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. 

Time Blocking: A Framework to Foster Growth

In preparation for homeschooling, I knew I needed to seriously evaluate how my time is spent. This led to me reading several summaries of popular productivity methods. My hope was that I would come away with a few doable techniques for maximizing my productivity.

Instead, a question I read kept coming back to haunt me. That question was,

"What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?" ~ Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog! 

I was immediately convicted that for me it was self-discipline. Then I asked my husband what he thought it should be for me. His answer was, "thoughtfulness in planning with a view to the long term."

Time blocking allows me to grow in both of these areas. It creates windows of time to work on specific things. It's a guideline for my day, not a to-do checklist that I am tempted to measure my success by.

4 Steps to Creating A Daily Time Budget

It has taken me about a month of trial and error to settle on my "ideal" schedule. If you want to try this method, be prepared to do a bit of tweaking. With that caveat, here are the four steps to creating a daily time budget.

Step 1: Brainstorming

• On a piece of paper, list both what you need and would like to get done during the week. 
  Start with the very basics of what happens every day. Use this time to write down the practical outworking of all your "Rocks" and dreams. 
• On my list, this includes essentials such as meals and daily hygiene (because we want to have friends haha). It also includes things like devotions, chores, and an hour of rest time each afternoon.

Step 2: Prioritizing

• Highlight things that have constant time frames on your brainstorming list. 
• For example, the time you eat your meals and sleep. 
• For me, this also included considering when naps occur.

• It’s time to start writing up your daily time budget! You are now going to create a vertical timeline of your day on a second piece of paper. Each segment of time you assign will need to be rounded to a fifteen-minute increment. Always err on the conservative side and round up. 
• So for example, if you think doing your hygiene routine takes twenty minutes, round up to thirty. 
• On your piece of paper write down your constant time frames leaving space around them for the rest of your day.
• For me, the only constants tend to be meal times.
• Then flesh these time frames out by adding things that also occur during them.
• On my schedule, this means making sure the girls wash their hands before each meal.

Step 3: Grouping

• Next, consider what remaining items can be grouped around those time frames. 
• For example, I start a load of laundry before breakfast and switch it to the dryer before we eat lunch. 
• During this time also note routines you want to have (even if they aren't yet established). 
• On my list, this includes doing a five minute clean up time before meals. 

Step 4: Evaluating

• Now, look at the windows of time you still have open. These are your blocks of time to spend doing everything else on your list. 
• I use my early morning to do personal care. Then I have two big chunks of time from 9:30-11:30am and 1:30-5pm. So these are the time frames I work within for school, cleaning, reading, etc.

A Concluding Reminder

Next post we will discuss what to do the remaining windows of time and items on your brainstorming list. Until then, I want to conclude with the two Scriptures I have printed on my daily time budget. I regularly need to review them to remind myself why I plan my days, but also that God is ultimately sovereign over them.

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16-17

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9

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* Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash.