How to Organize Your Days to Maximize Your Joy

Get Organized by Creating Routines!

Trying to get organized is hard work. Through the years I've tried about every technique there is. My biggest fail was when I had my family on a schedule that was by 15-30 minute segments. Ahh! I about went insane. I could not seem to get past 10am without being totally behind.

The very system I was trying to use to create less stress in my life was creating stress. Something had to change. I found myself totally irritable and crabby with my kids. In my mind they were to blame for my pretty, little schedule being off course. Not my finest hours.

It's not that I don't like schedules completely, it's just that schedules that are set up too strictly don't allow for the ebb and flow of family life. I do use schedules for some things, but I don’t run my house on a schedule. I prefer routines. Creating routines helps with just about anything! I sometimes refer to this as “Getting Your Groove On!” When you repeat your daily routines over and over each day, it helps you to find a flow for your day, form new habits, and get into a “groove”–which of course helps you to have less stress and more joy. {Bonus!}

You may be wondering, “What’s the difference between schedules and routines?” Well, the simple answer is that it all boils down to how you divide up your time.

Typically, with a schedule you are dividing up time into “time slots.”

• 7am-Get up
• 7:15am-Eat breakfast
• 7:30am-Shower
• 7:45am-Devotions…etc.

Routines are a bit different. I’ve found so much more grace and peace using routines! I divide my routines into “blocks of time” throughout the day. There is so much more flexibility for life (and grace for my kids)—plus I find that I’m not watching the clock all day.

The way I set up my routines is to figure out what I want to have accomplished in each segment of our day:

• Morning Routine (7am-9am): Breakfast, get dressed, devotions, piano, brush teeth, and morning chores.
• Afternoon (11:30-1:30pm): Lunch, outdoor time, sibling play time (this is the one-on-one play time that I rotate between my older kids with their younger siblings, so my other kids have some quiet to finish up their school work while another sibling is playing with the littles), and a quick clean up time.
• Nap time and Quiet time (2-4pm): Writing or errand time for me.
• Evening (6-8:30pm): Family devotion and prayer, PJs, brush and floss teeth, bedtime—and, of course, next day prep.

It’s so much easier for me to train my kids to know what their morning routines are rather than telling them what to do next every 15 minutes. When I say, “Let’s get our morning routine done,” they know what they need to get accomplished. Okay, there is still a lot of reminding that happens, but I don’t get stressed out when they are a few minutes behind on a particular chore.

Notice there are gaps in our routine time frames. That’s when we do our homeschooling and other activities. This just creates a framework for me for when I want to get certain aspects of our daily “to-do’s” done.

I have routines for just about everything we do, whether it’s when we get laundry done, the dish washer unloaded, tidy up the house, and more. We have routines that we follow that help everyone to accomplish things more efficiently. With a busy household, I try to assign major tasks to certain days & daily tasks to certain times of the day.  Keeping to this routine helps to ensure that things get done.

Now it's your turn!

I want to challenge you! Take a look at your day and see if dividing up your days into blocks of time–ROUTINES–might help you to add some extra joy to your day! You can do it! You will be so blessed by having more structure and less stress! To make this challenge more fun: I'm going to give you a fun little “Daily Routines” Planner!! POST pictures of your filled-in routines on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! Use #‎30DayOrganize‬ and tag me @RaisingClovers, so I can see it! In fact, there are even give-aways for your involvement! All the more reason to take me up on my fun little challenge!

I'm part of an awesome 30 day series called…

How to Organize your Life in 30 Days!

I am teaming up with some amazing bloggers to bring you 30 days to an organized life! We have some great posts planned for you and are excited to join with you to make our homes–and homeschools–more relaxing in the days to come! All you need to do to join the challenge is check out the landing page HERE and start working through the challenges. You can join in at any point, there are no rules! Share your before or after pictures on Instagram and use the hashtag ‪#‎30dayorganize‬ for a chance to win a $10 gift card to Hobby Lobby (3 winners)! The more your engage on social media, share the graphic below, etc. the more entries you'll have! The winners will be announced on Instagram so stay tuned!

{Join the challenge! Take a screenshot of the picture above and share this on Instagram!}

Here's your free “Daily Routines” Planner!

Want more great printables…

Today's post has excerpts from Chapter 2 “Creating Routines!” of my new book, Sanity Savers for Moms: 7 Simple Solutions for a More Joy-filled Life. I have some great printables at the back that I know you will enjoy–including a “Daily Routines” Planner.