The Step by Step Guide to Creating a Daily Routine

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If you’re a busy girl like me, you have several things you want to accomplish each day, but it can seem impossible to get everything done. Maybe you’ve even tried to plan, schedule, and organize your life, but find it difficult to still feel unaccomplished by the end of the day. As a mom in college, I have learned a few tricks to keeping my days organized and focused. I am by no means perfect at it, (who is??) but perfection is NOT the goal. The goal is live intentionally, and to end every day feeling like you accomplished what you purposed to do.

To do this, I find it extremely helpful to have a daily routine. Routines reduce the time it takes to decide what you’re going to do each day, so you have time to just do it. Creating a routine is a helpful way for you to access what is important to you, and what you need to do each day to make it feel like a win.

Routines don’t have to be rigid. The best routines are flexible, and that adjust to your needs, not the other way around. Think of them as a the overarching theme or blueprint for the day.

Ready to create your own routine? Here’s my step by step guide:

1. Make a List of Your Time-Dependent Tasks

Start by making a list of time-dependent parts of your day. These are the things that take up a lot of your day, and are already scheduled into your week. Items might include work, school, other classes, and church or community commitments that occur regularly. Basically anything that is on a fixed schedule or is on someone else’s time. On my list I have:

• Health Class- MWF 10:20-11:10am
• Spanish Class- MWF 11:30am-12:20pm
• Program Planning Class- T/TH 9:45am-11:00am
• Composition Class- Th 6:00pm-8:00pm
• Writing 2-4pm Weekdays

2. Make a List of Your Life Management Tasks

So outside of your commitments like school and work, make a list of the daily tasks that facilitate your life. This list would include things like cleaning the house, making meals, home projects, and things pertaining to school or work, like emails, admin tasks, studying, etc. Unlike you time-dependent tasks, these can be organized to fit the flow of your day (which we will do later). For now, just write those tasks out. Mine include:

• Meal prep
• Make dinner
• Cleaning
• Taking care of the baby!
• Homework
• Social Media planning

3. Make a List of Your Personal Goals

What do you want to accomplish during the day outside of work and family commitments? I have goals pertaining to my health, wellness, and creativity. Think of the things that round out your life, or that will help you reach a personal goal. Don’t try to choose too many things, but pick a couple of activities that will contribute to your overall well being. If you aren’t sure where to start, think of two or three overarching goals– like physical and mental health, or a strengthened relationship with God, or a outlet for creativity. Then, think of specific ways you could inch toward those goals each day, like spending 20 minutes in the bible, doing a morning workout, or drawing, reading, or being creative in the evening. My list includes:

• Bible study time
• Workout
• Reading
• Skin Care

4. Make Systems Where You Can

What can you schedule for the week to make it more efficient? For example, I use the clean mama calendar to as a cleaning routine. Each day, I complete the list of daily chores like making beds and wiping surfaces, plus a weekly task like cleaning bathrooms or vacuuming the house. This schedule can be adapted to meet your own needs or you can make your own! Make a list of the chores you need to accomplish daily, weekly, and monthly. Assign the weekly chores to a specific day of the week so each day you know exactly what you need to accomplish.

Another task I have a system for is meals. Each weekend, usually Sunday, I make a list of 3-4 dinner ideas and prepare my grocery list. I’ll then shop for all the items I need, and prepare some of the food the same day. I don’t prep full meals, but I will cut all my veggies and put them into separate containers, and prepare a large salad that I can eat during the week. I do this to make it easier for me to choose a healthy option even when I don’t have time to prepare food.

Systems like these can help your life run more smoothly. Think of what tasks you could use a system for and build them into your routine.

5. Create a Morning and/or Evening Routine

Before we make our whole schedule, see if you can group certain tasks into a morning or evening routine. This way you have an expectation of what you need to accomplish first thing in the morning, and at night before bed, so that you feel like you met your goals. Some ideas for your morning routine include you personal health and wellness tasks, getting yourself and possibly kids ready for the day, and creating a to do list. For example, my morning routine consists of:

• Bible Study Time
• Make to-do list for the day
• Get the baby up, changed, fed
• Complete a workout
• Make BreakfastShower, get ready for the day

As you can see, I put all of my personal accomplishments first, so I feel centered and ready to tackle the rest of the day. Next, make an evening routine. An evening routine can be as short as what the list of things you do before bed, like unwind, wash your face, and read, or (like mine) can include everything from dinner to bedtime.

• Make dinner
• Do dishes and start the dishwasher
• Time with Tim
• Review homework for the next day
• Get baby ready for bed
• Evening skin care
• Read
• Sleep

Looking for ideas for your morning routine? Subscribe to my email list to receive a free morning routine checklist!

6. Put it All in a Schedule

After figuring out your commitments, put them all together in a schedule! There are a few different ways to do this. First, decide if you want to use a paper or digital planner. Input all your non-negotiables from the first list, with specific times if applicable. Next, input your morning and evening routines. Everything that is not part of those routines is put into the rest of your day. It is up to you if you want to set specific times to do these tasks. Some people find that setting each task to a specific time of day, helps them stick to it. If you have a fairly predictable schedule, this might work well for you.

My schedule is not as predictable since I have a baby, so instead of tracking tasks by time slots, I just put them into the order I want to do them during the day. For example, i write out my morning and evening routines in the order I will complete each task. Then I fill in class times or study times (these are the only things that are time-specific). Then, I fill in any other tasks I need to complete, such as cleaning, taking care of the baby, errands, writing, etc.

Here is an sample schedule:

MORNING ROUTINE

• Bible Study Time
• Get the baby up, changed, fed,
• Complete a workout,
• Make Breakfast
• Shower, get ready for the day

• Class
• Chores
• Lunch
• Study
• Blog work

EVENING ROUTINE

• Make dinner
• Do dishes and start the dishwasher
• Time with Tim
• Breakfast prep
• Get baby ready for bed
• Evening skin care
• Read
• Sleep

This is just a template for the day. Each day will have unique tasks, errands, or classes. You can create a schedule for each day of the week, and work your own routines into the mix.

Reminders:

• Don’t try to pack too much into the day. It’s better for you to have a couple of main priorities instead of trying to pile as many things as possible into your day
• Know when to take breaks. Some days you’re going to wake up tired, frustrated, or just burdened. Emotions play a big part in what we are able to achieve in a day. Know that it’s ok to say, “I need to take it slow today” and do just that.
• BE FLEXIBLE. This is possibly the most important reminder. BUT you can’t be flexible if you don’t have something to base your adjustments off of, which is why you need a routine.
• Allow God to direct exactly what you need to get done that day. You may wake up with every intention of deep cleaning the house, doing projects and getting work done, but if you spend the day holding the baby, or talking with a friend who need help DON’T consider the day a failure. It’s good for us to have plans and vision, but let God redirect you as He will.

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