Stay at Home Mom Schedule: Ultimate Guide for How to Plan Your Day and Stay Productive
Hi there!
I’m a Stay at Home mom, and you know what I’ve learned? It’s hard!
What makes it easier? Well for me, a heck ton of planning, organization, and scheduling.
If you also ride the struggle bus regularly, or if you just want to spend your time in a more optimal way, this is the article for you!
I’ve always naturally been pretty good at keeping organized, but motherhood really is next level.
The sleep deprivation, the constant demands from your toddler, keeping up with your baby’s ever changing needs and wake windows and at the same time trying to keep up with EVERYTHING else. The house cleaning, the meal planning and prepping and shopping and financials, and oh look! Your baby just grew out of their third size this month! Time to go thrifting again!
Needless to say, it’s exhausting. It’s amazing AND exhausting.
But keeping a schedule is a lifesaver.
How can you build a Stay-at-home mom Schedule that works for you? Why is it important? What are some handy tips to maximize your productivity?
Let’s’ dive right in.
Why You Need a Stay-at-Home Mom Schedule
A stay-at-home mom schedule is not just a list of things to do or a timetable of activities. It is a tool that can help you:
Manage your time:
A schedule can help you make the most of your time. As busy moms, there will never be enough time in the day but having a plan makes it feel like we have more of this precious resource.
Prioritize your tasks:
A schedule can help you identify and focus on the most important or urgent tasks that need your attention. It also makes it easier to know when to delegate or outsource necessary tasks.
Balance your responsibilities:
A schedule helps us balance our MANY roles and responsibilities as a SAHM. It helps ensure we are taking care of ourselves, our children, our spouse, our home, and our work (if we also work outside the home). It also makes it more feasible to have some “me time” and enough time for rest.
Achieve your goals:
A schedule can help us keep things in perspective. So we can see what needs to get done both long and short-term. Then set and achieve short-term and long-term goals.
It makes it easier to break down goals into smaller and more manageable steps so we can keep working toward them each day.
We all have the goal of keeping our babies healthy. See this article for tips: 9 Things Your Pediatrician Should Have Told You
Cut down on or even eliminate time sucks
A schedule, as was mentioned earlier, cannot only help you figure out where to fit in necessary tasks but also when and where to drop unnecessary ones. It can help give us a birds-eye-view of how we are spending our time, which can help us use it to the fullest.
Reduce Stress
All of the above means we have more time to do what we really want to. It also makes us feel like we are moving forward in life because we are better able to make time for what really matters to us. Even if that’s just getting enough sleep.
Did you know Stay-at-home moms are at an increased risk for divorce due to stress? Learn about some healthful coping mechanisms here: Will Stay at Home Moms Divorce?
How to Create a Productive Stay at Home Mom Schedule
Creating the best stay at home mom schedule for you depends on several factors, such as:
Your Circumstances
What’s going on in your world? Do you have a high-needs child who requires attention most hours of the day? Do you have health problems? Do you have relatives who help out on a regular basis? Do you have secular work? These are just some of the things you might need to consider when making a schedule for yourself. That way whatever you plan you make is realistic.
Your Personality
Are you a morning person or a night owl? Do you prefer structure or flexibility? Do you work better under pressure or with ample time? Do you like variety or consistency? These are some questions that can help you determine the best way for you to plan out your hours, days, and weeks.
Your Family
How many children do you have? How old are they? What are their needs, routines, and schedules? Do they go to school or stay at home? Do they have any extracurricular activities or hobbies? How involved is your spouse in the household chores and childcare? These are some questions that can help you assess your family’s situation again, so you can make an actionable schedule.
Your Dreams
What are your goals? Or as I like to put it, what are your dreams? What do you really want to do with yourself? Both short term and long-term? What are your passions and interests? Where do you want to improve or keep up with your past improvements? These are some questions that can help you define where and who you want to be, and how to get there.
Based on all of these factors, you can create a customized stay-at-home mom schedule that truly suits you and your family’s needs.
What Should Be Included in a SAHM Schedule?
There are two categories with a hierarchical structure within each. Must-dos and Could-dos.
One must-do is keeping our babies well nourished. See 17 Iron Rich Foods for Babies
Start with the things you must do each day: Write down everything that you absolutely must get done each day. These are the non-negotiables that anchor your day and everything else fits around them. For example:
- Wake up time
- Breakfast
- School drop-off/pick-up
- Lunch
- Nap/quiet time
- Dinner
- Bedtime
There may also be things that you must do once a week or once a month, such as:
- Grocery shopping
- Laundry
- Cleaning
- Paying bills
- Doctor appointments
Fill in the gaps with the things you want to do each day:
After you have written down everything that must get done, you can fill in the gaps with the less time-sensitive things that you hope to do each day. As much as we all wish we could make time for these first, realistically we need to schedule out the above things first. Some examples of these less time-sensitive, but still important things are:
- Exercise
- Reading
- Prayer/meditation
- Hobbies/crafts
- Work/projects
- Socializing
- Learning new skills
These are the things that you can be more flexible with. And when we are short on time, these often end up getting the cut first.
Allow for extra time and buffer zones:
One of the challenges of making and following a stay-at-home mom schedule is dealing with the unexpected.
With little ones around, things change nearly every hour. We never know when one child will get sick, need a diaper change, or get a bonk on the head and need some cuddles.
However, if we make space for the unexpected, we can cut down on stress, and if nothing crazy ends up happening, hey! Now you have some free time you can do something fun with!
Review and adjust your schedule regularly:
Creating a stay-at-home mom schedule is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustment. As your life changes, so does your schedule. You may have to adapt to new circumstances, such as:
- A new baby
- A new school year
- A new job
- A new season
- A new challenge
To keep your schedule relevant and effective, you need to evaluate it periodically and make changes as needed. You can ask yourself questions such as:
- Is my schedule working for me and my family?
- Am I achieving my goals and priorities?
- Am I enjoying my day and my life?
- What can I improve or change?
A Sample Stay at Home Mom Schedule
To give you an idea of what a daily schedule for a stay-at-home mom can look like, here is a sample schedule that you can use and modify according to what your day needs to look like. This one is based on the premise that you are a SAHM with two kids, one in school and one at home. I’ve done it this way since statistically, if you are in the USA, you have 2 kids.
- 6:00 am: Wake up, get ready, have some quiet time (prayer/meditation/reading)
- 7:00 am: Wake up kids, get them ready, have breakfast
- 8:00 am: Drop off the older kid at school, run a quick errand (grocery shopping pickup, post office, etc.)
- 9:00 am: Return home, do a little housework (laundry, dishes, etc.)
- 10:00 am: Play with younger kids (puzzles, books, games, etc.)
- 11:00 am: Prepare lunch, eat with the younger kids
- 12:00 pm: Put the younger kid down for a nap, work on projects (blogging, crafting, etc.)
- 2:00 pm: Pick up older kid from school
- 3:00 pm: Have a snack, do homework/help with homework
- 4:00 pm: Go outside for some fresh air and exercise (nearby park, playground, walk, etc.)
- 5:00 pm: Return home, start preparing dinner
- 6:00 pm: Eat dinner as a family
- 7:00 pm: Clean up after dinner, and have some family time (board games, movie night, etc.)
- 8:00 pm: Start bedtime routine (bath, pajamas, teeth brushing, etc.)
- 9:00 pm: Put kids to bed, read them a story
- 10:00 pm: Have some alone time or couple time (watch TV, read a book, chat with your spouse, etc.)
- 11:00 pm: Go to bed, get some rest and sleep
This is a sample stay at home mom schedule that you can use as a guide or inspiration. Take it and adjust it to fit your needs. For instance, maybe you don’t want to cram so much into each hour of each day, you could instead do what’s called
Task Batching
This is a strategy where you group similar tasks together and complete them all together.
Think about how McDonald’s and Ford all have their employees do the same tasks over and over. A line cook just cooks burgers, a dishwasher just washes dishes, a Ford employee on a car assembly line puts the same part on different cars all day long.
They do this because it’s more productive. Because switching tasks takes mental energy and slows us down.
We can use that knowledge.
Group tasks together to get more done!
What kind of tasks? Well, we can pick a day to run all our errands, so we aren’t driving all over town every day. This also saves gas money! Yay!
We can also pick a day of the week to get all (or most of) the house cleaning done.
We can pick a day for odds and ends, a day for work tasks, a day for home repairs, the list goes on and on.
Figure out what you need to get done, and plan accordingly.
Something I find super helpful with batch tasking is to keep a weekly planner. If you like this article and want to help me keep making more, consider it! Floral Weekly Planner
If you’re someone reading about a SAHM schedule because you’re trying to decide whether you’d like to become one, here’s a pros and cons list you can consider: Are Stay at Home Moms Happier?
What’s a good daily schedule template for stay at home moms, you can customize to your schedule?
The way I personally prefer my daily stay-at-home mom schedule my time is in larger blocks, rather than hour-by-hour.
And, again, I start out just as was mentioned before with my “must-dos” aka my top priorities for the day.
My first priority is always caring for my little so I recommend writing out what your baby needs schedule-wise until you get into a rhythm and adding everything you need to do in the in-between-moments. So what does my stay-at-home mom toddler schedule look like?
For me, I know my baby needs 3 meals a day, 2 snacks in between, and one nap for her to have a really good day, she needs some time outside. So I start here.
If she’s waking up at 9 am, for instance, and going to bed at 10, then I know those 5 little meals during the day need to be spread over those 13 hours. 13/5 is roughly 3. So my baby needs to eat roughly every 3 hours. So we’ll say she needs to eat at 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm so she has a full belly before bed and (hopefully!) sleeps through the night.
Then we say, “How long is my baby’s wake window?” So, how long is it before my baby is tired enough that he or she needs a nap?
For my toddler right now, she’s usually ready for a nap about 5 hours after she wakes up. So that puts us at 2 pm if she wakes at 9 am. Since we know she would need to eat at 3 pm we will go ahead and offer her a snack right before her nap so she can rest good and long with a full and happy belly. The other thing she needs to have a really good day, time outside, we usually tackle right after breakfast. So that’s off my list first thing.
Then I take the in-between hours, from 9-12, 12-3, etc. and that’s the time I have to “get stuff done.” (Childcare is in-of-itself a full-time job, but realistically, we need to accomplish other things throughout the day.)
What is that stuff though?
That varies depending on the day.
Have I been falling behind on a work project? Haven’t exercised in a month? Do I need to meal-prepping for this week? Or does the bathroom really need some love cleaning-wise?
I try to prioritize:
- Things I’ve been falling behind on. (I.e. laundry, checking emails)
- What I’ve been procrastinating on (I.e. folding said laundry, responding to said emails.)
- What will help me be more productive? (I.e. exercise, getting out of the house, taking short breaks, and cooking healthful meals.)
In that order.
Something that’s absolutely essential for productivity is getting a good nights rest. Tips for that can be found here: The Life Changing Effects of Sleep Hygiene: 6 Best Practices So You Can Sleep and Feel Better
This technique, along with faithfully keeping a to-do list (and many prayers), generally affords me the ability to single-handedly keep up with all the house cleaning, home repairs, finances, shopping lists, laundry, trash, cooking, and the majority of the childcare in our family. While getting enough sleep most nights, running this blog, keeping up with some semblance of a social life, maintaining my schedule of Bible reading and church attendance.
It’s very busy and tight, and I am tired most of the time (like most mothers) but almost everything gets done and that’s kinda the whole point of trying to keep organized, so I’m calling it a success.
While I’m not advocating at all that you try to cram your schedule as full as mine tends to be, I hope some of the time organization tips I have learned over the years can be of good use to you and help you not only be more productive but also less stressed in the process.
Interested in a free printable stay at home mom schedule template?
Sometimes you just need a printable…
This is an excellent planner if you want something that allows you to visualize what your day will look like hour by hour:
If your interested in more things that will help you organize your time and schedule, and you want to support the site, see our Shop
Other free schedule templates at Canva.com
More Resources:
The MommyHood Club SAHM Schedule
Queen of the Household SAHM Schedule