On Rhythms & Routines
The "How to Run Your Day" Issue
Isn’t this the best month of the year to talk about this?
It seems like January is the time we all want to finally get our lives together and give a valiant effort to do so.
Despite our best efforts, though, somehow the new of the year wears off over the months and by the time the weather warms, life is in its lovely, unavoidable spiral once more.
So why bother?
Sarah Clarkson in The Lifegiving Home says it this way:
“When you understand the reality of the incarnation, the way that the physical trappings of our lives and our use of time and space are places where God either comes in His creative presence or remains at bay, you understand that nothing is neutral. Nothing. You can’t just waste an hour on the Internet. You can’t just miss one sunrise in its beauty. No room is just space. No hour is meaninglaess. No meal is mere sustenance. Every rhythm and atom of existence are spaces in which the Kingdom can come, in which the story of God’s love can be told anew, in which the stuff of life can be turned marvelously into love.”
It all matters. It all counts.
Putting rhythms and routines in your day is a way to ensure you’re living with intentionality. It won’t be perfect and that’s alright. On the less than perfect days you’ll have rails laid to help you “get the train back on the track,” so to speak.
Rhythms and routines are essential - even when we aren’t able to keep them perfectly.
In fact, rhythms and routines don’t ask us to keep them perfectly.
Schedules do; they demand promptness and if you fail you are behind.
Rhythms feel more like breathing; routines feel more like the rising and setting of the sun.
Predictable and comfortable. Regular and dependable, but flexible. Ebbing and flowing. Changing and growing by season.
Seasons of the year.
Seasons of life.
There is a naturalness to it all.
So how do you get these rhythms and routines in place?
Start by making a bulleted list of your world and then following the example of our Heavenly Father, order it. Look at the year as a whole and plug in what you can by month. Lay it out over the week and then create chunks in your day. Leave margin for the unexpected but essentially just answer the question, “when am I going to put my energy, time, and focus on this? Once or twice this year? Monthly? Weekly? Daily? If so, at what point in the day?”
Try to decide this now so that the next time you need to make an appointment to get a hair cut you aren't crippled with decision fatigue. My advice - appointments go in the afternoon, so as not to disrupt the school day. Except for dentist appointments. In that case, go first thing in the morning and eat the frog ;).
Your bullet points might look something like mine -
husband
home
homeschool
meals
work
kids’ activities
appointments
errands
friends
groups
leisure
travel
rest
Regular rhythms become traditions. For instance, if I know we go to the lake every August, I’m not going to waste time wondering when we should go to the lake. If a group I’m in meets every other month on a Friday night, it won’t take us long to set a date. If I know my husband and I go out for breakfast every Saturday morning and I work every Saturday afternoon and evening, I know to decline most Saturday invitations.
Rhythms of the day become Daily Routines. If I check my messages after my quiet time every morning, after lunch, and then again after dinner, I’m not going to be tempted to check them in the middle of the day and waste time scrolling. I can put the phone face down the rest of the day and relax. If we always do morning time at breakfast, no one is going to be confused when I bring out the books.
Daily rhythms and routines are a blessing for our kids. They thrive when they know what to expect and what’s expected of them. Some of our worst days are when we fall off the rails for no good reason. Holidays and breaks, on the other hand, are good and we love stepping away from our routine for a time but you’ve got to have a solid routine in place first to really appreciate the break. And when our break is over, routines help us get back to “real life” more smoothly and easily.
I was recently asked by a mom of littles for my best advice to someone starting out. She and I are at opposite book ends; I am graduating my first (two) this May and she will start homeschooling in August.
My answer?: Get your rhythms and routines in place.
Usually when moms of littles ask me for advice I tell them to go outside, read good books, and work on habits. And I did tell her that but with it being January, rhythms and routines were the first thing to come to mind (and really, they fall in the habits category).
I told her this because though the content and the timing look a little different and we’ve rearranged the pieces as the kids got older, we still adhere to basically the same rhythms and routines as we did when they were little.
We wake up, I set the atmosphere, and everyone reads on their own.
We meet together, eat together, and read together.
Everyone gets ready and goes outside.
Everyone comes in and does their independent work.
We meet together, eat together, and read together.
We all separate and rest.
We all do leisure activities.
We clean up the house.
We head out to our various afternoon activities.
We meet together, eat together, and talk.
We all have some free time.
We head to bed.
I tweak it every season and have for many years, but to have strong pillars in our day has been one of the best investments I made in our homeschool all those years ago. Intentionally ordering our days has helped me create the homeschool I want for our family and in return, has breathed life into our home far beyond our homeschool.
Resources*
The Lifegiving Home by Sally Clarkson and Sarah Clarkson
Nurturing Your Pre-Schooler’s Schedule: How to Homeschool in the Early Years
Essential Rhythms for Busy Days
Homeschool Rhythms: Reading Aloud
Homeschool Rhythms: Individual Work
Homeschool Rhythms: Group Work
Homeschool Rhythms: Narrations
Homeschool Rhythms: Morning Time
Get Started Homeschooling: Methods, Teaching Space & Routine
Fly Lady - I started years ago with her newsletter and now LOVE her app
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing so you can encourage others just like yourself.
Till next time, keep living outside the box.
Cindy :)
*Many of the resources contain affiliate links. If you purchase an affiliate product, your price does not increase but I do get a tiny "thank you" portion from the company for recommending their products. I only have an affiliate relationship with products I use and love.