Month by Month Planning for Homeschool Moms
Does it seem like you can never get caught up? Your to-do list keeps growing and your available time keeps shrinking? I know how it feels. There are three things that are key to time management for homeschool moms: priorities, systems, and planning.
While I can’t promise to fix your overwhelm with a snap of my fingers, I can show you how to manage your time as effectively as possible.
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Planning is key to keeping your busy life from sliding into chaos and overwhelm. By taking steps to plan ahead, you can be intentional with your time. Decide what is most important to you and prioritize those things by allotting time to spend on things like family fun, personal projects, or health goals. Being purposeful in how you schedule your time will ensure that what you truly value won’t be repeatedly pushed to the bottom of your to-do list.
Set Your Priorities
I know it’s hard to step back when you’re in the middle of a busy season in life, but getting clear on your priorities is essential to effective time management.
If you don’t know what is most important, whatever is right in front of you is guaranteed to eat up your time. (And let’s be honest, your phone is right in front of you pretty much all the time, right?)
Your first step to getting rid of this overwhelmed feeling is to set your priorities. This can take some thinking, so I’ll do a big-picture view here and you can go deeper when you’re ready.
Questions to Help You Set Priorities
- What does God say about my priorities?
- Are there any areas of my life that need attention?
- What actions move me toward the type of person I want to be?
- Is there anything I know I should be making time for but am not?
- What tangible outcomes do I want to see this month/year?
Those are just a few questions to help you reflect on priorities. If you’re like most moms, you have a big, long list of priorities already. You want to give your kids the best education, include lots of fun family activities, have regular date nights, serve in your church, work out regularly, and connect with friends.
I’d encourage you to make a list of all the things you want to prioritize. Don’t worry about prioritizing your list, just get it on paper or in a Google doc.
Next, read through your list and pick 3-5 things that matter most to you RIGHT NOW. These don’t have to be your priorities forever. For example, if you want to make exercising a priority—do that for 3-6 months. You’ll find as you make it a habit, you’ll have the capacity to add another priority because your exercise routine has become ingrained and habitual.
Determine how to take action on those priorities. This may mean scheduling time on your calendar, setting reminders on your phone, researching the necessary information, or asking for accountability.
List of Possible Priorities
Here’s a quick list of priorities to help jumpstart your brainstorming. Think back to the questions you asked yourself earlier. What needs to take priority right now? What’s not working in your home, family, or personal life?
Personal Priorities
- health and fitness
- hobbies
- prayer or scripture reading
- relaxation
- work commitments
Family Priorities
- date nights
- family fun activities
- working together to accomplish a goal
- vacation
Household Priorities
- chore system for kids
- cleaning routines
- meal planning and prep
Homeschool Priorities
- college or career planning
- learning goals or areas to work on
- life skills
- routines or habits to establish
Friends and Community Priorities
- connecting with friends – coffee, texting, dinner, activities
- church life
- serving and volunteering
- extended family relationships
Create Systems and Routines
The next essential step in managing your time productively is to create systems and routines. The more you systemize and establish routines to take care of what needs to be done, the easier it will be for you to see exactly how much time you have available to take action on your priorities.
We all have some amount of tasks that must be taken care of as part of living our everyday lives. Many of these tasks can be systemized to take up less time, and certainly less brain space. These routines can tell you exactly what to do and when to do it.
- household cleaning
- laundry
- meal planning and prep
- grocery shopping and errands
- morning routine
- evening routine
- work start up routine
- work shut down routine
- homeschool routine
Don’t be surprised when your established routines seem to stop working for you. Each season requires you to adjust your routines, whether it is a literal season, like summer, or season of life, like starting a new job.
The number one system to help you manage your time is a calendar. Most people use a calendar to at least record dentist appointments and vacation plans, but your calendar can do much more to help you understand the time you have available.
Here are a few of my top calendar tips to help you proactively plan your days, weeks, and months.
Top Tips for Using a Calendar System
First, choose one main calendar system. You need to have one place to check your schedule. If you choose to have both a paper planner and digital calendar, you must be relentlessly diligent about coordinating on a daily basis. I’m a big fan of Google calendars for their shareability and the ease of viewing multiple calendars with a few easy clicks.
Second, review your calendar at least daily. Make this a habit. I typically check my calendar morning and evening.
Third, add all external commitments to your calendar. Everything that requires you (or a family member) to do something time-sensitive should live on your calendar.
Fourth, after adding all external commitments, look at a typical week to see where you have opportunities to insert time blocks for your personal priorities or commitments.
Plan and Review Monthly
The third and final essential element in using your time effectively is to plan and review your priorities and your systems and routines monthly.
By implementing a monthly review and planning session, you will continually revisit your priorities and stay on top of everything going on in your current season of life.
My personal preference is to do a monthly planning session the last Friday of the month. Here are some suggestions for items to include in your monthly planning and review.
Monthly Review
What went well last month? What’s working right now?
What didn’t go well? What needs to change?
Monthly Planning
Use your priorities and your calendar to be intentional about the month ahead.
Priorities
Review your current priorities and determine how you will take action on them in the upcoming month.
For example, if you want to prioritize connecting with your kids, schedule a family game night, a time to take them out for ice cream, or a walk together.
Another great way to keep your priority at the front of your mind is to write it down somewhere you’ll see it every day. A post-it note on your computer or a reminder on your phone could work for this. The idea is to keep reminding yourself of your priority.
Then, if your priority is to frequently connect and have conversations with your kids, you’ll be ready to take advantage of an unexpected hour that frees up to invite your child to come shopping with you, or go for a bike ride.
Calendar
Look for anything unusual or out of your ordinary routine.
Review your upcoming events. Do you need to purchase a birthday gift? Is there a conflict between two events? Do you need someone to pick up or drop off kids? Are there things you need to prepare in advance for a meeting or appointment?
Homeschool Planning
- Curriculum pacing: how are we doing?
- Projects: are there any specific projects we want to do next month?
- Books and supplies needed: any supplies to purchase, any books to request from library?
- Grading and feedback: maintain notes, grades, portfolio as required for state or for high school transcript
- Notes to remember: things that went well, suggestions kids responded well to, topics, books, or activities that connected or engaged them
- Add fun activities: field trips, movies, hands-on activities, games
20 Weekly Reflection Questions to Plan for the Week Ahead
Time Management for Homeschool Moms
No matter what type of homeschooler you are, you almost certainly devote a significant chunk of time to homeschooling. In order to maintain your home, your important relationships, and your sanity, you need to set priorities, create systems and routines, and implement a monthly planning habit.
While you can’t necessarily do it all, you can choose to prioritize the things that matter most to you, and systemize the things that must get done to streamline your weekly and monthly routines.
Start small with setting one priority and carving out a regular time to take action on that priority. Your small, consistent actions make a bigger difference than you think.
Visit my homeschool resources page for monthly unit study ideas, projects, and homeschool planning help!
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