How to Organize Your Daily Tasks into a Routine

To anyone who isn't a stay-at-home mom it is hard to imagine that those of us who do carry the title aren't living in the lap of luxury. Sure, staying at home gives us some options. Given the correct circumstances we can sleep in a little, maybe take a nap after lunch, stay in our pj's until noon (or all day if we want), watch a favorite movie while the kids nap, play in the park with the kids or have a friend over for coffee. The reality is that those ideal circumstances rarely present themselves. In fact, our days are filled with countless interruptions, unforeseen dilemmas, sick children, service calls, doctor appointments and endless household chores that need repeated day after day after day. I'm not trying to say that stay-at-home moms have it any better or any worse than any other group of moms and dads. However, I personally am far busier than I ever was working outside of the home in my pre-mom days. I thought staying home would give me oodles of time to take care of the kids, read books, pursue creative projects, etc. What I found instead is that I didn't seem to have time to accomplish anything. I seemed to be spinning my wheels and was exhausted by the end of the day but didn't have much to show for my efforts. I decided I need a plan to help me organize my time. So for those moms or dads, or anyone really, who may be looking for a way to organize their time and keep on top of things, I'd like to share the thought process I used to create the routine that works for me.

I put some thought into what I know about me and my work style. I thought back to my pre-mom, working days for guidance. I remembered that I liked to tackle priorities first thing in the morning when my mind wasn't cluttered and interruptions were less likely. Coworkers would still be filing in the doors and gathering around the water cooler and clients weren't yet arriving for appointments. I preferred a predictable schedule so I could get into a routine, pace myself and be able to remember more readily what my responsibilities were. I liked to do certain tasks on certain days because of recurrent deadlines. I also kept my planner accessible and used it to record appointments, deadlines and tasks. At the end of the day, I would distribute what I had worked on, file papers I was finished with and check my calendar to see what was scheduled for the next day. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment as well as a jump-start on the next day

It was immediately clear to me that I would need to follow a concrete schedule at home - one that would keep me on track with all the chores I need to accomplish in a day or a week or a month - that has some flexibility built into it to allow for the glitches I inevitably run into.

I continued my planning process by identifying what tasks I was responsible for that were predictable and recurring and time consuming. For me it was cleaning the house, paying the bills, playing with the kids, making meals, grocery shopping, doing laundry.

From that list, I focused on where I truly needed help. I was terrible at keeping up with cleaning the house and doing laundry. I never found them to be enjoyable. They were never totally done. And they fell under the category of "messes that other people make that I have to clean up". Not a good attitude to have - I admit that. But it is true. My kids and my husband create a lot of laundry, leave things lying around the house, and use up the groceries. I am still trying to train my husband to pick up after himself and make an occasional meal. Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later. But my kids are still toddlers and can't fend for themselves too much just yet, so I have to cut them a little slack.

I then looked a typical day to see how I was tackling my chores. My day was broken down into little snippets of time in which I bounced from one activity to the next, never spending much time in one place. Many tasks were repeated throughout the day - meals, diaper changes, play time, dishes, laundry, cleaning, hugs and kisses. Any cleaning that I did accomplish was minimal and never seemed to make a dent in my "to do" list. It seemed that doing one little task here and there each day was not helping me to reach the larger goal of having an uncluttered, minimally dusty, comfortable home to live in - one that I wouldn't be embarrassed by if unexpected guests dropped by. I also realized how many projects I had started but never finished - revamping my filing system, matching videos to their boxes, moving my kids into the next size clothing to name a few. I started these and many other projects but didn't put the materials away because I would eventually be back to finish them. In theory it was a good plan, but I would lose interest, other priorities would arise or I would forget about them.

Feeling overwhelmed at this point, I looked again at the list I made of my working style. The guidelines I used to follow to finish my tasks really worked for me. I completed work by the deadlines. My workspace wasn't cluttered. For the most part, I knew what I would be doing each day. I was content and felt a sense of accomplishment. I knew I needed to follow that model. I pulled out my day planner, a pen and seven sticky notes. On each sticky note I wrote a day of the week. I placed these on the corresponding days in my planner for the current week. On these sticky notes I would later record the tasks I would focus on for that day of the week. When the current week is over they will be moved to the corresponding days of the next week. So, every Monday I will do the same tasks, every Tuesday I will do the same tasks, etc. Using sticky notes saves me from having to copy the information into my planner every week. Any appointments or additional one-time tasks that crop up would be written directly into the planner rather than on the sticky notes.

Keeping in mind that cleaning and laundry were the jobs I had the most difficulty completing, I decided to incorporate those into my schedule first. I felt that focusing on one room or two smaller rooms each day was a good start. Since garbage pickup is Tuesday morning, it seemed to make sense that Monday be kitchen day, as I like to clean out the fridge the night before the garbage is collected. So I wrote "kitchen" on the Monday sticky note. I also wrote "empty waste cans" on that sticky note, again because garbage collection is the next morning. Wednesday is a busy day for us. My son has a weekly appointment at a clinic for on-going medical treatment. Since we are gone most of the day, I put an easy room on the Wednesday sticky note - "bathroom". It is a small room and when kept up with every week, it is a breeze to clean. Having no other commitments that would dictate a certain room be cleaned on a certain day, I randomly assigned the other rooms of the house to a day of the week - master bedroom and hallways on Sunday, kids' bedrooms on Tuesday, dining room on Thursday, living room and playroom on Friday, basement and porches on Saturday.

I decided that if I allot one hour to the room or rooms of the day I can accomplish general cleaning as well as dip into projects such as getting rid of old clothes, washing the curtains, weeding out files, etc. I set aside one hour of time before the kids wake up in the morning. It gives me a good feeling to have this work done and know that anything I get done in addition is a bonus.

But even before enacting my plan I realized that one week was too long to wait to clean up some rooms. Obviously you can't let a kitchen go a week without cleaning it. So I allotted 30 minutes a day for kitchen clean up and dishes and 5 minutes a day for all other rooms. Five minutes may not seem like a lot but it gives me just enough time to put away the laundry, straighten the toys, fluff the couch cushions, etc. I complete as much of this as I can before the kids get up. I do their rooms later in the day while they are playing and I do any remaining rooms during naptime.

When I looked at how to tackle the laundry, natural openings in my schedule seemed to come to my attention. I could put a load in before the kids get up. Put another load in at naptime. Put another load in before bed. It didn't take me long to get caught up on the laundry and I now don't have to do three loads a day.

All the other tasks - paying bills, making a grocery list, buying groceries - can generally be completed during naptime or in the evening when my husband is home. They don't take long to do so I still get time to spend with my family in the evening. I am more flexible with these tasks so I don't assign them to a particular day of the week. I simply fill them in where I can and write them in my planner every week.

So my day generally looks like this:

6:30 am - 7:00 am - wake, make husband's lunch, eat breakfast, check email

7:00 am - 8:00 am - clean room of the day

8:00 am - 9:00 am - shower, wake kids, change, dress and feed kids

9:00 am - 11:30 am - care for and play with kids

11:30 am -12:00 pm - make lunch, clean kids' rooms for 5 minutes each

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm - lunch

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm - (naptime) clean remaining rooms for 5 minutes each

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm - (naptime) laundry, "me time" or unfinished tasks (bills, etc.)

2:30 pm - 5:00 pm - care for and play with kids

5:00 pm - 5: 30 pm - make dinner

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm - dinner

6:30 pm - 7:00 pm - clean kitchen

7:00 pm - bed time - unfinished tasks and family time

This plan is working so well for me. By getting the big cleaning chores done early in the day, I have the rest of the day for less taxing chores and can enjoy my family without feeling I should be doing some work. I feel less stressed when something happens to throw me off schedule because I have been keeping up on the chores. Life is less complicated. My children get more focused attention from me, and my husband is less frustrated because there is more time for us and less clutter to maneuver around. I even have a few hours a week for "me time" to read, do crafts, work on my writing or watch a movie. So it is a win-win for all of us.

I wish I would have taken the time sooner to organize my daily activities. All it took was revisiting the good work habits I once possessed, identifying which of my tasks I needed to focus on, and deciding how to spread out the work. It was a small time investment with a huge payoff.