What is my schedule as a WAHM?
I think it is human nature to want to take a sneak peek behind the scenes of other people’s lives and businesses. The actual nuts and bolts of how they get things done. The bare-it-all schedule as a WAHM – or maybe that is just me!
My money mentor, Denise DT recently shared in her community all the workings behind her latest launch, which totally fascinates me! I doubt I’ll ever do a launch like here’s but there were definitely snippets that I can steal and use with my own business.
So the point of this post isn’t for you to carbon copy what I do – because that would be freaky and wouldn’t work out anyway. But rather, for you to steal the bits that will work for you. maybe make a few tweaks and see how you can improve on what you’ve already got.
A couple of questions have popped up recently, which led me to today’s post on how I schedule my day as a WAHM and manage to get everything done.
How things have changed to my WAHM schedule…
As we have gone through different stages with Ebi-kun, my schedule has changed. First I had him at home all the time, then he went to yochien (kindergarten) which was kinda tricky because of his schedule.
He had random days off, and shorter days also were thrown in at random times. Start and end times changed on a regular basis too. It made it harder to get into a proper routine. Kindy was definitely the hardest stage to get through, so if you are there right now, know that it gets better!
Then he went off to elementary school, which was probably the easiest for me because the schedule was pretty set except for the odd snow/sick day.
BUT I have to admit I was far more productive when he was at kindy because I had less time to get everything done. When he was at school, I relaxed a bit and it started to take me longer to do things. Weird how that happens! From a productivity point of view, it was solid proof that a task will take as long as the time you have for it!
Then when he reached Junior High, we homeschooled, so everything changed again. The upside was that he helped out a lot more with jobs around the house. He also started bouldering but had to have an adult with him, so 2 or 3 times a week I’d be stuck in the climbing gym! It turned out to be a good time to get focused on writing.
And now he is at a hybrid high school, so he is at home twice a week and at school the other 3 days. (You can read about N-school here). My schedule has changed again and I’ve found I’m far more productive on certain days compared to others.
Have A Solid Routine To Get More Out Of Your Day
What I have found that works best for my schedule as a WAHM is to have a combo of “set in stone” routines and the flexibility for other stuff. This is how a typical day goes…
My husband leaves before 6.00 am so I don’t really see him in the morning.
6.00 am: Get up, get dressed, and make coffee. I’ve been working on a consistent journalling habit so I do that as soon as I am up.
Ebi-kun fixes his own breakfast most mornings! Put on the laundry if we have some, and the weather is nice, we air dry so laundry basically depends on the weather.
6:30 am: I usually enjoy my coffee along with a quick check of my email – I don’t reply to anything just add anything that needs attention immediately to the Google tasks app so that I can get on it when I start work. Then 15 minutes being on Instagram.
7:00 am: Wash the dishes and do the housework for the day, I have a schedule of what to do on each day. I have found that it works best for me to break it down and do a bit each day.
Getting the house under control was a MASSIVE change to being able to keep up with everything, I hate cleaning but it really is a no brainer these days.
We do that together and split the jobs so we can get it finished faster. Hang out the laundry.
8:00 am: On school days Ebi-kun leaves at 8 am so I generally finish off anything that needs doing and then I settle down to work. I don’t usually eat breakfast early so I’ll stop for something to eat around 10 am and if the weather is nice, sit outside and eat it.
The set-in-stone tasks
I have some tasks that are blocked into my schedule that I do on the same day each week. They are:
- Live call with the Wonder Moms Monday morning.
- Accountability call with my long time biz bestie every second Monday.
- Social media planning Monday afternoon
- Tuesday is blocked as my blogging/writing/creative time
- Wednesday morning SPARK mastermind group call
- Thursday evening SPARK mastermind group call
- Friday morning Accounts/tracking/website updates
- Lunch every day at 12 pm
They are my set in stone tasks. I rarely swap them around and having them set in stone means I never ‘forget’ to do whatever it is. I also block these times off in my schedule so clients can’t book in and disrupt my flow.
How Being Flexible Helps To Get More Out Of The Day
I like to have the flexibility to work on what I want when I am in the mood for it. Doing a brain dump each evening and having my accountability buddy and running the SPARK mastermind means that I am constantly checking in to see that I am on track with my goals.
I then use my goal planner to decide what to work on during the day. I love being able to mix it up. Sometimes I’ll be recording a tutorial for Wonder Moms and other times it’ll be research about dodos or something equally obscure for a 193 Little Adventures pack.
I try to wrap up for the day at 4 pm. This gives me time to get outside and get some fresh air, or run errands.
5.00 pm Start prepping for dinner, Ebi-kun cooks sometimes either on his own or we do it together. On days when I know I’m super busy or have a lot of client calls I tend to prepare something early and throw it in the instant pot (read here how I do all that).
6.00 pm: Eat dinner, clean up, chat with my mom on Facetime or watch a Netflix or Masterclass show. Some evenings Ebi-kun will play online with friends. My husband usually gets home around this time, it’s a bit hit or miss if we get to sit and eat together.
Self-imposed rules
I made it a rule not to work in the evenings after dinner and I only break that if I’m launching (always lots more to do then) or if an emergency arises.
Giving myself these boundaries means that I now use the evening for my own thing. That said, I am human and do sometimes fall into the pit of no return AKA Facebook scrolling! When Ebi-kun was a toddler I had to do more in the evenings because trying to get anything done with a toddler around always takes twice as long!
I try not to work at weekends but it’s not a set in stone rule. Sometimes work has piled up and I know I would feel better if I did a couple of hours and got it off my plate or if there is a tech issue that needs dealing with then I will hop online.
I usually get Sunday mornings to myself so I tend to use that for self-development or learning new skills, I always have some kind of course or training on the go!
And that is basically that, if you work at home you have to be fairly strict with yourself and set specific work time and home time otherwise you just never get anything done.
Have A Specific Work Space To Get More Done
Having a specific workspace helps me get into work mode, once I sit down, housework and anything else is put aside. I think that was the hardest thing to start with, getting distracted by housework!
I don’t have a home office but I do have a desk and a beautiful Pipersong chair (check the review here) so when I sit there, my mind switches over to work mode. But even if you don’t have a home office there are some tricks you can try to do the same thing, read them here.
I also feel that if I know I only have 2 hours to do something then I turn off all distractions and get stuck into it. Those days when I don’t have a proper plan are the ones that I whittle away posting stupid videos on Facebook and not getting anything productive done!
What I have found, after a LOT of trial and error is to have some, pretty much set in stone routines and the rest is flexi-time to fit around the day as I need it to.
And you need to be able to change your routine to fit the new routine as your kid’s needs change, that can be challenging when you feel like you have just found your stride then the school holidays happen!
What I recommend for your schedule as a WAHM…
Think about the tasks that you need to do on a weekly/daily basis. Lock them into your schedule.
Set up a solid routine, at least for part of the day, this will help you be more time-efficient and make it easier to stay on track as you will find yourself in auto-mode.
Be savvy when it comes to getting your work done. Schedule work that needs your full concentration when you have the most time without interruptions.
Block similar jobs together.
Have a list of jobs you can do when you are “on the go” – scheduling social media posts, being present online, replying to quick emails – the sort of thing you can do on your phone when your kids are busy playing in the park.
Set your own boundaries. Being your own boss is great but not if you work yourself ragged. You have to have some downtime too. If that means scheduling downtime in, do it!
Remember that this situation is not for forever, it feels like it, especially when the kids are toddlers but they soon grow up and it does get easier. But it is easy to forget that when you are having a tough day!
If you want to know what our day looked like with toddler here is my daily routine of a Montessori toddler post.