attic
• Clean out garage
• Replace Air filters (quarterly)

These are the routines that really make our house hum.  The first few years of developing routines took a lot of tweaking, but now I’ve figured out (for the time being) what works for me and for our family.

What are the routines you just couldn’t live without?

Here are all the posts in this series in one place:

• Post 1:  Developing Discipline with Routines
• Post 2:  Routines that Shape my Day
• Post 3:  Nourishing Routines:  Framing our days…. (with lots of planning printables)
• Post 4:  Delegating and Creating Routines for our Children