Creating and sticking to a daily routine doesn’t come easily to everyone. Add kids into the mix and it’s a recipe for a life of rushing around, chasing your tail and ending up overwhelmed and exhausted.
Creating a daily routine might sound like a boring task, but once you’re in the flow it will be your saving grace.
Many studies have indicated that time management and daily routine is beneficial for mental health and essential for children. When challenges arise you’ll have this routine to fall back on and help you move through times of turmoil with greater ease.
Make a date with yourself
Schedule time into your daily routine just for you. It might be twenty minutes in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up, or you might need to work it around your kids’ schedules. But make sure to find this regular time every day to do something that fills your cup. It might be reading, exercising or simply having a cup of tea. Creating and sticking to this daily routine for yourself will allow you to take a small step towards finding a flow in other areas of your life – including your family life. Time management isn’t just about chores.
Plan ahead to reach your goals
Create a routine planner. Choose one day a week where you sit down for ten minutes and write a daily routine for the week ahead (Sunday works well). It doesn’t need to be by the minute, but plan what needs to be done each day. When you’re writing in your routine planner, think not only about what you’d like to achieve this week, but what you’d like your life to look like overall.
Say you’d like to exercise more. What small steps can you take now to move towards integrating that into your daily routine? Perhaps you start with one group exercise class per week after the school drop-off, or five minutes of push-ups, crunches and lunges when you put the baby down for a nap. Schedule it into a weekly exercise plan. Then, give yourself a time limit for when you’d like to have achieved your goal and remember to reward yourself when you get there.
Delegate delegate delegate
Let’s be honest – most of the time, doing something yourself seems so much easier than going through the dreary process of teaching someone else how to do it. But this will definitely save you time and energy in the long run.
Sometimes it comes down to simply letting go of control. It’s hard to see someone else doing something imperfectly that you know you could do just right. But check in with yourself and ask if you’re letting your need to control get in the way of your overall happiness. Create a routine planner for you and your partner, set up a chore board for the kids and when someone offers their help don’t be afraid to take it.
Although your two-year-old may not be the best dishwasher right now, in a few years’ time you’ll be thanking yourself for teaching them young. Just don’t forget to take out the sharp knives!
Our team at Jenny Craig are experts in exercise plans and routines, check out our blog on how to incorporate exercise into your work day!
