Today, on Facebook, I said, "I'm wearing my new daily schedule like Spanx! It's helping me slim down and manage my minutes like a corset would suck in my lumps!" I had several friends ask me to share my schedule and, at the risk of boring you all to pieces, I'll go ahead and do it.
In the past I've tried making kind of a general schedule for myself that looked something like this:
Monday - laundry
Tuesday - bathrooms
Wednesday - bedrooms
Thursday - kitchen/living room/dining room
Friday - floors
But that wasn't enough for me. Instead I would end up wasting hours on end playing on the computer. I've said many times that I felt like when I spend time on myself doing something like exercising that I didn't have enough time to clean house. And when I spent time cleaning house that somehow I didn't have time for exercise. And I was always leaving a daily time of Bible reading out.
I've had very sweet friends say that your devotional time should be the very first thing you do when you wake up and that you just have to suck it up and wake up long before the kids are up to get it done. I am not a morning person. Not that I'm making excuses because "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength", ... right? Well, it just never happened. But spending time with my God is important enough for me to make sure that it gets done. And, for me, that means making a realistic schedule for myself and prioritizing that time with Him. I also need to make sure I'm taking time to exercise and to clean house and well,... read my Goals post for more of what I want to accomplish. So, here's what I came up with last week and it's working like a charm!
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays look roughly the same:
6-7a - Get kids ready for school
7-7:30 - Quiet Time/Bible reading
7:30 - 8 - exercise
8 - 8:30 - shower/get dressed
8:30 - 9 - eat breakfast/facebook (yes! I'm scheduling in facebook. If I don't limit my time it will take over)
9 - 10:30 - laundry/clean bedrooms/clean floors (depending on the day)
10:30 - 12 - work on a project from my list
12 - 1p - lunch
1 - 1:30 - time with Landon
1:30 - 2:30 - computer (blog reading or whatever - again this way I'm limiting my time)
2:30 - 3 - time with Parker (homework/talking about his day)
3 - 3:30 - time with Cameron (homework/talking about his day)
3:30 - 4 - time with Anna (homework/talking about her day/play)
4 - 5:30 - read/quilt/edit pictures (just whatever I feel like doing - the other day it was playing video games with the kids)
5:30 - 7 - making/eating dinner
7 - 7:30 - time as a family
7:30 - 8 - get kids ready for bed
8 - 10p - relax with Brian (T.V., game, computer, finish folding laundry, etc)
Tuesdays and Thursdays look very different because Landon goes to school and Brian is off in the mornings on those days and Anna has dance class on Thursday afternoons. So each of those days have their own schedules too with some Free Time built in on Thursday mornings for Brian and I to go have breakfast or run errands and bathtime for the kids in the evening. I've given every minute a name like I should be doing with my dollars (Dave Ramsey).
I haven't been extremely strict with myself about the schedule this week since there were lots of changes (i.e. a belated preschool Christmas party and the kids were off school on Monday and I helped in Anna's class today) but just having some structure built in helped tremendously! I worked out 3 times this week, I got all the rooms cleaned except bathrooms, I started quilting and I got some reading done! That's more than I am used to getting done in a month! lol
And just as important...I've scheduled this weekend off for myself! Brian and I will go out tonight, I will go to a hotel and he will go home. Tomorrow, I get to do whatever my little heart desires and stay a 2nd night at the hotel! I read this very timely post this morning during my devotional time! I'm excited to see what I can get done in 2011!
