Has your life been chaotic?  Just can’t get everything done?  Today I want to show you my stay at home mom schedule, in hopes that you’ll see this is normal even with a productive, consistent schedule.

You aren’t going to get everything done when you are a stay at home mom or any type of mom for that matter.  It’s just not realistic. 

However, if you are never checking anything off of your list, there’s a problem.  I’m here to help you to feel accomplished and see a purposeful path in this journey. But I don’t want you to be deceived into thinking that you can get back to the same freedom and space as you had without kids.  It’s a fact that you have more things to do, in less time. 

The trick is to use that time to be as productive and successful as possible.

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Now, if you have been following me for any amount of time, you are probably shaking your head and thinking,

“I thought you said I don’t need a stay at home mom schedule?” 

 

And yes, I did.  I’m actually not changing my thinking about that.  Moms of little ones (5 and under) need to create routines.  Routines are perfect for newbie mommies! 

 

Routines give you a lot more freedom.  I mean we are stressed enough trying to figure out motherhood.

Because of the freedom you’ll gain, routines also allow you to have more fun.  Less pressure means more creativity, more energy.

Routines also give you a lot more flexibility so if baby decides not to nap you aren’t overwhelmed because you missed the perfect time to mop the bathroom floor.  (I’m joking about that perfect time ladies, there is no “perfect” time)

However, once kids get older, and you get your rhythm down, it sometimes is helpful to actually start putting time limits and block scheduling into play.  Scheduling things may also be a necessary method if you also are a WAHM and/or homeschooling mom.  But right now we are talking about SAHMs, and those early days I do recommend routines and rhythms first.

Need a Planner? Try Bloom.

How to Find Time to Create a Schedule

So once we are past that first couple of years where routines rule, how does a mom go about creating an organized life?  Well, a schedule might solve your bigger issue (getting in control), but how do you even get time to create a schedule? 

I’m going to tell you, as someone who doesn’t have a boat-load of family and friends to help raise my children, this is the best way I’ve come up with getting organized.  This solution may not work for you, or perhaps you will know some tricks that I don’t know (and I’d love to know in the comments!), so feel free to go about this in your own way.

However, for me to find time to create a schedule, at the risk of creating a messy house, I took a break.

Yep, I stopped the presses.  I hit pause.  I put on airplane mode.  You get the point.

Now keep in mind that I do homeschool, so my kids are always with me.  If your kids go off to a school building you might now have as much of a problem.  But I needed to revise my schedule at home, even though we had already returned from winter break it didn’t matter.

My new Bloom Daily Planner had arrived.  I took a few days to set up my planner, figure out my stay at home mom schedule, as well as some goals for my business and homeschool. 

I had to take this time to prepare and focus before I could move forward.

A while back I wrote a whole series of post about how YOU can get prepared for mom life by having a mindset shift.  The Preparation series gives you a new way to see those mundane duties, as well as who you are in this new role of mom life.  

 

If you haven’t, go read The Preparation Series 

Creating A Stay at Home Mom Schedule

This section of my planner actually lists homeschool and kid activities. 

As you see at the top of the photo, school is blocked out by big categories of Family Studies or the day for Co-op, but details of what I am teaching isn’t there.  This planner isn’t specific to that, although you certainly could do some of that in here if you wanted.  I do have a homeschool planner and binder system that I can share with you guys.  This just lays out a time block schedule so I can see what’s happening on any particular day or time for the kids.

Later in the day we have things like piano practice, electronics use (which I call Tech Time) and the kids daily chores.

Scheduling Work at Home

Working at home, while homeschool has been a bit of an adventure.  If you don’t, this part of my stay at home mom schedule probably can be skipped. 

Trying to find the best time has been a bit of a juggle.  Even since I’ve taken this photo my time has changed a bit to include a business training course. 

So far I absolutely love Anna’s Corporate Rescue Plan, specifically for women starting a business so they can be at home.  I’m already at home but it has not made a difference in the support and education I’m getting.  But I have not included that in my schedule and applying what I’m learning has changed how I’ve done things. 

Yet some things stay the same – me going out of the house to work a couple of days a week, Mondays and Fridays (although I didn’t mark down that I’m out – I am lol).  Since my husband works 2nd shift, it’s one of the advantages I can use, since I’m a morning thinker. 

And as you can see (in the bottom half for the photo) I take full advantage of naptime, which since has transitioned to quiet time.  If you’d like to know how to make that switch with your child please visit my post, The Most Productive Routine.

 

I also use my evenings, but since in this template I only logged up until 7pm you won’t see that listed here.  The specifics of what I need to do in those blocked times are listed in the daily notes for each month and also a goal’s list in my life organizer.

How Do Stay At Home Moms Organize Their Lives?

Creating a stay at home mom schedule is simply another way to keep your life organized.  I have never been consistent with a daily planner.  However, a few months back I posted on Instagram four planners (basically just school calendar books) I had bought from the Dollar Tree. 

They were wonderfully designed for the simplicity and affordability they gave, however, they weren’t planners.  Regardless, I had four to cover the different areas of my stay at home mom schedule:

Life organization (things like my exercise schedule, goals, reading lists, home projects, etc.)

Home

Homeschool and Kids

Work

There are lots of methods I could’ve used to organize my life at home.  And I knew I could have all of this in one planner, maybe two.  However, at the time I wanted separate solutions that weren’t digital.  And these calendars were flat!  I wanted something not bulky.

Basically, I wanted something easy for the fast-paced life I live.

 

RELATED:  The Amazing 5 BIG Ways to Organize Your Mom Life

 

Easy ways to organize your life include digital calendars for planning and managing, like Google Calendar.  Next, there are digital helpers like Evernote, Onenote or some project management software. 

Yes, these are generally for businesses, however, remember moms are CEOs.  We are running our homes in a very similar way as a business is run.  Don’t discredit that there is a lot going on there, even if it seems like there is only one employee most of the time!  It’s worth checking out an app or two to see if it helps you manage your ever-spinning world. 

And of course, there is the traditional home binder.  Binders like my Mom Binder, they are bulky. It’s not something that I like to carry around with me and I bet you don’t either. 

 

In steps the Bloom Daily Planners. 

WHY I LOVE MY BLOOM PLANNER

They are neither bulky or inconvenience.  These ladies, the co-founders, took a lot of time to create these planner solutions for women.  You can see the intentionality in the design of this planner. 

The quotes and motivational phrases on each month layout, as well as the notes and goals side column.  There is an area to plan goals for your year, based on the word bloom.  In the back, there’s an area for recapping. 

Just seeing and knowing this, pushes this Type A girl to be more intentional about checking in with my goals throughout the year.  And y’know what they say about accountability and writing down your goals!

I feel like this planner has everything I need to be effective and not overwhelmed as is with some more complicated, expensive planners.  Even though I’d like to invest in certain planners that take you deeper, I’m not at that stage where I could mentally do a lot more life planning. 

As a mom of 3, I just want to know what to do today and have a plan for tomorrow. 

That’s it!

One of the best parts, this planner is small, portable, but has tons of space for me to write – even within the calendar squares.  I just love it!

 

If you love this post you will love the Ultimate Productivity Bundle!  Check it out!

 

Moms need to know how to plan. We need the tools, tips, tricks, and techniques of planning, and we need to know where to start!

RELATED:  The Amazing 5 BIG Ways to Organize Your Mom Life

How to get organized starts with having the right tools.  With the right tools, you can get your family to their goals, and yours.

If you don’t have a planner, that is the first thing to have in your toolbox!

If you need more tips on how to manage the main areas of life read The Amazing 5 BIG Ways to Organize Your Mom Life

Maybe you need more help on the details of managing life?  Don’t sweat the small stuff!  Simply read The 5 Bite-sized Must Do To-dos of Successful Home Management