I was a public school teacher before I became a Work At Home Mom and so every moment of my day was scheduled for me. Creating a perfect work at home mom schedule was once of the most challenging tasks but after a few years I have found an approach that works for me. Make sure you grab the Free Scheduling Guide at the end of this post so that you can start mapping out your ideal week.
Let’s start from the very beginning. If I’m a Work At Home Mom that means I have kids. I have two kids and currently, they are 7 and 4. One goes to school full day and the other goes to school only in the afternoon. They go to school in different buildings and neither one is eligible to take the bus. I am the mom taxi to and from school for both of them each and every day of this school year. Since they are girls, I am also responsible for morning hair styling. My husband helps them get dressed, eat breakfast, and brush their teeth and then he leaves for work and I take over.
Their school events and extracurricular activities will change throughout the year and this weekly schedule will be adjusted but here is the shell of my schedule for this school year:
If you are an Online ESL Teacher and you want to talk through my schedule in more detail in terms of Brand Contributor filming, live workshops, teaching classes, and coaching referrals here is a video just for you:
Here are the 10 Steps that I go through to make my Work At Home Mom Schedule. I’m using Google Sheets because it is free and I can make changes easily or share with anyone who I need to collaborate with.
Step One: Wake Up Time
First, I give myself a starting point when I want to wake up. If you have never read The Miracle Morning, it is fantastic and it changed what time I wake up. That book encouraged me to take some ME TIME before the family woke up and it helps me start the day with a full cup to pour from.
Everyone wakes up at a different time so standard planner pages just aren’t a good fit for me. I like to start my Google Sheet with the time that I wake up and number down both the left and right sides in half-hour time blocks.
Step Two: Bedtime
Next I decide how much sleep I need to be the best me and mark off that time at the bottom of the schedule 7 days a week. I know that I need to then back up an additional half-hour to give myself time to wind down and actually fall asleep. This is how I determine my bedtime. I take a moment and set an alarm on my phone to remind me to wind down at the right time to set me up for success the next day. The list of things I have to do at a mom is never-ending so I need this phone reminder to keep me on track.
Step Three: Exercise
I workout at home so I don’t lose travel time in my schedule but you have to find what works for you. Whether you love Yoga with Adriene, Beachbody on Demand, or love to run on your treadmill, I have to tell you that when I get in a workout and a shower before the family wakes up I am a more patient and productive mom for the entire day. It took me A LONG TIME to find a workout that worked for me, but it really is worth searching for what is the best fit.
Step Four: Email
Checking email is addressing the to-do list items of Other People. My time is precious and it is so easy to get sucked into just taking care of one email here and there and ending up distracted all day long. Think about how much time you NEED each day to handle email tasks. You likely won’t answer and sort all of them but how much time do you need daily to address the really important emails that cross your desk?
I decided to check email two times a day to make sure I was still responding in a timely manner and didn’t feel stressed about being out of the loop. I added two email blocks per day onto my schedule next.
Once a week I also have a block of time set aside to clean out my email and my desktop and photos and files. I don’t want to waste time during the week looking for things when I could just take a moment once a week to tidy up.
Step Five: Income
Earning income for my family is an important part of my role as a Work at Home Mom. I like to bank some guaranteed hourly income in the early morning through Online Teaching. If you have stable, weekly income hours then add those to your schedule next. If you have a four-year degree and are eligible to work in the US or Canada, email any time to find out if this could be a helpful part of your Work at Home Mom puzzle.
There are so many varieties of work at home job opportunities. Many of them have ups and downs. One month you might make a lot of money and then the next month or two you might have leaner profits. That is a cause of stress for so many moms that I know! For me, taking just a couple hours in the morning to teach online can alleviate a lot of stress and allow me to spend my whole day in a more present, focused, patient, and creative state.
Step Six: Childcare
Next, I compared what my children’s childcare needs were with my husband’s work schedule and we decided when I was on duty and when he was on duty.
When I am teaching a class, I need someone else to be watching my kids. When I am editing videos, writing a blog post, or coaching referrals through their hiring process I can stop and start and do this in small pockets of time when my children may be playing independently.
Look at your specific job and have a conversation as a family about how many hours of coverage you need. Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for what you need to get your job done right.
Step Seven: Alone Time With Each Child
I want to make sure I have some 1:1 Quality Time with each of my daughters each week so I looked for a time slot for that next. Sometimes that’s an outing that they choose and other times it may just be a quiet car ride where we can really talk about how life is going. I treasure these times and I know they mean the world to my kids. It will only happen if I schedule it.
Step Eight: Family Time
I blocked off time for us to spend as a family of four and wrote myself a reminder to be Phone Free so I can really be present with my family. If I am on my phone, my kids think I am working, when really I am available to be invited into their game and they just don’t know. Being phone free is hard but it sends an important message to my kids and is something I am working hard on this school year. If I’ve made a perfect work at home mom schedule then I should feel confident that I have enough time for what needs to get done and my phone should not be something that I want or need during Family Time.
Step Nine: A Focused Strategy Block
This is a block of the day I get excited about. This is my focused, large chunk of time where I can work on a creative task that needs my attention and has the highest return on investment for my business. I am currently using 12 Week Year to guide my strategy for this time block.
Moms spend so much time multitasking or trying to sneak things into slivers of time. Once a day, when I have a chunk of time to focus on one task I can move mountains and that’s a great feeling.
Step Ten: Plan for Tomorrow
You know the famous saying: if you Fail to Plan, you Plan to Fail. I try to remember this every evening when my kids go to bed. My tank is empty and my energy level is low but this is SO important and it sets me up for success for the next day. At the end of every day, I carve out some time to write down exactly what I need to do for the next day. This is part of how I hop right out of bed at 4AM excited to start what is on my to-do list. I don’t have to spend any energy thinking what I should do during those precious morning hours.
