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A Daily Routine for Work at Home Moms

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Finding a daily routine as a work at home mom sounds easy… until you actually try to create a schedule that works for you, your clients, and your family. Ouch!

Struggling to find a daily routine as a work at home mom?

But, without a daily routine, you might find something is falling through the cracks. You are striving to balance your time between family, home, and work but maybe the laundryย isย piling up.

And believe me… I can only talk about this because it is an area where I struggle.

Normally, I do not work in bed but today is the last day of Christmas break and I needed to retreat from my children to concentrate. Unfortunately… this is my view.

Struggling to find a daily routine as a work at home mom?

Time to get back into the groove because having a routine system in place helps me get everything else done.

Otherwise… I am lost. In a funk. Completely distracted. Useless.

Tips for creating a daily routine

Find time to take care of you.

I spent a lot of time researching successful people last year and the one factor each of these people had in common was that they exercised each day. (Don’t believe me? Read What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home as an example.)

This is SUPER hard for me. I tend to put myself off until last place. Anyone else?

Have set office hours.

I haveย a clearly defined set of hours dedicated to working my business as well as times when I should be doing chores around the house or spending time with the family. This is easier now that my children are in school but was a disciplineย I still practiced when I was homeschooling. (Read A Day in the Life of a Work at Home Homeschooling Mom.)

Use your most productive time of day for your most important tasks.

There are times within your day when you are naturally more productive than others. Your focus is clearer (although you still might be easily distracted) and working seems to take less effort. These are the moments you should seize to do your best work.

Struggling to find a daily routine as a work at home mom?

Stack your daily schedule based on your peak time and do yourย most important business tasks during that time. For instance, if you are a blogging and you work best at night, you would write your blog post content during those evening hours.

Do the things you HATE first.

Whether within the time I have set for business or home, I always tackle the chores I hate to do first. I learned this trick reading the book, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. By doing the items you dread before everything else, you feel relieved and can get more done during the rest of your allotted time.

Create systems that work.

The systems concept is based on patterns and habits and schedules. When you merge them all together, you have a refined system that can help you track and build your business without wasting a ton of time.

I have systems for home management and business:

  • All bills set to auto-payย with the company or set up with bill-pay at our bank so nothing is ever late and our budget remains intact.
  • Grocery shopping is done each Monday morning after dropping the kids at school. Anything needed prior to the weekend (like more milk) is picked up by my husband on Friday afternoon after picking the kids up from school.
  • My social media for business is scheduled on Sunday eveningsย using tools like Post Plannerย and Tailwind.
  • The dishwasher MUST be unloaded in the morning so it can be reloaded throughout the day, and the kitchen must be clean before I go to bed at night.

Routines. Habits. Essentially so I can exist on auto-pilot.

Eliminate the time-sucks.

Facebook attracts me like a bee to honey. I can spend an hour scrolling through memes and videos and groups. So, I have to stay off Facebook as much as possible.

If you have the same problem with time sucks in your daily schedule (phone calls, text messages, social media, television…), TURN IT OFF.

We disconnected our home phone because the only people who ever called our home line were wrong numbers and telemarketers. The insistent ringing throughout the day was a HUGE distraction for me.

I cannot turn on the television during the day ever because if I do, a Chip and JoJo marathon will be on and I will be drawn to watch them renovate home after home.

Whatever your personal nuance is… get control of it before it gets control of you.

Divide and conquer.

Building a team is one of the smartest things a work from home mom can ever do. Whether it is employing your children or just giving them chores, your family can be a tremendous support. But also consider outside your family.

I employ several virtual assistants, ladies who also work from home and help me manage the different aspects of my business. One of the ladies lives in a foreign country where the minimum wage is under $3 per hour. So, I can afford to pay her enough to bring a significant increase to her standard of living without blowing my budget.

Work toward 100% focus.

Regardless of which hat you are wearing at any given time of the day, try to focus on that task 100%.

When I am with my husband, I want to be focused 100% on him. When I am with my children, I want my focus to be them. And when I am working on my business, I need to be focused there.

Is that always possible? Heck no. Distractions are constant. But always be striving for 100%.

My Daily Routine as a Work at Home Mom

Prior to 8 AM

Each weekday starts with cooking breakfast for the children, packing lunches, unloading the dishwasher, changing out the laundry, and hustling the children to school… all before 8 AM.

Struggling to find a daily routine as a work at home mom?

8 AM until 10 AM

When I get home from dropping the kids at school, I exercise by going for a walk. Immediately. Before I even walk back into the house.

I am totally serious. If I let my body cross the threshold, I will not walk. I will turn on the television and binge an hour away. Strange how much that one thing can change my entire day.

On days when I cannot walk due to weather or arthritis, I do yoga with free videos on YouTube.

Except on Wednesdays… Wednesdays are very special because I have a mastermind meeting with other work from home moms every other week and coaching calls on opposite weeks.

10 AM until 3:30 PM

My time is divided among my different websites and the tasks associated with each. If I do not divide my work time, I seem to lose direction or my brain becomes overwhelmed with everything on my to do list. I have to assign certain times to important tasks.

I spill my brain on to paper in order to help focus and then assign those needs based on priority to the time allotted during my day. The Blog Success Planner actually helps me stay on track tremendously. I really do not know why I attempted to work my business without a comprehensive blogging planner for so long.

3:30 PM until Bed

After work hours, I have to make myself walk away fromย the laptop. I even have to leave my phone in our bedroom. Because I am a workaholic and will continue to click and tap and drive myself bonkers, completely neglecting my family and other duties.

So, to help me with my 100% focus, I have to not only choose the times I work but also define the areas of our home where I can work.

Finding your daily routine

A work-life balance is not easy and every work at home mom will have a completely different schedule. You cannot mimic mine as it will not work for you. But, be persistent. Start with an outline of your day and refine it as you work to bring harmony between all the aspects and needs in your life.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: balance, Work from Home

About Tabitha

Hi! I'm Tabitha! But, I bet you expected someone named "Penny." Long story made short, Penny is the coupon binder I started in 2010 when we were totally broke... as in BANKRUPT. Now, as a mom of five, I make 6-figures a year working at home and share ways to help you move from penny to profit while you raise a family with sense on cents.

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Comments

  1. The Teacher's Wife says

    January 6, 2016 at 9:33 am

    I loved this post! I agree with every point, but also enjoyed a little glimpse into your schedule. I always have a to-do list, but have been working on turning that list into time blocks so I can actually get it all done! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Meet Penny says

      January 6, 2016 at 1:10 pm

      A to-do list is a mighty thing. I actually keep a brain-dump notebook and build my to-do list from there. There is a page for brain dumping in the Blog Success Planner but I needed more than a page.

      Reply
  2. April Bauman says

    January 6, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Love this! I work from home but my time line is all over the place and I get sucked into time wasters so often! Thank you for sharing this!! Time to put a routine in place!

    Reply
    • Meet Penny says

      January 6, 2016 at 1:08 pm

      It helps SO MUCH! And having designated times within my work hours for certain tasks helps me stop thinking, “I know I need to do something but don’t know what.”

      Reply
  3. Candace Wells says

    March 6, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    Thank you for this article! Working from home can be difficult if you don’t have a routine. I like the point about doing what I hate first because if I don’t, it just might not get done.

    Reply
  4. Samantha Roberts says

    August 29, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    What great ideas! Thanks so much. I am trying to get myself together and your suggestions will really help me. I stay at home with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old, while trying to start a blog website and get my on-again-off-again Etsy shop back up and running. I would really like to help contribute our finances to become debt free, but I have been having a hard time switching hats with these little ones. My biggest problem is not being able to stick to the schedule that I make. I think I need more determination to get things done. I eventually want to build up enough of an income to justify staying home once they go to school. That is my prayer.

    Reply
  5. Beth Almeida says

    October 31, 2016 at 1:34 am

    Oh! Please help me! I was an editor, which was a perfect stat at home job, but when our son was born, I sort of dropped the ball. Getting back in there once you’re out is super hard. I needed something to do from home to supplement my husband’s income.
    I’m not trying to get rich, I just don’t want there to be so much tension every time we go grocery shopping. Any ideas would be great but I will warn you that I have not one creative bone in my body when it comes to making things. Give me words or possibly customer service and I am great.

    Reply
  6. Danielle says

    February 24, 2017 at 1:48 pm

    I just recently started working from home and your schedule has helped me a lot with planning my day. I would love to join the mastermind meeting with other work from home moms that you are apart of! I didn’t even know they had such thing.

    Reply
  7. Meghan says

    January 25, 2018 at 8:04 am

    Hi! I am really loving this blog. I am wondering what you do on Saturdays? Just family day? Do you give yourself permission to check into social media? Any work?

    Reply
    • Tabitha says

      January 25, 2018 at 11:14 am

      Hey there, Meghan! When I was homeschooling, I tried to take Saturdays off but ended up working most Sundays during the evening (6 pm – 8 pm). Now that the children are in private school, I take the entire weekend off unless there is a special event that I need to attend. If I check my social media, I do it from my phone. It was hard at first to limit myself but now I find the weekends are amazing and I think about work less.

      Reply
  8. Maria says

    October 20, 2018 at 11:05 am

    I love your blog post, it’s just what I needed at this point in my life. I was just wondering if you’d mind sharing where you sourced your virtual assistants from? I run a horse business while also trying to maintain some semblence of a normal life with my 4 year old son and my husband who is gone most of the year commercial fishing so any info would be much appreciated.

    Reply
  9. Beth Berss says

    January 6, 2019 at 5:42 pm

    love this!! very helpful. thanks

    Reply
  10. Beth Berss says

    January 6, 2019 at 5:43 pm

    oh! I don’t do much (any) housework or cooking during winter break so laundry is also a mountain here right about now! so I get that

    Reply
  11. King says

    August 26, 2021 at 12:31 pm

    Hey there, very awesome content thank you for sharing! I came across this article and thought it was a great read.

    Reply
  12. Hannah says

    March 8, 2022 at 6:22 am

    Thank you for sharing these tips! I wish I had read this earlier. I have experience combining motherhood and work at home. It was pretty uneasy.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Ultimate Guide to Stay at Home Mom Jobs | InvoiceBerry Blog says:
    May 26, 2017 at 2:36 am

    […] One example of a stay at home mom schedule. Image source […]

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  2. COCKTAILS IN TEACUPS - Home Content // Unlock Your Home Office Productivity* says:
    February 23, 2018 at 8:21 am

    […] daily schedule is torn between your clients, your family and yourself. In other words, according to Meet Penny, itโ€™s a challenge to make it work! Naturally, you need to set clear office hours as these will […]

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