How to Keep Your Day from Getting Derailed

Imagine that you are running a 5K.

You’ve set a steady pace for yourself and you’re doing well. You haven’t spent too much energy, and if things keep going along the way they are you will finish this race with enough energy to pump your arms in the air as you collapse across the finish line.

Suddenly, a hurdle is thrown in your path. You can either keep your pace and expect to run right through it (with horrible results) or you can pick up momentum, leap, and then resume your steady pace. Another hurdle may or may not be thrown in your path, but you never know.

As a woman, you know that this 5K race is one you run every single day. Some days there are obstacles/hurdles that suddenly appear at any given point and on others days the path couldn’t be clearer while you are trying to reach the finish line in this race of life.

If you are a work-outside-the-home-mom, that hurdle might be the call from school telling you that you have a sick child that needs to be picked up. For the stay-at-home-mom, that hurdle could be the dreaded crayon incident that occurs while you are homeschooling your older child and sends you scrambling for some type of cleaner while saying “no, no, no” and trying to keep your cool at the same time (if it sounds like I know something about crayons on surfaces other than paper…. I do).

There are always going to be little things that come up during your day. Your children and your spouse need you and quite often need something of you. You have needs, too! And there are only so many hours in the day.

So how do you keep from getting derailed but instead ending your day with a semblance of peace?

1. Put God first

It goes without saying. When you put The Lord first in your day, even if it is just having a prayer time with Him first thing in the morning, you are, in essence, handing your day to Him. It could not be in better hands than that.

2. Evaluate your responsibilities for the day

Make a list of what you and your family need to do, and then check it twice! Do you really need to get everything on that list done? What can be eliminated? Is your list overreaching what is even humanly possible to do on any given day?

I have read that creating your to-do list the night before will keep things realistic. At night, we are so tired from being awesome all day long that we are less likely to over-plan our day than we are in the morning after we have had a great night of sleep.

3. Evaluate what your family’s needs/desires/wants are

If you have small children, mommy/child playtime is high on their list of needs/wants. Keep that in mind. What does your husband want? A nice dinner, a particular favorite meal, couple time? Keep his needs in mind. What do you need/want? A hot cup of tea or coffee during naptime, a chance to put your feet up for half and hour? Keep you in mind, too.

4. Break up your day into thirds

On a sheet of paper (or open a page on a digital notebook), write down morning, afternoon, and evening.

Then take your list of responsibilities and your family’s needs/wants and fit them within the three parts of your day.

For example, my list on the day I wrote this post looked like this:

Morning- morning routine, online teaching, quick chores, 2 loads laundry, and homeschool.

Afternoon- fold laundry, blog, purge 2 cubes in Ian’s room, prep dinner, and run Addie to her rehearsal.

Evening- dinner, run Ian to karate, quick chores, layout clothes for tomorrow, prep Brian’s lunch and coffee, shower, and spend time with Brian

I also try to make the best use of the time I have. As I am running kids to their activities, I use that time to talk to them about whatever they want to talk about. Siblings aren’t there to distract me, so they have my full attention.

I do get “me time”, also. When my kids were younger, as long as all of their responsibilities were completed by 2:00 in the afternoon, they had a designated technology time that allowed me to sit with a cup of coffee while I read or took care of my online things. For me, that was relaxing.

Now that my kids are older and self-sufficient, I am able to let them know if I need some time to relax before jumping back into my day.

By getting “everything” done by the time the kids go to bed in the evening (“everything” being the absolute necessities on the to-do list, not every possible thing that can fit into a day leaving no breathing room), I am available to spend quality time with my husband, which I need as well.

Not having an excessive amount of things on my to-do list means that when hurdles suddenly get thrown in my path during my daily race, I have time to adjust my speed, pray, leap, and keep running.

It’s a new day, Ladies! Lace up those running shoes and let’s hit the pavement at a steady pace today!