New Daily Schedule

I took all last week "off" to sort out my house, and get to some of those nagging things that always seem to just want to hang around, all in preparation for my new daily/weekly schedule. I'm pretty excited with it so far. It is achievable, manageable and has some great things to look forward to do each day.

I must remind myself that I am just one of those people that needs a daily schedule - I forget things so easily, and I need a schedule to stay focused. Achieving something in my day, especially as a stay-at-home-mom, is so important to my mental well-being. At work, I was always able to set goals, achieve them, and feel good; but at home it is so easy to lose that with all this craziness of having kids involves.

This new schedule took a while to get set up, thought out, organized, revised, categorized, typed-up, printed out, edited, and, finally, approved and ready-to-go!

Basically, I have an excel spreadsheet for each day, printed out and stored in a folder. Each day consists of:

Top 5 to dos
For School
Appointments
Kids' Extra Activites
Kids Daily Lesson
Daily Routine (from 5:30am to 10:30pm)
Today's Chores
Blog
Exercise
Me
To Wear



I have a weekly spreadsheet for all meals - I print out 4 and schedule out a whole month at a time.

And I also have a spreadsheet that lists at the kids' lesson plan (have two month's worth).

On my daily sheets:
- the top 5 to do are the top 5 things I want to achieve today.
- For School - I list anything we need to remember for school that day (like change for the lemonade stand, hand in homework, etc)
- Appointments - must write these down as I make them - so forgetful!!!
- Kids' Extra Activities - gymnastics, ballet, playdates, etc
- Kids' Daily Lesson - these are short little things I put together to do with the kids - can be a craft, reading a book together, etc
- Daily Routine - list it all out so I know when to leave to get somewhere on time
- Today's Chores - I do a room each day - 1/2hr to 1hr max - this is in addition to general pick-up/tidy-up
- Blog - trying to plan :)
- Exercise - list it out, tick it off = feels good = more motivation to keep going
- Me - yep! ME! reading, do nails, put on face mask and listen to music, etc - this is my time and I'm scheduling it in!
- To Wear - this is to try to break free of the exercise pants/t-shirt/sweatshirt outfit that I love to wear around the house and thought looked great out of the house too. But alas, it does not!! So I need to make an effort and Pinterest is providing tons of inspiration :)

The Monthly Meal Planner
- has breakfast for the girls listed (I'm a cereal girl, husband eats a banana)
- lunch to pack for girls for school
- dinner
- and one dessert for the week

Most of my recipes come from the internet - I print them out and categorize them into Vegetarian, Meat, Chicken, Fish, Dessert/Other. My weekly plan is:
Monday - Vegetarian
Tuesday - Meat
Wednesday - Chicken
Thursday - Fish
Friday - leftovers/ take out
Saturday - Casserole
Sunday - Casserole leftovers


I know it probably sounds confusing but once it is all set up it really works well. I have not included my spreadsheets on purpose, because every time I see someone else's example it does not work for me. So I think it is important to sit down and work through what will work for you.  This is just a brief outline of what works for me. And I hope it helps me work through some of my issues, and maybe helps you get started on your own path to an organized schedule :)