You probably do have a routine though you may not know that you do. What ever you do each morning or throughout the day is your routine. But is your routine really efficient and working well for you?
If you want to modify your routine so that it works better for you, read on.
If you don’t purposely build your daily routine, it will build itself. You get up, make coffee, read, get the children up, brush your hair…. all in the same general order each day. If you work outside your home you probably do each thing in a certain order and subconsciously change the order and manner of doing those things to fit your morning and get you out of the house on time. However, if you will build your routine on purpose you will have a more efficient system and have it more quickly.
Let’s build a sample evening routine.
First, list what you know you need to do every evening so that your morning will go more smoothly:
1. Wash all dishes, wipe down counters, put away all food.
2. Make sure all clothes for the next day are ready. Get into the habit of laying out clothes!
3. Get all backpacks, purses, keys, etc. ready to go.
4. Find shoes and lay them out.
5. Sweep kitchen
6. Straighten living room.
So, with that list in hand, I would get all this done every evening before bed time. I can enlist the help of family members, especially with finding their shoes and everything they personally need the next day.
This should become an every evening event at your home if you want to get organized and make your mornings less stressful! That is what routines are for!
You may be wondering what the daily routine of other women, maybe even women at home, looks like. How often do I plan meals for my family, when do I fit in those errand days and library days? So here is a peak inside my day.
My morning routine looks like this:
Up and personal grooming and dress
Time for reading, coffee and devotional
Run a sink of hot soapy water. I use this water to help me keep the kitchen clean and dishes rinsed for the dishwasher.
Fix breakfast, clean up
Start school by 9 a.m.
While the children are working on school, I sit with them and work on the CHKNetwork site, read, study and write.
Lunch is at 11:30 and we break til about 12:30.
Afternoon chores are next. I work on laundry, cleaning, straightening and sweeping.
More school until about 2:30
Tea Time at 4 pm
Supper prep at 430 – 5:00
This is a pretty simple routine and it works for me. I challenge you to create a routine for either morning or evening that will help you stay on track with your day!
If you have a routine that is working for you, I would love for you to share it here so our readers can learn from it.
About Sylvia
When I read the title my first thought was, “Yes, I have a routine, but it is not as efficient as it could be” then I came here to read and saw your advise for having an EFFICIENT routine, not just a routine. I really need to work on my evening routine so that my morning goes more smoothly. These are the things I really need to commit to doing each evening. I do most of them most evenings but I can really tell the difference the next morning when I let them slide. And lately that has been more than I would like to admit!
Evening:
Make lunches (or as much as I can do the night before) for the guys’ work
Load and run or unload the dishwasher (which ever needs to be done)
Lay out clothes and need items for the next day
Look over lessons for the next day
Morning:
Finish lunch prep
Make coffee/have devotions
Exercise
Shower
Quick clean up
Bathe Hope
Start school
My problem is that I often get on the computer early (which is the only uninterrupted time I have) and there goes the routine. Lately, I have been doing really well about staying off the computer until at least the first three items on my list are done. Now, I just need to work on the rest! Thanks Sylvia for the encouragement and direction you give!
Its been different things at different times, and its NEEDED to be more things at other times, but one thing that has been consistant since first being married is 30 min. before my husband gets home I pick up and straighten the living room so that he has a clutter free place to relax in and de-clutter his brain from his day at work. Now I have our little one in on it too. I hope to eventually add a quick pick up of her own room for her Daddy’s arrival home so that they may have a nice area to spend time together in, in the evenings. But! One thing at a time, one life season at a time.
6:00am get up, prayer, exercise, scriptures
7:00 kids up, bfast, DH 4 work, morning chores, shower, dinner prep
8:00 yard work
9:00 school
10:00 school
11:00 school
12:00pm lunch
1:00 school
2:00 music lessons
3:00 housework or co-op
4:00 sewing, etc. (me time)
5:00 dinner prep
6:00 dinner, clean up
7:00 big project
8:00 big project (yard, basement, etc)
9:00 bed time, my school
10:00 down time, meal prep for next day
11:00 prayer, bed
Things like library, park, etc. are done at 3 (after school).
Wow, beekeeper, that’s a busy day! Do you really keep to that routine? I can easily see that mine needs some tweaking! LOL
It might be helpful if I explain the difference between a Routine and a Schedule.
I think the easiest and most simple way to think of these terms is like this:
A Schedule is a time table of events.
A Routine is an unvarying or habitual course of procedure.
Think of it like this; your schedule is everything you do in a day and your routine is HOW you do it and how you make it more efficient.
Whew! Thanks for that clarification Sylvia– I don’t think I could keep to a schedule, but I definitely have routines. Sadly, my routines will often put us behind schedule~ We’re quite often late when going anywhere because I have to make sure everything is done, put away, wiped off, turned off, etc. The rest of my family would leave all the lights on, the coffee pot on, and possibly even water running–but they complain that I always make us late!
Efficient is the word!
) If your routines are not working for the rest of the family, I can see that something needs to change…. but what? Either your routines or your family’s understanding of those routines and their importance, surely.
A good routine will actually efficiently use time and energy.
yeah, I figured the difference, my routines are just part of the schedule
I like your schedule very much, Beekeeper! I am a highly scheduled person in many areas, so seeing other people’s schedules is a help to me personally.
What I’ve discovered about routines and schedules is that I can set a time to “do” something… but if I don’t have a good routine for actually doing it, I can waste time and get sidetracked.
I get stuck on developing a routine because my days differ. I’m not always home int he morning or afternoon, it varies each day. Is there any advice you could give me on how to create a routine? Should I just make one up for each day of the week? Is that REALLY a routine?
Thanks!
Hi Chris
I think I would create a routine for my mornings at home days and another routine for my afternoon at home days.
Some people who work varied hours just have a general routine. For example, when they get home from work, no matter the time, they put a load of laundry in, take care of pets, clean the bathroom and take out trash. That kind of routine will work whenever you want to use it.
For most household duties, if you know what specifically needs to be done each day, it doesn’t matter what time of day you do it.
Hope that gives you some ideas! Thanks for stopping by.
Sylvia
Hi sylvia,
please, in my home i am stugglely with how to get my routine, because must of the time my husband do most of the house work, even when i try to do it, i am always told, leave it, ”i will do it, go and take care of the kids and yourself” even when the kids are sitting washing TV after been wash, dress and have eating, i am ask to sit with the kids. please what should i do?
homekeeper, it sounds as if you and your husband need to sit down and have a real heart to heart talk about a fair and equitable division of the labor in the home. I am praying for you today!