We all make schedules and try to maintain them, all the time,But as a stay at home mom stuff keeps coming up and we have to start all over again. There are endless ways to create stay at home mom routines and schedules, but keeping a schedule or routine is no less of a challenge, so,today I am not going to talk about How to make a stay at home mom schedule or routine. Rather, I will share with you some very simple yet powerful things that always help me maintain a schedule or routine that I create.
First of all keep few things in mind mama, before we move to the real matter:
Being a stay at home mom doesn't mean you don't need a schedule or routine.
Routines keep changing so be flexible with your routines and schedules because this is life.
Don't give up. Try to find out what works for you, and just don't expect perfect routines from yourself, because no one is perfect and no routine or schedule is perfect or set in stone.
Okay, now keeping these points in mind, I would love to share with other mamas a few things that have always helped me keep a stay at home schedule, no matter how flexible or tight schedule I am going through, if I am persistent in doing these small things, I can happily keep up with my responsibilities as a homemaker and a mom. Let's begin
1. Stay Hydrated:
This one is being said all the times, and i can't emphasize it enough.
When you are well Hydrated, you are active,alert and energetic. Our brain cells plump up and connect well with each other when we are well hydrated, and thus we are more alert as a result. Water is life, more than half of our body weight is water, remember this.
I know it's not possible as a mom to keep track of every time you drink water or if you are drinking enough water, and often we forget to drink water and lose connection with our own bodies and don't feel like we are thirsty. Yes, this is what happens when we, as moms whether working outside or stay at home, become so engrossed in our busy routines that we forget our needs even as basic as drinking enough water.
If despite knowing all the benefits of drinking water and harms of not drinking enough, you can't get into a habit of drinking water often, try to take it slow and mindfully. Feel every sip.
Here, let's practice. Pause here and put your phone down and go get yourself a glass of water, drink it slowly, sip by sip and feel every sip and say Alhamdulillah, trust me, you are gonna feel alive instantly. Okay I will join you in this practice and am going to get myself a glass of water. See you ☺️
Okay, i am back. Did you drink a glass of water? Ok welldone mama :)
How are you feeling, you must be feeling good. I have noticed that whenever i drink water mindfully, feeling every sip, i feel energetic and alert instantaneously.
This is even more important if you are breastfeeding because your body needs water inorder to make milk. So every time you feed your baby, mke sure to keep water at hand and rehydrate youself afterwards. This can be called habit stacking which we will discuss in the next point.
2.stack over something already happening and create time blocks around it:
This one is really the first one for me to get back on the stay at home mom schedule track because I keep making schedules and routines and they keep stop working after sometime so I have to change😂
But, this is life and being a stay at home or work at home mom doesn't mean we don't need schedues, rather we need them as well.
So I keep trying.
Well, how do i do life stacking (i am not good at it but i am trying to.)
I stack the stuff that needs to be done over what is inevitable to happen.
You can look at your day to notice a pattern and what things do happen automatically or have already become your nature
For me one of the biggest inevitables is
the 5 prayer times
I consider the time between them, my 5 blocks of day because when we look at the whole day ahead, it seems overwhelming but when we divide it in times or blocks they begin to seem manageable.
Now I have to pray 5 times; what helps me to maintain my schedule is, I plan some of the tasks around the prayer times, ie. Before or after a prayer.
So it would look something like this
Things I will do between fajr and zuhr, zuhr and asr and so forth.
I like to drink water when I come out of bathroom after making ablution so this one very important thing (drinking enough water) is taken care of, throughout the day
Now picture this to clearly understand this, i have to pray asr for instance, so I go and make ablution and once I come back to pray, I will drink a glass or two, of water
Now it has become almost a mindless act and of course easy (but I try to be mindful while drinking water :)
The habit of hydrating yourself while breastfeeding your baby or rehydtrating your body afterwards comes under this life stacking or habit stacking practice, because breastfeeding is inevitable, you have to feed your baby and when you stack a habit of drinking water over something that's already happenign then the new habit becomes easier to continue.
If you are not breastfeeding, don't worry. Just drink water whenever you give formula to your baby☺️
3. powernap:
This is something I would regularly do before I got married and even during my first year of marriage, and it was really helpful in keeping me energetic throughout the day. Then I stopped practicing 20 minuter power naps and my sleep quality kept declining.
A 20 minute nap might sound insignificant or useless to a stay at home mom but once you try it and get a hang of these amazingly powerful 20 minute naps, you will understand why are they called power naps. And trust me I have experience with these naps both during my studies and my homemaking journey and this powernap practice never failed me.
What I do is, I set my timer for 20 minuters and just lie down where ever I feel like, and even if I can't sleep during this time, I atleast get some rest which is better than nothing. We, as stay at home moms don't consider naps and rest during the day, an important part of our days, we think we can complete some chores during this time but trust me, the quality of chores finished while you are exhausted varies greatly from the quality and speed of chores you do after, even a short break.
And once you start doing these 20 minute power naps once or twice a day, you will not only begin to fall asleep during this short period but also wakeup easily when your timer goes off. And you wakeup fresh and reenergized trust me. When I regularly take power naps, I wakeup feeling as fresh as I do after a night long sleep. This is no exaggeration. Try for yourself ;)
4.A place for everthing you have:
This one is always repeated whenever there is a discussion about cleaning a house and keeping it clean and yes, it deserves to be.
When there is a home for everything in your house and everything is returned to it's home after use,then your house really becomes a home; clean and peaceful where no one has to struggle to find nail clippers or keys or any important documents.
Image about a place for everything and everything in its place
The things that are frequently used, put them where they can be easily seen and can be easily used and put back. And things that are not frequently needed, put them away and out of sight. For instance,set a place for keys and shoe rack near the exit door.
Be desciplined yourself mama, being a stay at home mom doesn't set us free of descipline and rules, rather it's even more important for stay at home moms to be desciplined in order to stay productive and lively. Because you are not working outside where you are accountable to someone else, rather you are your own boss and you are responsible for everything and please remember whatever you will do, kids will learn from your and thus follow in your practices.
So, give everything a home inside your home and see the difference in the cleanliness of your lovely place.
5. A system for every thing you do:
Just like setting a place for everything you own, there must be a system for everything you do. Don't feel overwhelmed when you read the word systems as if you have to do something formal😅, rather all of us moms already have many systems in place without even realizing. How so? 🤔
How do you manage your dishes? Do you wash immediately after meals or do you do them at the end of the day?
How and when do you take out trash and change trash can bags?
How do you deal with leftovers? Do you donate them the next day or do you use them in other recipes?
Think about these for a minute please,
Well, these are all 'your' systems mama. See, you already have many systems in place. 😍
So in simple words, a system means knowing exactly how to do a certain task and doing it the same way every time.
For the rest of the chores and stuff that seems overwhelming, you can set systems one by one and make your life easier as a stay at home mom.
For instance, for documents,keep a binder or a folder and teach your family that every time documents are used or new documents are brought home,they need to go in the document binder.
Set a system for laundry, whatever works for you is right, if a load a day is easy for you then go fo it.if you like to manage your laundray some other way, go for it, Just be consistent.
Make systems for cleaning, cooking, storing food etc.but obviously one by one. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to create systems for everything at the same time.
6. even breastfeeding:
Yes, breastfeeding also needs a system,. because it is bit of a challenge for new moms to get hang of it and when you are doing it correctly, your baby will be content and happy and a happy baby will let you pay attention to other things as well, otherwise we all know the challenges of breastfeeding.
Okay, we can't learn this in a day, we learn overtime what works for us and what doesn't. So what ever works for you, be consistent with it.
Keep your diet healthy, this will keep your digestive system healthy and thus your baby's digestive system healthy as well and through experience we know how much this is important for peace of mind.
Rehydrate yourself while breastfeeding and once you are done.
All of us are different, all babies are different too. Make note of what works for you and your baby, then be consistent with it and of course stay open to changes because systems need not to be rigid, life is changing and we must be open to changes.
7. Self care:
When I say self care, I mean taking good care of our outerselves and our appearance, and our inner self which includes nutritious diet and a healthy soul as well.
As stay at homs, our schedules and routines become so overwhelming that more than often, we either forget our own selves or we ignore ourselves deliberately because in this way, we think, we are cutting a few more tasks from our to do lists.
But no, we are wrong in this regard. We are,as stay at home moms, even more in need of strong body and happy heart, because life can get more monotonous easily while staying at home.
You might have heard what Abraham Licoln once said:
Give me six hours for chopping down a tree and I will spend first four, sharpening the axe.
So our mind and.body, are our tools of action as stay at home moms and the quality of work is greatly determined by the quality of tools that we have maintained, you can take this one as my quote ☺️
How can an artist paint a great work of art with brushes that are not taken good care of?
Think about it mama, you as a stay at home mom deserve no less care than any one else.
And you must have heard about filling your cup first, so how can we share and keep sharing from our empty cups. I am getting a little bit emotional here :) so, emptions aside, i have experienced that whenever I take care of my self, both my appearance and hygiene; and my diet and my spiritual health, I feel more energetic, active and content with my life amd I take less time to do many tasks.
So just take a few minutes in the morning to make yourself presentable, comb your hair, moisturize your face and lips and change your clothes.
And wash and moisturize your face at night.
As for your inner self try to cook healthy and eat enough, eat moderately from all food groups, this can actually help you get a healthy weight whether your are overweight or underweight.
And also take care of your spiritual health, pray on time and try to stay connected to Allah, This one is a non negotiable for me, whenever I get lazy in this one, my life turns upside down and my days and nights are chaotic.
8. Clean as you go and spot cleaning:
I can't emphasize this one enough, as a stay at home mom, it seems like we can do any thing anytime we want to, but this is not always possible, especially with babies and toddlers, sometimes we can't do big, time consuming tasks,no matter how much we try, so the solution to this problem is try to keep your house clean, once you are done cleaning.
Put everything back once used.
Try to do spot cleaning, if there are some spots or the floors and other surfaces get sticky or dirty,clean them quickly with a wet cloth or a wet wipe. (Cloth is reusable and eco friendly :))
Keep your house presentable by quickly putting things away to their respective places.
9. Healthy Snacks:
Who can relate to 'half the time and double the hunger' better than moms who are so busy with their households that they often don't pay attention to their bodies' cries for food and water. And stay at home moms are no different. Some people think that stay at home moms have enough time to rest, eat and chill as they wish but we are no different to other busy people, rather we have no boundaries between on work and off work times, because we are always on duty as stay at home moms, that more than often our own rest, wellbeing and basic needs are neglected by us. But this should not be the case, we have to keep our energy levels high as stay at home moms because we have the longest working hours. And one great thing that has helped moms always to keep their energy high is ' healthy snacks'
When I say healthy snacks, i mean anything that's quick to grab and eat but is still nutritious so when choosing snack for your daily energy boosts as stay at home mama, please choose snacks low in salt and sugar.
Stay away from energy bars as many energy bars claim to be healthy yet contain 25_40% sugar.
They just contain lot of sugar to give a short lived enerdgy boost.
Instead of these short lived snacks, choose wholsome and healty ones as nuts, fresh and dried fruits and vegetables.
Nuts and dried fruits are my number one favourite, they are the quickest snacks and most delicious yet nutritious snacks.
Keep a jar full of mixed nuts and dried fruits in your reach and eat from it whenever you feel low on energy.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are my next favourite, whatever fruits and vegetables
Are available and in season. Grab one and eat as it is. (Wash thoroughly first:)
Other favourites of mine are; honey on a wheat biscuit, bread and butter.
I also make a quick stove top granola with mixed nuts,raisins and lots of oats whenever I have time and eat it with yogurt for a quick boost of energy.
Just remember to drink enough water along with your snacks, whenever you feel you are tired, take a break for a snack, and also drink a glass of water and thus you will easily stay hydrated without having to remember to drink enough water throughout the day.
10. Make a to-do List Everyday:
As moms, we already have a lot of burden on our minds and trying to remember every single thing we have to do ever day, only adds to it. We as moms whether stay at home or not, must avail things that make our lives easier and give us peace of mind and heart.
A simple to do list is definitely one of those things that take a lot of burden off our minds.
Make a to-do list every day, whether at the start of the day or before going to bed, whatever way suits you. (See,another system ;))
To-do lists not only help us to stay on track but also give a sense of accomplishment, that we can actually see when we mark a task as done. This gives us a dopamine boost to keep moving. Because as stay at home moms, we sometimes feel unappreciated or underappreciated. And this small habit of marking off tasks we have finished, is a pat on our back,and we are seriously in need of these small appreciations to keep going.
So do yourself a favor mama, make a simple to-do list every day. Write everything that you need to do and also things that come up during the day and don't forget to mark off what's done, you deserve a sense of accomplishment because being a mom and a homemaker is no less of a job.
You can make weekly, monthly, seasonal or yearly to-do lists or lists dedicated to tasks related to a specific area of the house like a kitchen to-do list or a bathroom to-do list etc. But if you don't have this habit yet, just start with a daily to-do list and stick to this habit. You will thank me;)
Okay, we talked a lot today,
Now Let's incorporate these small yet poweful habits in our days mama, to stay happy and healthy as stay at home moms.
Just try to practice one step a day,
Starting from now, today, just try to stay hydrated,
Just don't overwhelm youself by trying to do everything everyday rather slowly incorporate these simple yet very effective steps in your stay at home mom sechedule and love your life as a mom.
That's all for now, Thanks for reading. What tips do you have to share with us, don't hesitate to share in the comments section.
Peace,
Umekulsoom