Welcome to Part 1 of my How to Easily Manage Your Home series, where I will be walking you through how to set up simple systems and routines that will basically Put Your Home on Autopilot.
This will essentially be a Home Management 101 Minicourse. So if that sounds like something you would be into, be sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss any content!
If you want to be sure you stay up to date on all the routines we will be creating along the way, you can grab my Easy Home Management Checklist and check each routine off as you create it.
And if you prefer to watch your content instead of reading, feel free to follow along on YouTube:
So let’s go ahead and get started with the First Step to easily managing our homes, and that is to create a Daily Block Schedule.
Why Should Every Mom Have a Daily Block Schedule
I know that’s a pretty bad statement… but yes, I think EVERY mom should have a Daily Block Schedule!
Why?
Because Block Schedules will give you the structure that you and your kids crave while giving you the flexibility that will work for real life!
How to Create a Daily Block Schedule:
Ok, let’s get started!
1) Choose Your Weapon
To create your block schedule, you will need a piece of paper, or a notebook to write everything down on.
I would just recommend that you have a notebook or a binder that us a dedicated Home Management Binder.
Then you will know exactly where all of your routines are located and you will be able to easily find them when you need them.
Or if you’d like, you can grab the printable Home Management Binder that I created for you called the Autopilot Workbook. That has everything you need to set up routines and systems that will have your home running smoothly.
But for everyone else, you will want to turn your paper so that it is horizontal instead of vertical.
Then grab a ruler and a pencil or pen and draw the outline of your template.
You will want your template to have 4-6 long columns with 2 small horizontal boxes at the top of each column. It should look something like this:
3) Decide How Many Blocks Your Day Will Have
I recommend using between 4 and 6 blocks in your day.
If you have any fewer than 4 blocks, your day will feel too flexible because your blocks are too long. But if you have more than 6 it will be too rigid.
Anything between 4 and 6 blocks is just a personal preference though so choose what you think will work best for you.
My template has 6 blocks, but if you are creating your own you can draw in as many as you’d like.
If you aren’t sure how many blocks you should have in your day, just keep reading and it should be more clear. 🙂
4) Choose the length of your blocks
Some people like to have blocks that are exactly the same size (like having 4 blocks that are all 3 hours long if you are basing your schedule off of 12 waking hours, or 6 blocks that are all 4 hours long if basing your schedule off 24 hours).
But my day just isn’t quite that neat. Almost all of my blocks are different lengths based on what I am doing in each block.
So choose whichever will work best for you!
Once you decide how long each of your blocks will be, write down the start and end time of each block on the second line of your block schedule (see the example above if you need a visual :).
5) Name Your Blocks
Once you have the time for each block figured out, decide what you would like each block to be called.
Don’t worry about being too creative here, my first Block of the day is just called Morning Block.
But naming the blocks will help you decide which items should go into each block.
Your block name will go on the first line of your Block Schedule Template.
6) Divide Your Daily Responsibilities
Now take all the things that you might do in a day and organize them in the proper blocks.
As you do this, keep in mind that you won’t do all of these things in the same day.
For example, in my Out and About Block, I have going to the dentist, going to the doctor, going grocery shopping, going to the park, going on a hike… you get the idea.
But I definitely won’t be doing all of that in one day!
Dividing our duties on our block schedule helps us put some organization and structure to our day.
And anytime you need to make an appointment or schedule a playdate, or anything like that, you will know exactly what time you should schedule it.
And since a lot has happened in the last year, was time for me to update my block schedule too! So I did it right alongside you when I created the video that goes with this post.
I think it is a good idea to revisit your Block Schedule every year or so because it is natural for your life to change and shift especially as your children get older.
But if you’ve already Put Your Home on Autopilot and have the Autopilot Workbook, all you should need to do when you update is re-print the template, make minor updates, and then get on with your life 🙂
So here is my updated Block Schedule if you’re curious to see it!
Block 1: Morning Block 6:00am- 10am
Mom’s Morning Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Kid’s Morning Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Mom’s Workout Time (checkout this post to see how I find time to workout.)
Start the Laundry
Make Breakfast
Unload the Dishwasher
Eat Breakfast (check out this post for easy, healthy breakfast ideas!)
Family Worship
Cleanup Breakfast
Cleaning Chores of the day (check out this post for my weekly cleaning routine)
Switch the Laundry
Practice Violin
Block 2: Out and About Block 10:00am- 1:30pm
Play in the backyard
Go on a hike
Doctor appointments
Dentist appointments
Play dates
Grocery Shopping
Eat Lunch
Clean Up Lunch
Block 3: Naptime Block 1:30pm- 4:00pm
Get Ready for Nap/Quiet Time
Nap/Quiet Time
Phone Calls
Mom’s Work Time
Mom’s Personal Time
Block 4: Evening Block 4:00pm-8:00pm
Fold Laundry
Prepare Dinner
Play in the Backyard
Outside Time
Music Lessons
Swimming Lessons
Eat Dinner
Clean up Dinner
Family Worship
Kid’s Evening Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Block 5: Mom’s Work Block 8:00pm- 10:30pm
Mom’s work time
Block 6: Sleep 10:30pm- 6:00am
Mom’s Evening Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Sleep
Ready to Start Easily Managing Your Home?
If you are ready to get organized and make a plan that will help you run your home without stress, check out my course Put Your Home on Autopilot!
This course walks you through the steps to get your home practically running itself!
In Put Your Home on Autopilot, you will learn how to set up effective cleaning systems, set up your day for success, and start making time for the things that matter most.
In just one month you will go from feeling overwhelmed to in control. And if you have any questions along the way, I’m only an email away!
Now I know routines and schedules can be a little…. well… controversial.
A lot of people think that you are either such a schedule fanatic that you are a slave to your schedule, or you have no routine at all and you basically let your kids decide what happens at what point during the day.
But I don’t feel like either of these extremes is best for moms or for kids.
So when I was creating my routine for my girls, I strove to find a happy medium.
In this post, I’m going to go over why routines are so great for moms to have. I will show you How to create your own schedule that you can customize for your needs. And I’m going to show you my routine from when I had a newborn, my routine from when I had 6-month-old, and what our routine looked like when we had a toddler and a 4-month-old.
Let’s go ahead and get started on why it is so valuable to have some sort of routine or schedule in your daily life.
And if you prefer to watch instead of read, here’s the video:
Why Every Mom Needs a Routine
1) Routines Make You Confident
The first reason I love routines is that they make you so much more confident as a mom.
When you hear your baby crying and you have a predictable routine, all of the guesswork is taken out.
You don’t have to wonder if they are hungry, or tired, or if they need to be changed.
You know exactly why they are crying… at least most of the time… because you know where you are at in your routine.
Whereas if you don’t have any sort of schedule, every cry becomes a guessing game. And you just have to keep trying new things until you figure out what it is that they actually need.
2) Routines Help You Stand Up for Yourself
The second reason I think every mom should have a routine is that the confidence you gain from your routine, helps you stand up for your self when other people think they need to chime in and tell you what your baby needs.
When you are a new mom, almost everyone will have some sort of advice for you. And everybody seems to think that they know what it means when your baby cries.
And almost every time someone else told me what my baby needed… they thought the baby was hungry.
But when you have your routine and you know if that is a tired cry, or a hungry cry, or if they are just crying because they need a diaper change, it can give you a lot more confidence when you are dealing with other people who think they know your baby better than you do.
I had so many people tell me when my first daughter was born, “oh she’s hungry” or “that’s a hungry baby.” And I was able to confidently say, “No, she’s not, she’s actually just tired because this is her nap time.”
And I could put her down, or I could put her in her car seat if we were out and about, and she would go to sleep and take her nap.
Because of the schedule, I wasn’t constantly trying to guess and figure out what was wrong… especially when I was under pressure from other people to make my baby stop crying.
3) Routines Help Your Baby Sleep Better
Most sleep experts agree that having a predictable daily routine leads to better daytime sleep at nap time and better nighttime sleep.
Now, I wish that I could tell you that there is just one amazing sleep book out there that will solve all of your problems… but unfortunately, there isn’t. Or at least there isn’t one by itself.
When I was a nanny I read just about every sleep training book I could get my hands on because I had one little guy in particular who wasn’t a big fan of sleep.
And what I found was that I needed to combine the principles in three different books to create something that worked really well for him.
So it’s a really fun book to read that also has some gems along the way for how to teach your kids to sleep better.
4) Routines Teach Kids To Eat Better
When kids snack all throughout the day, they don’t tend to eat very well at mealtimes.
And even if you can get them to take a few bites, it generally won’t be the healthiest food that they are willing to eat… because they just aren’t that hungry.
But if you can have specific mealtimes for your kids, even at a very young age, it teaches them that it’s actually ok to be a little hungry in between meals. And it also teaches them which times are for filling up your stomach and getting full.
And the last reason that I think everyone should have a routine is that it actually makes it easier for those days when you don’t have a routine.
This one is kind of ironic to me because we had so many people tell us before we had kids “Don’t stick to a schedule or your kids will never be able to be flexible” and “you’ll be a slave to the schedule and it will make your lives so much more difficult.”
But we’ve actually found the opposite to be true.
Our girls are very flexible on the days when we do go off of the schedule.
For example on days when we are hiking and we eat lunch much later, or if we go out to brunch and brunch ends up being 2-3 hours later than their normal breakfast time, they are able to wait because they are used to waiting for their food.
Now I will say that this does work best if you are using a Weekly Rhythm as well. That ensures that your kids have some simple days where you are sticking with the routine, in addition to having some days where you let yourself go rogue. You can read more about how to create a weekly routine here, or watch the video about it here.
How to Create Your Own Daily Routine
Now that we know why we should have one, let’s start building one.
And to show you how it’s done, I’m going to use the exact newborn routine that we used.
1) Set the “Meal Times”
The first thing that you want to do when creating a schedule for your baby, is to set the meal times (aka, the nursing or bottle feeding times.)
When my girls were 0-12 weeks old, our feeding times looked like this:
And that is because we were using the On Becoming Babywise 3 Hour feeding schedule for newborns.
Now for us these were approximate times because I knew that I would be staying home with the kids, so if they woke up anywhere between 7:00-8:30 am, it was ok with me. I just adjusted the rest of the schedule accordingly.
If you know you are going back to work though, you might want to wake your baby up at the same time every day to help them set their internal clock.
2) Write in the Nap Times
Now once you have the feeding times figured out, write in their nap times.
And if your baby is a newborn, they will be taking a nap in between each feeding.
When our girls were 0-12 weeks old, this is what their nap schedule looked like.
3) Determine Your Blocks
The next step is to notice where the start and end of each block will be.
If you are creating a newborn schedule like we are in this example, your blocks will begin at the start of each feeding and end at the end of each nap.
So if you are using the 3-hour feeding schedule like we did, it will look something like this:
4) Write in Your Laundry Routine
And once you have these blocks set, you can start building in the rest of your daily routine.
The first thing that I added to my routine, was my Laundry Routine.
Because, if you’re not careful (especially as a new mom!) laundry can really pile up on you (haha, no pun intended) and before you know it, you’ll be out of clean clothes for you and your baby to wear.
My schedule with my laundry routine looked like this:
5) Write in Your Cleaning Time
If you’ve seen my simple cleaning routine, you know that I prefer to clean a little bit every day, as opposed to doing a lot of cleaning once a week.
In order to make sure that they cleaning gets done though, I need to write it into my Daily Routine.
For this example, I’m going to put my Cleaning Time into my second block of the day.
6) Determine Meal Prep Time
It’s really hard to make food while you are carrying a baby.
But if your kids are anything like mine were, all they want in the evening is to be held.
And it was really stressful if I was trying to cook a meal at that point.
So I found it was a lot easier to make dinner during one of the girls’ nap times when they were little.
Typically I did this during the nap that happened just before dinner time.
So I found that it was very helpful to decide ahead of time which block I would use for setting appointments, running errands, and basically anything else that had to do with leaving the house.
It is also helpful to know which block of your day works best to skip naps and be away from home when you are setting appointments.
When my girls were little I much preferred to sacrifice the morning nap and get errands done early in the day. That way I could be sure I was getting that naptime break for myself in the afternoon when I really needed it.
Be sure to check out this post if you want more tips for how to get out of the house on time!
Decide If and When You Want to Workout
Working out and staying fit is really important to me, but I know if I don’t schedule it in, it isn’t going to happen.
So I make sure that I have one block dedicated to taking time to exercise.
So here is what my final routine looks like:
9) Morning Routine
Now you may have noticed that I don’t have anything about a morning routine on this schedule.
And that is because when my girls were newborns… I didn’t have one.
My only goals for my morning routine at that stage were to get myself into real-people clothes and brush my teeth. And as long as I did those two things, I called it a success.
Especially when your baby is still waking up during the night, you should get all the sleep you can.
The only exception to this is if you are an introvert who seriously needs that alone time. Then absolutely get up and have that time in the morning 🙂
If you want any tips for creating a morning routine, check out this post.
Our 6-12 Month Daily Routine
Now if you want another example of a routine for when your child gets a little older, this is what we used from the time our girls were about 6 months old until they were between 12-18 months (it was different for each of them :).
From 4-6 months I would say our schedule was fairly flexible and seemed like it was changing constantly because… well… babies.
Most babies go through periods when they are dropping naps, but they still need those extra naps sometimes.
But by the time were at 6 months, we were pretty solidly on a 4-hour block schedule that looked something like this:
6-Month-Old and Toddler Routine
And I thought it would be fun to add in our routine that we used when the girls were 6 months old and 3 years old:
And if you want to check out my 6 part mini-series How to Easily Manage Your Home, you will see exactly how to set your home up for success!
Ready to Start Easily Managing Your Home?
If you are ready to get organized and make a plan that will help you run your home without stress, check out my course Put Your Home on Autopilot!
This course walks you through the steps to get your home practically running itself!
In Put Your Home on Autopilot, you will learn how to set up effective cleaning systems, set up your day for success, and start making time for the things that matter most.
In just one month you will go from feeling overwhelmed to in control. And if you have any questions along the way, I’m only an email away!
