Organizing Your Fall Routine

This post is Day #9 in the 31 Days to a Better Work + Life Balance series.

One of my favorite things about Fall is getting back into routines. I love planning and structure after a long laid-back summer. If you’re putting together your fall routine too, here are just a few ways to get organized...

Map Out Main Areas

For me the main areas that need some structure are Work, Home, Kids/School & Family. Under these areas, I just write out a list of everything that needs a time-slot during the week. Examples…

Work: Designing, blogging, marketing, photos, record-keeping and planning

Home: Meals, shopping, finances, errands/calls, gardening and cleaning

Kids/school: Art projects, reading/bible lessons, speech therapy, floortime/toys, music & outside time

Family, Date nights with my husband, time to get ready everyday, devos, Kids Baths, Naps, bedtime routines

Plug It In

Think about how much time daily you’ll need for each activity and then when makes the most sense for those things to happen. You definitely don’t have to rigidly stick to your schedule everyday, but having a time slot will make things more likely to happen.

I like to use both a handwritten calendar and a mobile calendar on my computer/ipad. My favorite Calendar App right now is called Sunrise. It syncs with iCloud and google calendar so that makes it nice to have everything in one place. I also get nice little reminders all day that keep me on track.

Fill In Details

Don’t forget to choose a time to plan your week’s details. Yep, make a plan to plan. During this time slot, you’ll be making all of your major decisions for the week. Examples of these details would be deciding blog posts topics, choosing dinner meals, which cleaning zones to work on, filling in school themes and coordinating stories/art projects/games for each day.

I usually take about an hour to plan the week but you can be as general or specific as you want. I created printables for my own planning, but you could always use a notebook or a list app. Making decisions everyday can get tiring so if all of the thinking is done in advance, you can be free to get things done.

Plan For Rest

Your schedule should always allow time for rest. If we don’t regularly recharge, that will just lead to burn out. Fill in space for taking a nap, hanging out with a friend, working on a hobby, going for a run, reading a book, etc.

I think if you’re a mom of young kids this is especially important (and challenging) to take time to recharge, even if it means your kids have a short playtime alone in their rooms so you can sit down for 20 minutes. You will feel so much better and will be better able to take care of others after a daily break. You could also just leave a few hours blank each day but whatever you do, find time to rest.

I hope that helps give you some ideas for your own planning! 

What are your favorite parts of a fall routine? Share below!

xo, Laurie