Each new season it’s important for me to evaluate what my priorities are, how my routines are working, and what I need to change. As I head into the fall, I can sense that there are several big areas that I want to revamp. Join me as I take some great advice from my friend Brittany and share what I’m working on for this year:

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Think through those big priorities for your day 

1. Our new homeschool routine.
2. For September it will be our conference
3. Making sure I am sticking to our grocery budget and meal planning efficiently
4. Carving out time for Jason and I to talk, and most importantly right now, have some fun together!
5. Better routines overall: meal planning and grocery budget and especially my spiritual disciplines 

Does your schedule reflect your priorities? 

This is something that both Jason and I have been trying to work on this Summer. I honestly feel like I’ve been in some sort of survival mode for about 3.5 years now. 3.5 years ago I was pregnant with our second set of twins and our first set were 2. Then we had them, then when life was calming down and they were 9 months old, we found out we were pregnant with Magnolia. She was born in January 2017 and once life started settling down as she got older, I had some challenging health issues with my hormones and chronic fatigue. As I am now coming out of about a year of figuring out my health issues, I’m starting to feel like I can jump back into things again! 

So I’m excited as I face the Fall. I need to remember to add things in slowly, very slowly. Because my personality is the type to want to jump in with a whole new schedule with every second blocked out and allotted, but I know that isn’t realistic or practical. 

So while there are many things I want to revamp, I need to start slow. So the first thing we want to change immediately is bringing back a better morning routine. So to achieve this, we need a better evening routine. For us, they go hand in hand! So Jason and I are both working on these two changes to help everything else! 

What am I wasting time on now? 

Honestly, my biggest waste of time right now is just not being intentional. Letting the nighttime hours slip by, then it’s too late, then I can’t get up early, etc. I am letting my schedule happen to me instead of scheduling it. Now of course, especially with little kids, I can’t schedule everything and a lot of what I do can change at the drop of the hat. 

Is there a disconnect between what you want your priorities to be and what they actually are? 

During the actual conference, the next thing that Brittany does is show you on screen how to actually build those priorities into a manageable schedule which is really cool! But we don’t have time to share that part on the podcast today. So let’s move to the next topic which is her second deep dive session on how to deal with distractions when planning your priorities and routines. 

Dealing with Distractions 

Leave plenty of margin! I use to over schedule down to the minute or 15 minute blocks and it use to work reasonably well for me. But now with kids, that simply does’t work anymore! Good advice to leave margin and plenty of white space. 

Leaving room for joy and spontaneity

This might be my favorite suggestion yet! I am a scheduler and a go go go person. And while raising my kids, part of this can be good and organized and other times I need to be flexible and joy filled as I raise them. We try to leave open blocks of time throughout our day and week where we can have a picnic on the lawn, enjoying an evening at the park while we eat dinner, etc. 

I want to make sure I’m being intentional about this throughout the week! 

Brittany then goes on in the rest of session #2 to discuss specific obstacles for time: kids interrupting, oversleeping, social media distractions, being tired and unmotivated and more. I love how she addresses each specific problem with practical advice!