All my adult life I’ve been searching for a way to organize the chaos that is my life.

For a long time I thought it was planners.

The money I spent on planners is absurd! I had Lily Pulitzer and Erin Condren planners; I spent hours making a bullet journal. And I still have a brand new $40 Law of Attraction Planner I never even opened.

And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you share in my shame.

I needed something quick and predictable. Something that I didn’t spend a fortune in TIME and money to accessorize and make pretty meanwhile distracting myself from the whole purpose of planning. I wanted something that covered all the bases, yet didn’t leave me feeling like a total and complete failure if I didn’t accomplish everything I’d planned for that day.

Maybe it wasn’t that I was a failure at planning, but failing because I OVER-PLANNED.

I didn’t need a break down of my day hour by hour. I have two very needy little kids, who can get whiny, wake up grumpy, or just randomly meltdown for no reason. Let’s be real…I don’t work on MY clock. I work on theirs.

So I knew I needed to looking at my day, and what I needed to accomplish in a day in very specific pieces.

So I broke down my day. These days my schedule is pretty much the same. We aren’t running around to school, sports or social events, so we mostly stay home. We do have a close network that we try to see a couple of times a week, so we do sometimes need to break routine. Due to this, I knew my system needed to allow for flexibility on days that didn’t flow like normal.

But for the most part, my life these days has a very distinct pattern and the things I need to accomplish in a day’s time don’t change much. I broke down the pieces of my most essential tasks: schoolwork with my girls, house work, downtime, and of course my actual work centering mostly around this blog.

I looked at the tasks I needed to accomplish and what time of day it would be best to do them. Slowly a outline began to emerge where I’d built three distinct mini days into once and assigned myself task during these time frames.

Breaking down Mini Days

So mini days is not a new concept for me. I’d heard of these before from popular motivational speaker, Ed Mylett. His idea of mini days breaks the day into 3 six hour chunks. He claims he accomplishes in 6 hours what most people accomplish in a day!

So I’m probably taking some liberty with Ed Mylett’s mini days here, but what I love about mini days is that if I screw up one part of the day it doesn’t mean I’ve wrecked my whole day. I can hit reset during the next part of my day. So say I only accomplish half the stuff on my list in the morning; I get a fresh start in the middle of the day and help myself ditch the “I already screwed up” mentality.

My mini days are about flexibility to adapt plans as needed, freedom to manage my free time, and forgiveness if I don’t have the best, beginning, middle or end to the day. I’ve got plenty of second chances.

Obviously the goal is to check off everything everyday and I strive for that. It helps to incentivize that especially with kids.

I also made my daughters a checklist (more on that later) and the days they complete the whole list, they earns $2 allowance. I decided to reward myself with $2 daily too. I went as far as to create a little graph where I chart my progress towards a goal. I’m currently working to a $100 Ulta gift card.

So although $2 isn’t much, I’m watching myself inch closer to the goal of getting what I want and also getting the satisfaction that comes with accomplishing goals. It’s a win-win.

I also allow myself flex time when I’ve got everything on my list completed that morning. Flex time can be what I need it to be (extra time to work), or what I want it to be (binge watching Netflix, extra pool time, even a nap!). And it feels so much better when I’ve earned it!
It works for kids too!!

Like I mentioned, I also made one of these for my daughters. It works like a charm for my six year, and while my 3 year old is still developing the impulse control necessary to develop consistency, she does really well with it also.

The reason it works for my oldest though is not even the fact that she can earn money, but that she also earns tablet time.

I don’t know what it is about technology that is so addictive to kids, but it’s beyond scary. She would watch her tablet all day long if we let her, so we have to set limits and be pretty strict about it. Having her earn her tablet throughout the day helps us to keep her screen time in check.

My youngest is not very into technology yet, so she’s a little less motivated. She’s very food driven, but I’m trying to stop giving food as a reward so I we’re trying out a big, fun, sticker when she accomplishes her lists. She has the option of tablet time, but doesn’t usually stay on it long. She also can earn an allowance.

You may be wondering how we minimize screen time when we are stuck at home constantly. It’s not easy, and that screen time on the checklist usually comes in the form of a tablet. TV isn’t even on there. They do get to watch TV too. However, during the day they rarely do. In fact sometimes, the TV doesn’t even get turned on until dinner time.

So are they doing chores that whole time?

Ha haha hahahahaha!!

Most certainly not! But they stay pretty busy in their downtime playing outside or indoors. When they’re playing inside the have free reign of the toys that are in the room. However, I keep the bulk of the toys contained in the Toy Closet and we have a toy rotation system that keeps them from getting bored with the same old toys over and over, while also making sure all their toys still get some love!

I’ve written a whole post explaining this, so I won’t venture into that here, but I will tell you, this system has been a total game changer for us! It’s so much easier to keep the playroom and house clean, and there’s less arguing about cleaning up!

Their checklists break down the most essential parts of their day, meals, schoolwork, playtime and helping me clean.  I’ve found their tasks are much more manageable when they are broken down for the throughout the day. This incredible checklist has really helped my house stay cleaner!

Speaking of cleaning…

So you might have noticed the cleaning section on my checklist is pretty generic and doesn’t seem to include a lot. Aside from dishes, laundry, and pickup, I don’t mention much, except a small place that says Daily Cleaning.

So how do I decide what to clean when? Surely my house is a wreck, right?

If I’m honest, sometimes yes it is. But most of the time? It’s at least appears on the surface to be fairly tidy. And that’s because I have a Weekly Cleaning Schedule that breaks my weekly cleaning into small manageable chunks that I complete daily.

Here’s a peek at my Weekly Cleaning Lists. If you love it, you can grab a freebie here. If you like it but need it tweaked to fit your needs, I offer that too! Check out this listing in my Etsy store for a custom cleaning list.

So, mostly this list is pretty self explanatory right? The only thing that probably stands out is the alternate chores list. This list is usually one I make up each month. I think about things that really need doing: washing windows, cleaning cabinets, dusting baseboards, miscellaneous things, and those get added to the to do list.

On days when I’m being really good, I do extra and pull from this list. Sometimes pushing myself to go just a little harder can be amazingly satisfying. Like I said, I’m not perfect, but I’m pushing myself to do better every day and these lists and schedules help me achieve that.

Ok.  Sounds good. But how to you keep track of actual events and appointments?

So what do I do when I need to remember something? Wouldn’t a pretty little planner come in handy then?

Sure, it would, but they’ve proven ineffective for me, so instead I utilize my Google Calendar. I love that I can also share it with my husband so he has access to any events that we may (or did before Corona) have going on.

I also have a calendar in our family command center located in the kitchen. Here I write the events as well just as a backup in case technology fails me.

It’s simple, and much cheaper than all those pretty planners and their pretty accessories.

So if you’re thinking that maybe over-planning in overpriced planners might be part of your problem and want to give my checklist’s a try check out my Etsy listing where I can transform one of these handy little checklists into something that functions for you and your family! It’s much cheaper than a fancy planner and you can print it as much as you wish or laminate it and use a dry erase marker and save some trees! Either way, you’re bound to find yourself being more productive!

Now this said, Am I perfect? Is my house always spotless, my checklist complete and my life perfectly fulfilled?

Not just no…a very emphatic, Hell No!

I’m human same as you Mama. I make mistakes and lost focus, but the beauty of this list and these schedules is that I can forget and move on and do better next time.

After everything we’ve been through these past six months, who couldn’t use a little grace under fire?

Don’t forget to pin this for later!  You’re going to want to revisit it!

Also, be sure to follow me on Pinterest where I’m pinning stuff like this and so much more!