Domestic Engineering: Creating a Daily Time Budget

Some days I try my utmost to make my family serve the schedule I've created for the day.

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Other days I use our routines and schedule to serve my family.

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Every day I am called to sacrificially love and serve my family no matter how the day goes.

Time blocking has become my new favorite way of planning my days. Over the past few years, I have planned my day into three segments: morning, afternoon, and evening. Since adding a third kiddo to our family, this system has not been working.

In this season of life, it seems like someone is always in need of my attention. Maybe that's because there is. With so many things competing for every minute of my day, I needed a plan. Developing a method for how I should spend my time has been super helpful.

In this post, I will explain what time blocking is and how to create a daily time budget in three steps. But before that, here are six reasons why I love it.

1. It saves me brain space by simplifying our days.
2. It allows me to build routines into our day so I can train our kids in good habits. 
3. It helps ensure that cleaning does happen. 
4. It brings clarity to the idea that saying "yes" to one thing also means saying "no" to a lot of other things.
5. It gives variety to the day, making long days feel manageable. 
6. Most importantly, it helps me steward my time by helping me focus on my "Big Rocks". 

Time Blocking: The Basics

Time blocking is where you create a daily time budget for how you will spend your time. Your schedule is based on increments of time instead of specific tasks. When that time runs up you have two options:

1. Be content with what you got done during that time and move on to the next activity. 
2. Continue what you're doing, knowing you are taking away time from the other things you have planned to do. 

Domestic Engineering: Figure Out Your Big Rocks

Some days I get caught up in urgent but unimportant tasks.

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Other days I am able to discern what I should devote my time to.

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Every day I need the Holy Spirit’s help to use my time wisely.

When Geoffrey and I got married I tried to run our home the way my mom did. She made it look easy. I felt like I was drowning. Our first year of marriage involved several hard circumstances. Working 60-70 hours a week for my first year of teaching was one of them.

I remember sharing with a friend that I couldn’t seem to stay on top of things like my mom was able to. She kindly pointed out two things to me:

1. We were in very different seasons of life.
2. My mom made it look easy because for her it was. She has had more than my entire lifetime to figure out what works for her.

The Big Rocks 

During our first year of marriage, Geoffrey sat down with me to discuss all the things I was overwhelmed by. From that conversation, he discerned my need for clear parameters. The result was a list of big, medium, and small rocks to help me know how I should be spending my time. If you haven’t heard of putting “big rocks first” this video explains the concept well.

What I am going to share here is our convictions about what God would have me focus on. This list is based on our current understanding of Scripture and our current season of life. 

While there will likely be some overlap for you, no one is in the exact same circumstances. Different life circumstances and factors affect what takes precedence in our lives. For us, my priorities are as follows: