As most of you know, I’m a Type B person through and through. It makes working from home a real challenge most days, so I knew something had to give. My days were constantly bananas, my house was always a huge disaster, and I had the shortest fuse when I was falling behind with work (which was often). I had tried making schedules, and I roughly followed through with them, but nothing really stuck. Until Block Scheduling.
I’ve talked about this a lot on Instagram, and I cannot sing its praises enough. I’m sure you’re wondering what it is and how you can implement it in your life too, right? Any up for making life a little less chaotic? Let me tell you how! I’ll also give you a sample of my new morning routine and my favorite breakfast for my busy days.
BLOCK SCHEDULING
WHAT IT IS
I first heard about this block schedule system from another blogger, and it is so simple but something I had never thought to do myself. Basically, you’re going to take all the things that you do in a day and give them a time frame of 2-3 hour blocks. By blocking off chunks of time, you’re making each activity you do in a day way more manageable in which you’ll become way more efficient. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
HOW TO MAKE YOURS
The first thing you’re going to want to do is write out a list of all the things you do daily, from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.
You can write out your schedule in your planner or spreadsheet, then you are going to set your timers. Think of this just like our high school days. Remember when the bell would ring and we knew class was starting, and then when we heard the next bell, we knew class was over and headed to our next one? That’s what we’re doing with our day now, people.
Once you have a list of what you need to take care of in a day, set your timers/alarms in your phone. You can see what mine looks like below.
If your morning is a little bit crazier, you’ll want to block off one hour increments. You do what works best for you. However, you really should NOT micromanage your entire day. That would make you frustrated and throw in the towel before you could even give this method a chance. I need more “bells” in the morning, because it’s the busiest part of my day, but the rest of my day is worked into 2-3 hour blocks.
For instance, I have two businesses, so at 9 a.m. I have an alarm go off for business number one. Then at 11 a.m., I have an alarm go off to signify I need to move onto my second business. I also schedule in me-time, email time, social media time, house chores, school pick up, dinner prep, dinner time, kitchen clean up, kid’s night routine, date night on the couch, and bedtime.
Because I have a timer going off throughout the day, I stay motivated and focused on one thing at a time. Before, I felt like I had a million tabs open in my brain, and I could never get anything done. I always felt like if I couldn’t do everything at once, I couldn’t do anything at all. Such a vicious cycle, and I am so glad I’m out of it!
MY NEW MORNING ROUTINE
At 7:30 a.m, I have a timer going off reminding me to eat breakfast. Usually, I had gotten into the habit of skipping it, but I’ve found I work better if I eat a good breakfast. At this point in my day, I’ve already been up for two hours, but since my kids are needing a quick breakfast, I go ahead and join them in eating.
One thing I’ve been continuing to love are super easy breakfast meals, like Jimmy Dean Simple Scrambles® breakfast cups. I love these and so do my kids! My personal favorite is the Meat Lovers. They’re so easy to pop into the microwave, and in three minutes I get a fresh breakfast with 23g of protein, made with two real eggs, cheese, sausage and bacon. All you have to do is pour in the eggs (provided in the cup), stick it in the microwave, add meat and or cheese, microwave for a few more seconds and enjoy! With almost zero clean up, they are a mother’s dream (or any busy person’s)!
While the kids eat their breakfast and watch cartoons, I usually go over my to-do list for the day and finish up things I hadn’t from my power hour. I hope the schedule empowers you to live your best life. You can do it, sister! Let me know if you have any questions at all!
