Day In The Life
As a Mama and business owner, I get asked a lot about our schedule and how we structure our day to get all the things accomplished. You must know that we don’t get everything done every single day and it’s not always perfect. We have hard days and we have days where everything goes according to plan (<-- those days are few and far between). The schedule I lay out here is a loose schedule and can adjust here and there from day to day. What I list out here is what we do about 80% of the time. This is what works for us, our family, and my work commitments. If your schedule differs, don’t feel discouraged. You should always do what is best for you!
Current “rough” schedule and routine:
5:30 am: I wake up. I brew some coffee in my Nespresso and head back to bed where I work until Knox wakes up. I try to do work like emails, writing content, and administrative tasks during this work. That means I can stay in bed and work on my computer. I am a morning person, so this comes somewhat easy for me to do this. If you aren’t a morning person, this might not work for you. But, I find that even if I have 20 minutes to myself before Knox wakes up, I am more relaxed throughout the morning and feel less anxious.
7:30-8am: Knox wakes up. We cuddle for about 15-20 minutes after he wakes up. He needs time to just adjust to the morning and is going through a strong attachment phase. So physically holding him and being with him in the morning is really important.
8:30am: After we do our cuddling, I get us all ready to go with snacks, water, and new clothes for our walk. We go for a walk every single morning and it’s what gives me LIFE. I have to get outdoors and move my body. We leave around 8:30 am.
9:30-10:30 am: We get home from our walk around 9:30 am and then play outside for awhile. Knox loves to play in the dirt and in the garden, so I just sit outside with him and let him do his thing. After he plays for awhile, we go inside, eat some more snacks and then get ready for naptime. I’ve found that he needs to eat two breakfasts in order to have a good morning nap. When he doesn’t, he doesn’t sleep as long. Hungry little boy!
10:30am-1pm: He goes down for his nap around 10:30 am and then I get to work. This time of day is some of the most important for my business. I make sure before he wakes up in the morning that I have a clear plan for what naptime will include. So early in the morning, I make a to do list for naptime. This helps me get straight to work when he goes to sleep so I can be productive. I work for every single minute of nap time, and once he wakes up, I’m done. Luckily, he will sit in his crib for a little bit before he wakes up from his nap, so if I am in the middle of something, I can have a few minutes to finish it up before he needs to be picked up from his crib. In addition, I try to batch my days in order to stay focused. I pick certain days to focus on certain work tasks. Instead of trying to do a little bit of everything every day, I instead try to do a lot of ONE genre of work in one day. This has really, really helped my productivity and focus.
1-4pm: After he wakes up from his nap, we do lunch together, then play for a little bit. Most days we then go do some errands or this is the time that I would have childcare about 1-2 days a week. Every afternoon is a little different from day to day and we just take it as it comes. He is in a weird stage where he’s not ready for one nap, but he takes a really long morning nap, so he’s not ready for his second nap until 4/5pm.
4pm: Around this time, Joel gets home from work and Knox will go down for a second nap. This changes from day to day, however. When he naps I either finish up work, run errands, or workout.
5-6pm: Once Joel is home from work and Knox is up from his nap, they go outside and play together. I like to give them this time together to dig in the dirt, do yard work, and have one-on-one time. While they are outside, I either workout, prep dinner, or finish up some work. It completely depends on the day.
6-8pm: At this time, we do family time. We eat dinner together, play together for a little bit after dinner, have dance parties, do bath time, read books, and put Knox to bed. We try to keep our phones put away at this time and really focus on being a family.
8-10pm: Once Knox goes to bed, Joel and I clean up the house & kitchen, take showers, and then either read, talk, or watch TV. We go to bed around 10pm and start the routine all over again at 5:30am the next day!
There you have it! Pretty simple and not too exciting, friends. What’s your schedule like? I love to learn about how other families structure their days!