Easy DAILY ROUTINE Guide to take care of EVERYTHING

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Hello My Intentional fam bam.

Let’s talk about an ideal day. What’s your ideal day like? Does it look full all the time? Is it flexible? Now that we have our Bullet Journal set and ready, let’s create an ideal day. I will be honest with you, It took a while for me to find the right approach that works both for me as an individual and for my family as a team. Since finding this approach, I have felt a little bit more together and in fact, this has helped me create this blog.

If this is your first time here. Welcome and Thank you for taking the time to visit. You will find that my posts are focused on the Bullet Journal (BUJO) and Getting Things Done (GTD method). This is because I find that this combination will help me achieve my Ultimate purpose which is to live an Intentional Lifestyle.

My posts are normally about bullet journal related, but it doesn’t mean it is not for you if you don’t have Bullet Journal. You are welcome here as long as you think you will find something useful from my posts or if you just want to read something about a woman who is trying her hardest to live an intentional life one week at a time. Please check out my earlier posts if intentional living is something that interests you.

If you joined me in creating Bullet Journal last week, I hope you had fun setting it up. Did you find the guide helpful? If you are still thinking about it, it is fine, you can just hang out with me for a bit and see where it leads you.

One of my dear friends (M. Nav.) often teases me of treating my household like a Corporate Business. Well, I kind of do. I can’t explain why but I am aware that I treat Home Management like some extreme sports. It might be not for everyone and some people might think it is weird, but hey it is ok with me. It works for my family and that is all that matters.

I constantly assess what’s working and what’s not working for us, then let everyone know casually of course, and then we think of a solution as a team. Kids are really good at this. We like asking them for ideas. It is amazing what kids can come up with.

This doesn’t mean we are a perfect family. No, but I can say we are well connected with each other and we are on the same page most of the time if not all the time. That makes it a little better to function as a unit.

I declare this day to be the official beginning of my journey, (our journey if you will tag along) towards the Intentional Lifestyle. So we are going to start with the Daily Routine, Daily Schedule, or Dailies of a Bullet Journal. I will show you what my Ideal day looks like and hope this can be your guide to making yours as intentional as possible.

Why start with a day, not a week? The tagline of this Blog is “Intentional Lifestyle One Week at a Time” anyway. The reason is that starting now, I would really like to be more conscious and purposeful. For sure this blog is going to concentrate on my weekly progress but the bulk of the actions will be on a daily basis to make things happen. That’s why I decided it is best to start with the smallest ( but equally important) part of the system.

I am also a fan of breaking down things into mini chunks. I used to have a wonderful boss (C. Anne H.) and I remember she used to say “Baby Steps” to us when we were aiming to achieve a goal. I loved it since then. A very simple concept yet, it has a massive impact if practiced consistently. My mother used to say ” do things gradually so you would have a better outcome and you’re likely to feel less tired”, which complements the first concept. So, I decided to make these two nuggets of wisdom to be the foundation of this Intentional Lifestyle I am aiming for.

So, Let’s get Intentional with our day shall we?

3 Essentials of an Ideal Day

A. STRUCTURE

What is structure?

To me, Structure is the strongest foundation of an ideal day. It is ideal because it is supposed to be flexible. Structure dictates what needs to be done first according to the importance or impact a task would have towards a current project. Based on my experience, Structure is not that easy to come up with at the beginning. This is because it involves weighing up things that are not exactly easy to measure. It involves examining our core values to begin with and yes, checking what we value requires deep thinking. Before I came up with this approach, I admit there was much serious thinking involved in the background but so worth it.

I mentioned in my previous posts that I am a serial list maker. I have heaps of lists. I even have a list of all my lists. I used to just chuck everything on one page. Kind of like a mind sweep done on a daily basis. (More info on mind sweep here). My daily schedule used to be so random and not structured so it looked like just a long list of everything. You would find tasks, events, reminders, and just plain notes and even random scribbles.

This didn’t work for me because doing it that way left me exhausted after each day yet there was no sense of feeling accomplished. I remember, R would come home from work and while the kitchen was sparkling clean the lounge room was in “Omg! Condition”. R has been so kind and has always been understanding so he would just help me tidy up all the time.

The big turning point was when Kuya (Big Brother), came home from school one day and he saw how messy the lounge room was. His little sister M (who was about 2 or 3 years old at the time) was happily playing amidst the scattered toys on the floor. Then I saw him crying in the middle of everything. That day was my “get ahead “ day in the kitchen which means I was cooking few meals for the next three days so naturally, i didn’t have time to clean up another part of the home before 3pm.

I will never forget that moment. He was sobbing while he was picking up the toys and putting them in each box. He said he is tired of picking up M’s toys and that we should do something about it. He suggested M should just keep 10 toys. I really felt for him. If you are wondering how and why he was bothered with messy surroundings, that will be for another post.

After that incident, It made me really think of how I deal with things. I have been working for 3 days since 2017 which means that I get to stay home for 4 days. Before discovering my current approach, I used to feel that those extra days were not really enough for me to do the things I want to do. I felt that I was really going nowhere no matter how good I plan things and I was constantly chasing my tail. For sure, I was able to tick a lot in my checklist on a daily basis but it felt at the end of the day there were still a lot of incomplete projects.

Later on, I realised that the lack of structure in a day made me unproductive. I would usually finish a lot of tasks but they were not necessarily needed to be prioritized. This meant that when the day ended, I would normally feel so exhausted, but got nothing to show for it.

The least Important and easier tasks always got done but the hard and important ones were always shoved at the end of the list. This was the biggest realisation as to why I was not really going anywhere.

B. Routine

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, A Routine is a “sequence of actions regularly followed”

That is exactly what we have as the second part of a structured day. I find this so important to keep my focus in general. If I have no routine, I can assure you, one minute I am doing laundry, another minute I will be cleaning the kitchen then another minute I will be on the phone mindlessly scrolling into the rabbit hole of the unknown. You see where I am going? Then the day will end and nothing is really done.

If this is you, I can assure you there is hope my friend.

Main Parts of The Daily Routine

Morning Routine
Priorities
Evening Routine

Just letting you know that whilst these 3 parts are constant ( at least fo now that I find that it is working) the tasks within each part are not set in stone. As much as possible my family tries to incorporate flexibility where applicable. We are 2 adults and 2 kids household and we don’t want any of us to feel too restricted nor feel stressed because we have to stick with the schedule. Yikes.

This organised and structured day will be meaningless if my family members are feeling stressed while trying to keep up with the daily routine, so Balance and Compromise are extremely necessary.

Honestly, there are days that things don’t go to plan, and it is ok. There is always the next day. I know tomorrow is not always guaranteed but we can at least hope that when it comes, we get another chance. Another chance to restart and do a little bit better.

My household thrives with routines. We all love routines and kids are used to them too. It has become a part of our day since we implemented it. R and I have introduced routines to our children since they were babies and it has been working for us. It makes things easier for us as parents and for them as kids.

In saying that we don’t live like robots, I can assure you that. We use routines to make it easier for us to do things. Things that should be done on a daily basis need to be in some form of a routine so we don’t have to think about it before actually doing them. This means less use of mental energy. We just get on with it.

One good example is our evening routine. So after dinner, the kids have a few minutes to chill while I do the dishes, then they have their bath or shower then teeth. After brushing teeth is a bed which means that for M she knows that after brushing teeth, no more extra episode of Shaun the Sheep. There are evenings where I feel really slack so I occasionally give in and we watch a short Netflix or Disney movie with them. As long as we don’t go beyond 9pm we are good in the hood.

1. Morning Routine

Morning Routines takes care of the most important things for us to be functional and healthy at the same time. In this part, we make sure we always make time for self-care and quick connection with each other to start the day right. The most important tasks to run the household are also taken cared of like food, dishes, laundry, and a quick vacuum. As long as these are ticked at the very least, then the morning can be considered as successful.

We have a personal routine for each person. R and I created our own. Kuya has his own Personal Routine that he developed over time too. I am actually proud of him. At his age ( 10 years old), I think he totally embraced the concept of having good habits and a realistic routine.

M’s Personal routine is simple and it is nothing serious. The kid got to be a kid hey? So her Morning Routine consists of: Breakfast, self-care (teeth, hair, and face) then make a bed (with Daddy’s help). I will add a photo of Kuya’s Routine at the end of this post. It needs to be updated but I am not sure when he is going to do that. We are in Melbourne and at the moment we are doing remote learning so the routine is more simple and a little bit relaxed. No one needs the extra stress on top of Covid-19 challenges.

2. Priorities

Priorities. This is part of the routine which is more for me and my personal goals. This is the part of the day that requires a bit of preplanning and involves flexibility for adjustments when things don’t go to plan.

I particularly love this part because this is where I get the chance to really practice balancing even though I already know (and accepted) that Perfect Balance is not completely attainable. This is just my own opinion. I think I can settle for a Healthy Balance where I get to choose which goals I will put more attention to at a certain time and it is ok if sometimes I set aside other goals temporarily. As long as I come back to them and reassess, that is ok.

To make it a little bit more specific, The Priorities is the part of the structure where my 2 non-negotiables fall under. These 2 Non-negotiables are HOME MANAGEMENT and PERSONAL PROJECTS.

Home Management

Food, dishes, laundry, and cleaning are the basics of a good household in my own opinion. For me, I like them prioritized because they are really necessary for sanity. I like to be organised with food so that we don’t have to buy take away all the time. While nothing wrong with buying take away, making our own food means we know exactly what we are eating. We don’t have any food restrictions, thank goodness, but making our own food is a better choice for us. The kids get to be creative in the kitchen as well and it motivates me to cook often. We do order food occasionally and because it is not often, it really feels more enjoyable when we have them.

Laundry. As much as possible I try to do laundry every day get current. It doesn’t happen all the time but having an empty laundry hamper is such a good feeling.

Cleaning: Cleaning used to be my bane of existence. I always love cleaning because clean spaces can give so much satisfaction. However, getting on top of the cleaning jobs are the hardest to maintain. Cleaning never ends. So through the years, I have discovered that cleaning gradually will also work and I like it like that. One of the best resources that I can suggest is the Flylady system. You can check out the book *here*. This is where I got the idea of Zone Cleaning which I tweaked through the years according to what works for me.

So, I have scheduled 20 minutes a day for cleaning for each area of our home. I do at least 20 minutes but if I feel like I want to do more, then I can certainly work more than 20 minutes which is a bonus. Any task that is not finished for that day is scheduled for the next week. I find doing it this way means I get to be intentional on what I need to do first in a certain area because I only have 20 minutes.

PERSONAL PROJECTS

This part is only for me. This is the part where I schedule the tasks that are for my Personal Goals. Goals can be achieved if we have a set of small actions that can be done daily that move us towards achieving a particular project. More about goals and projects when we get to Goal settings.

I got heaps of projects and this is something I honestly need to manage a little bit better. Ideally, I meant to spend at least 30 minutes to 2 hours daily but I easily go over this. At the moment, My Passion Project is this Blog, and I want to be transparent with you. This Blog is taking so much time at the moment. In saying that I don’t really feel bad about it, just a tiny guilt feeling because I am slightly off balance. On most days where I usually can do more than 20 minutes/day cleaning, I now do the bare minimum. But guess what no one is complaining. So I guess it is fine for now.

I can honestly say that in the last 4 weeks this project has taken the front seat and I am hoping I can do a little bit better real soon. In my defense, this project is new to me, and maintaining a website is not actually my strength. I need time to get better on the technical side of things.

Even though I feel that sometimes this passion project is taking more than I actually intended, I know that this is not forever. So if you are thinking of creating a blog, please don’t be put off by what I said about the time it takes. I still think it is worth it. I am only on my 4th week of blogging and I slowly feel the reality of it being a huge project. I am enjoying it and I noticed what it does to my mental well being so I am going to continue for as long as I can. It will be a huge bonus if you learn from it too.

My commitment is to create quality content. So, if you think of something that we can work on for us to grow together. Please reach out. I am not an expert on anything but I can at least be your accountability partner to reach your goals.

C. Timer

This timer technique is not my original idea I just need to make it clear. This part of my day structure is inspired by the Pomodoro concept. Please see more info here.

Yes, a Timer. This might be a bit strange to be a part of an Ideal day but I can swear by it. I don’t remember when I started using a timer but I can clearly remember what motivated me to use one. A few years ago we used to have a bench dishwasher which was really good at the time. Because it can only hold just half a load of normal size dishwasher, I found myself still washing so much by hand.

So when the dishwasher carked it, I decided to hold off buying a new one. Instead, we decided to set up a system to make it work for us. I wash the dishes and R dries and put them away. When R started working late shifts more than a year ago, He used to text me with a photo of a shiny sink with a caption “Zero Dishes”, so we started referring to clean sink as “Zero dishes” which means simply clean and empty sink. I know it doesn’t make much sense but we between R and me, we know what it is.

Later on, I tried to really matched his effort but of course, I failed. I have no problem washing the dishes I like the task, but I used to think, maybe if I could be on top of the dishwashing game, then it would be great.

So I started setting the timer of the microwave every time I would start washing the dishes. I would set it for 20 minutes then I would stop for a mini-break before continuing to finish the job. Most of the time, One 20-minute session is enough to finish the job anyway.

This 20-minute trick eventually became a habit and I have applied it not only for doing the dishes built for doing other tasks. I find that the timer does a trick. You know when you don’t want to do a task but you have to do it?. This is good to tackle those tasks. The key is just to do it without thinking. Well set the timer first, that is step one. Then just be on action mode. I find that while the timer ticks, when it reaches the 5th minute or a little longer, I get into the moment of having momentum and I often it just feels natural to just continue.

I encourage you to try it and I hope it works the same for you.

NOTE: On why 20-minute, not 25-minute time block. Because our microwave has 1 button for “10 minutes” and 1 button for “1 minute“. So, using a 20-minute block is practical because I only need to press the “10-minute button” twice. Doing 25 minutes block will take 2 times to press the “10-minute button” plus pressing the “1-minute button” five times. too much mucking around just to set a timer, right? This is also easy for M she knows that she just needs to press the “10-minute” button if I ask her to set the timer.

That is it for today Friends. Hope you found something meaningful in this post.

This is Kuya’s routine. He used this from January until March when we had to stay home due to COVID.

Interested in Bullet Journaling and Getting Things Done? Check out the below posts.

Easy DAILY ROUTINE Guide to take care of EVERYTHING