5 Ways to Keep Your Daily Schedule With Little Ones

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Keeping a daily schedule can be a challenge. It can be especially challenging to keep a schedule with little ones. We break down helpful steps that can be applied to keeping a daily schedule for moms.

We are fortunate enough to receive these tips from Grace at The Willow Brook Life Balancing Time, Money and Life!

Keep Your Daily Schedule With Little Ones

Summer is upon us and as the weather warms the schedules change!

What a perfect time to start thinking about keeping a schedule with little ones!

Scheduling and planning out your summer, or even your school year can be a fun and exciting time! Getting creative and doing your research, color coding, and categorizing can get you in the mood for productivity and staying on top of things.

But let’s be honest, the schedule works for about a week right? Then it kinda gets pushed back slowly more and more, until you eventually forget you created it, and your days swallow you up!!  Morning routines turn into morning battles of getting the kids dressed and their teeth brushed. The breakfast dishes used to be neatly put away before you left the house and now they are still there for dinner clean up.

I know! I’ve been there with my 5 kids and our busy schedules! I needed a scheduling hack that would keep me going, keep my little ones focused, and keep my life under control! I needed to learn how to schedule with little ones!

Let me tell you, there isn’t that much out there on the topic! I know I’ve swept the internet trying to find the perfect way to schedule with little kids.

My schedule is the only sane part of my life with having 5 little ones under 5 year’s old! I NEED it!

I’ve tried scheduling out hour by hour –  FAIL

I’ve written out time blocking for the day (and laminated it!)-  FAIL ?

Then I hit the jackpot! I learned the best way to keep a schedule with little ones! Here are the steps to 5 steps needed to actually keep a schedule in your life with your little ones!

1. Create Realistic Expectations (Grace Time)

First things first! I took my wonderful expectations and I brought them down to reality.

A lot of the times as moms we have expectations that unfortunately aren’t realistic and then we are frustrated when we can’t accomplish them! Getting out the door without a glitch probably won’t happen more than once in a blue moon. Kids under 3 years’ old have bathroom accidents, children don’t know how to dress for the weather, or they don’t like what’s served for breakfast and throw a fit! They lose their shoes a billion times even though there is a dedicated place in EVERY house for shoes! I started to realize that these were all things that needed to be factored into my timetable. When I started to allow for large amounts of “grace time” I was able to keep my peace, I was able to function through moments of catastrophe and still managed to get out the door on time. I remember the first time I was able to stop for a cup of coffee on my way to an apt because we had done so well with our time! What an achievement!

2. Simplify Your Schedule

Simplification

Next, I simplified my schedule. I took the seriously necessary things and wrote them down. Then I took the desirable but not absolutely necessary things and wrote them in a separate section. This helped me to relax a bit with my expectations. I was able to declutter my life and take a breath. My mother said very wise words to me when I brought home my 5th baby. She said “They grow up so fast. Don’t sacrifice good naps for schedule fillers.” These words took my “mom guilt”, over crowded schedule of library story times, playdate with kids we hardly knew, parks, peewee sports, nature centers and whatever else I heard of that the kids might “like” down to a calm, and more beautifully intentional one.

So create yourself a schedule with two columns. One column has your absolute priorities on it for the day and the other is for “bonus” items. If you finish everything on your priority list and still have time, go ahead and start on the bonus to-do’s.

*A huge tip on this is to NEVER tell your kids that you “might get to go swimming later if there’s time” etc. They will ask you about it every 3 seconds and be devastated if you run out of time to get to it!

3. Learn to Say NO!

Boundaries

This one was huge for me! I was a chronic people pleaser! I would stress out my kids and myself to the point of screaming, just to get them out the door for an impromptu unplanned playdate. I started to see the error of my ways and how I was stressing out my family to please people who didn’t matter half as much to me. This wasn’t right. I started to observe my children’s need for “down days” and planned them around busier days. Leaving days for just slow moving and fun at home refilling time.

Remember when creating your schedule that it’s YOUR schedule and if you don’t have time for someone else’s scheduled activities it’s no big deal! If they want to do something with you, then let them know when you are planning your list/schedule when you would have some free time to get together!

4. Remove Room for Failure

When I was younger I always created schedules that had timetables to the ½ hour. It worked for me. When I had children this “obviously” stopped working! ? However, in my stubborn habitual behavior, I kept trying and trying to create schedules this way. Until one day it occurred to me to remove the rigid timetables and see how much I accomplished in a day. What a different feeling that day had!

When I wouldn’t succeed at getting what I had wanted to between 9 am and 9:30 am I figured I had failed at the schedule and the day went downhill from there. When I removed the strict timeline I succeeded in getting the bathroom cleaned even though it may have taken from 9 to 11 am! I used bigger amounts of time with less detailed to-do requirements. This allowed for more room to succeed at a task rather than fail at it.

5. Calendar Blocking

Which leads me to my goldmine! Each one of these steps will help you in creating the perfect way to schedule with little ones!

Ok let’s be honest, we all have our smartphones attached to us pretty much all of the time. I figured I was going to make mine work for me!

I personally used my Outlook on my laptop and set up calendar blocks that send notifications to my phone, but you can use any calendar app including google.

Go into your calendar and start setting up Appointments for everything! Mine looks something like this:

I then fill in just like any other appointment the certain tasks that need to get done at certain times (I give myself plenty of space between to get it done, see Step 1). This works perfectly for me as a mom for several reasons. It is crazy easy, efficient and is super quick to change or tweak. It pops up on my phone like a text with however much needed time in advance I need to warn the kids of the upcoming changes and it gives me flexibility and freedom.  Because it is ALWAYS with me, on my phone!

Think of it as your personal assistant at the most important job you will ever have, being a mom!

To wrap up, scheduling is a great tool to help you succeed at life! Give it another shot with these 5 great steps to keeping a schedule with your little ones! If you want to see more about how to organize your daily schedule check out: How to Get Everything You Want Done in a Day!

I really hope you give this method a try. No matter where you are with your schedule, this way of organizing your day and sticking to it could be your golden ticket to happy days ahead!

Happy planning mama!

Grace @ thewillowbrooklife.com

Scott and Grace Johnson are the creators of The Willow Brook Life. They have a passion for creating the best life possible. They believe that to achieve the best life starts with balancing the simplest things first, Time, Money, and Personal Success. These 3 things are the foundation to any of life’s successes. You can check them out at www.thewillowbrooklife.com

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Kim Calderon

Kim is a wife and a stay at home mom who loves spending time with her little boy. She likes managing her home and seeking out ways to improve her way of living.

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