I am SO excited to dive into all things schedules. Specifically, for those who are struggling with their day-to-day schedule, I am going to be sharing with you exactly how to make YOUR schedule work for YOU. I am sharing 5 awesome steps to create the only schedule you will ever need to use ever again. This is going to be SO good.
I know many women are struggling to fit in time to reach their goals. Not only their goals in business, but in their home, in their personal life, with their children and in their marriage. I have found that it take so much more than a schedule to really succeed. Grab your pen and paper and get ready as I share the 5 steps you need to make your schedule work for you!
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
The 5 Steps
The 5 steps that I am going to share with you on what you need to do to make your schedule work for you is based off of my 5 block method. I have two AMAZING and FREE resources for you to use. The first is a workshop and the second is a workbook. Both are incredibly helpful for you to use and practice in your life. The other resource I have for you, which is not free, but incredibly worth it and will make take you from overwhelmed to confident in just four weeks, is The Systemize Your Life Academy. The schedule I am about to give you WORKS regardless of what season of life you are in. It works every time and all the time.
Why Your Schedule Isn’t Working
Schedule based time management actually leaves a bunch of gaps in your day. Through schedule based time management you are not scheduling in some of the most important chunks of your day. Some of you may LOVE to sit with a planner and a pen and line item every single minute of your day, and thus are convinced that it is impossible to squeeze anything else in your day.
However, what is happening to you is that as soon as something happens that isn’t already in that schedule it throws your entire day off and you can’t get back on track. When this happens, not only is it unfortunate, but it also results in missing an entire day’s worth of productivity.
Your schedule should work for you regardless of whether or not your day throws you curve balls. The reality is – the name of the game of being a mom and as a woman who is juggling a business and a house is CURVE BALLS. If you haven’t set yourself up to succeed when curve balls are thrown your way, well that is exactly what you need to be doing. And let me tell you how! It is so important for you to figure out how to get this in your life right now and start utilizing a schedule that works for YOU.
The First Step to Make Your Schedule Work For You
The first thing you are going to do is to segment your day into five major categories – and the free workbook will show you exactly how to do this.
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Morning routine
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AM block
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Work block
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PM block
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Nighttime routine
This is YOUR SCHEDULE for the entire day – in five segments. I know, you are thinking you may need to throw up, but trust me, you don’t need to worry when all the things are going to happen because they are already there, in your five segments. These five segments are different lengths of time depending on what your week and day looks like.
Your first step is to segment your day into these five major categories. If you are not working, you can put homeschool in that block, or you can put mid-day block in there, whatever that main thing is that you devote your time to in the middle part of your day is what is going to go in that middle segment.
“If you haven’t set yourself up to succeed when curve balls are thrown your way, well that is exactly what you need to be doing.”
The Second Step to Make Your Schedule Work For You
The second thing you are going to do, after you have your five segments established, you are going to take all the things you normally do in your morning routine (like the things you would like to be doing BEFORE your kids get up) and write them down as a big brain dump inside that morning routine block.
A great way to organize this is get out a sheet of paper and divide it into the five work blocks and brain dump everything you think should happen inside of those blocks. As you are brain dumping, start thinking if there are parts of your day that should belong somewhere else. Are there parts of your nighttime routine that you don’t like being there, then move it out and see where it fits better. On another sheet of paper come up with a solid practice list of what this looks like for each individual segment of that five block system.
Step 3 to Make Your Schedule Work For You
Now we are going to take this one step further for step number three. We are going to take this one block at a time using that sheet of paper that you created as your solid practice list from step number two. There may be 5 things, or 10 things, or maybe even 20 things in your separate blocks of all the things you need to get done within a given time block. For example, for your PM block it may include things such as, “pick up the kids, unload the backpacks, check the homework folder, unload the car, prep the snack, help with the homework, start the dinner, clean up the toys…” and then you move into what needs to be done after dinner, and the bedtime routines. Then there is your work block and all that you are trying to get accomplished there.
Step 3 is all about chunking these blocks down. This is known as your routine stacks. Start with one block at a time and look at all the things you have in that block and try to come up with two or three, no more than four routines in there. You do this by taking all the items you have listed that need to get done in a certain block and categorize them together. No need to worry about naming the categories, just group the items together that make sense. For example, group the things together that fit along in the “after school routine.”
All I want you to be thinking about in that very specific moment is that specific block and learning and growing one routine stack, before moving on and learning the next. All the things that need to take place within my blocks are my two, or three, or four different routines. The only thing then that I need to know for the sake of my schedule are my routine stacks and that is how I balance it all. When I do this, my brain is no longer full of all the things that I need to do and get done. Instead, I can focus on what it is that I am currently doing in that very moment. This step is the meatiest for sure and will take the longest, but you will want to go through this process through each of your five time blocks.
Step 4 to Make Your Schedule Work For You
Step number four is all about your fundamental needs and adding them in to your schedule. Rewrite those five blocks with your routine stacks in them and then write in your fundamental needs. Your fundamental needs may already be a part of those routine stacks, but layer in Monday through Friday where your fundamental needs are going to live. This is a key part to your life and you need to schedule them in. Your fundamental needs are core to everything that you are trying to get done and trying to accomplish. I have a free workbook that walks you through discovering what your fundamental needs are to help you get started.
I stay focused on what I want to accomplish in each time block and ask myself if that conflict is going to help me accomplish that. Maybe engaging in conflict for you looks like retreating and you do need to have a conversation in that time block so you don’t blow up at your spouse five days from now. It all depend on your personality. The important part is that you get into the nitty-gritty of the 5 block method because that is the anchor for everything that you are doing with your time.
Step 5 to Make Your Schedule Work For You
The last step is this really awesome extra step that you can take to truly transform your life. Step number five is going back through your day and adding in your Tidy-Qs. All of your transition points during your day, the times you are transitioning from homeschool to free play or free play to your work block. The Tidy-Q is a reset to help you clear your space and reset for your next day. Take a moment and look through your day schedule to see what areas could be improved upon through implementing the Tidy-Qs.
If you have any questions about this five step process to creating your schedule to work ideal for YOU, head over to the Facebook group where our awesome community loves to support you as you process through implementing these 5 steps to make your schedule start working for you!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the perfect paper planner to start with?
I 100% recommend the Horatio Printing Dream Planner. It is super simple and is set up perfectly to time block in. They even walk you through your Fundamental Needs so you can be set up for success. There are so many paper planner options out there but this one covers all my bases.
