A Week in the Life of Our Full-Time Blogging Family {with FREE Planning Printables!}

It’s actually pretty comical that I planned to share this post this week, a post where I talk about our schedule and routine and how we fit everything in. This week has been crazy. Dealing with technical issues on the back end of the blog and getting ready for the relaunch of Framework in a few weeks has totally thrown me for a loop. I didn’t finish all of the posts I had planned, and the posts that went out posted a little later than I anticipated. There were a few times in my desperate attempts to catch up that I used the TV as a babysitter so that I could try to get more things done and subsequently felt extremely guilty about it. I have gotten less sleep than I should. Things I know I need like my quiet time and working out have gone out the window. Basically, I’ve fallen into that “survival mode” that is all too familiar when I start to get busy.

One of the post requests I get most frequently is, “Can you tell us what your typical day/week looks like? How do you fit everything in?” As many times as I’ve gotten this question, though, I seem to keep putting off writing this post. As I started to think about why I haven’t written it until now, I came up with a few theories:

1. As you can see from my ramblings about this week’s events, as hard as we try, as much as we plan, we can’t do it all.
2. Though we have a schedule in theory, it almost never goes according to plan and every day is different.
3. I think I was trying to wait until I “had it all together” so I could share some epic wisdom about how you can fit everything in if you just follow these five easy steps. HA.

So why am I finally writing this now? Maybe I’m just resigning myself to the fact that I’ll never have it all together, that there will always be things on the to-do list that don’t get finished. And that’s okay. As crazy and chaotic as it sometimes is, I really love the life that Donnie and the Cs and I have, and I truly wouldn’t have it any other way. So keeping in mind that all of the stars in the universe would have to align perfectly for the following schedule to actually go as planned, here’s what a “typical” week {sort of} looks like for us…

When Donnie and I both started blogging full time in January, we came up with a schedule that allowed us to split time, with one of us working while the other watched the Cs.

On the weekends, we do cleaning/family time/church in the mornings and usually end up working on DIY projects in the afternoons. Both of our boys still nap (Yes, the 6 year old naps, and he actually needs it or he turns into a grump. All-day first grade next year will be interesting!), which gives us a two-hour chunk every afternoon, and they are so used to projects that they like to “help” when they are awake, so it all works out!

As far as how I spend my time, here is the basic breakdown:

Morning Routine

So in an ideal world (which, as a reminder, is rarely), I would wake up each day at 6-6:15 and do my quiet time, then work out from 7-7:30, have breakfast with the Cs, get ready, and get everyone off to school.

Monday

Also when the stars align, we would finish all of our projects on the weekends so that on my full work day on Monday, I could edit photos write all of my posts through the following Monday. {I am not a work-ahead blogger. I have tried desperately to become one, but every time I get a little bit ahead I start taking more and more time on projects trying to make them better and lose all of the extra time. Apparently I work best under pressure. 😉 } I work until 6 or so on my full days.

Evening Routine

We have dinner as a family, clean up the kitchen and play area, and the Cs go to bed around 8. I work again from 8 until 11 (the goal, but usually it’s closer to midnight), answering emails and comments, scheduling social media, finishing posts if necessary, and planning for the next day.

Tuesday

My parents come in on Tuesdays when Donnie is working the full day (they live an hour and a half away but like to see the Cs all of us 😉 every week, so Tuesday is that day), and I try to do laundry and straightening then since I have some extra sets of hands to help with the boys.

Wednesday

Up until a few weeks ago, Caleb had preschool on Wednesday mornings, so I would get him ready, drop him off, and usually do errands or work at the Starbucks near his school. (Now that Caleb’s school is out, we usually hang out at home or run errands together on these days.) I would pick him up when his class ended, rush to pick up Con from kindergarten 15 minutes away, then head home for lunch. Once I put them down for nap, it was Donnie’s turn to be in charge. Ever since we’ve both started blogging full time, we’ve had an eBook that we’ve been working on, so I try to use these half days to work on book stuff rather than my day-to-day blog posts.

Thursday

Thursday is like Wednesday, just in reverse. If I was caught up on my blog posts (rare), I would again use my morning to work on book stuff. Donnie would be in charge of the boys until nap when I take over, but since they both still sleep almost every day, I could continue working until about 3 or so when they wake up. We play or go somewhere fun until I have to start dinner at 5 or 5:30, and then the evening routine begins.

Friday

Friday mornings are the time when Donnie and I touch base about whatever projects are going on at the time and plan out upcoming posts, projects, and schedules. I am always surprised at how much time planning takes, but I think having things planned out well helps them run more smoothly, and it definitely helps keep us on the same page. We have shared Google Calendars, folders in Google Drive, and boards on Trello that we use to help us stay organized and delegate tasks.

We work on our own while the boys are napping on Fridays or sometimes I do the grocery shopping during this time. About twice a month we have a conference call with our joint mastermind group on Friday afternoons, so if the boys are awake before that ends, they get to have movie time. Then we usually try to do something fun as a family to start the weekend.

Things I Don’t Do

I also feel like I should mention some things that my work time does not include, just to be transparent and emphasize again that I am not superwoman and have a lot of help! Donnie handles all of the accounting and business end for both of our blogs. He also does all of the technical stuff and troubleshooting when anything goes down. He does the research when it comes to business strategy and products and services we use, like hosting, payment processors, themes/landing page setup, collaborative tools, and additional features for our sites. My sister helps with some of my social media scheduling, though I am still involved in some of that as well. It’s definitely a team effort!

 

Whew! Reading back through that it seems like I have so much time that I should be months ahead on my blogging schedule! Where does it all go?! That “general” routine doesn’t account for time with extended family, playdates, the Cs’ sports and other activities or events that happen often but aren’t at the same time every week, so that takes up some of the time. And everything always takes longer than we think it’s going to, so the time gets eaten up quickly! I thought once Donnie and I were both working on the blog full time that we would check everything off our to-do list every day, but instead we just have more ideas and a longer list to work on!

As I’ve said over and over again on the blog, when I start feeling stressed about my time or schedule, I make a printable to help me get organized. When I sat down to think about how my “ideal” week would look and create the schedule I talked about above, I made two lists: one of things I want to do, and another of things I need to do. Once I had my two lists, I made a calendar and filled in the general routine I want to stick to during the week.

I made three little boxes at the bottom of the calendar for notes, and I use one to write out my morning routine, another to write out my evening routine, and the third to list people I want to connect with throughout the week, either other bloggers or people in “real life.” 🙂 This printable serves as a reminder of what I want to be doing with my time during the week, and though it doesn’t happen perfectly, it gives me something to work toward and helps me stay on track. I thought you might like to create a weekly plan, too, so you can download the free printables below!

{Click here to download the “Things to Do” page and here for the “My Weekly Plan” printable.}

Life is crazy. Our plans are imperfect, and our execution of those plans are even less perfect. But it’s our life, and we love it! I hope I answered your questions  about what our typical week looks like– you’re probably sorry you asked! If there’s anything I forgot, feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll answer as best I can. I feel like I don’t say it enough, but I am so thankful to everyone who follows along on our journey and helps make this crazy little blog a reality. Thank you so much for your encouragement and support in the midst of it all!