A great activity that I have discovered is mapping out how you spend your average weekday. This is helpful as it brings awareness and allows us to visualize how we spend our time. With this activity, we are also able to find areas of opportunities to fit in tasks that bring you joy and find the time of the day that we feel most productive.
Areas Of Opportunity
As you map out your average day, ask yourself:
- Am I able to delegate any tasks to other family members or outsource?
- Is this the most productive use of my time?
- How can I fit in an activity that brings me joy around my responsibilities?
With this knowledge, you can create spaces in your schedule for joyful activities and remove wasted time.
Mapping With Your Partner
Complete this activity with your partner to determine unnecessary overlap and opportunities for improvement. Ask:
- How can we work together to make our schedules better for each of us?
- How can we divide and conquer tasks to be more efficient?
- What would we like to add to our schedules if we had the time?
How To Map Your Time
It is as easy as it sounds! Write down the hours of the day and the activity you are doing during that time. You can also add notes on how certain activities make you feel to help guide you in using this information to build your ideal schedule.
See the simple example below.
| Time | Activity | Notes |
| 6am | Wake up, make bed, brush teeth, and change into exercise clothes | |
| 6:30am | Exercise at home | Morning workouts bring me energy for the day. |
| 7:30am | Shower, get ready, and make breakfast | |
| 8:30am | Commute to work | I enjoy listening to a podcast or audiobook rather than music before and after work. |
| 9am-5:30pm | Work | |
| 5:30pm | Commute from work | |
| 6pm | Eat meal prepped dinner and pack lunch for next work day | Sunday meal preps help me spend less time cooking during the week. |
| 7pm | Light household chores | Only small activities, such as loading or unloading the dishwasher and light surface cleaning to allow for downtime. |
| 7:30pm | Relax with family | |
| 9pm | Brush teeth, set clothes out for tomorrow, meditate, and read until tired | Meditating before bed helps calm my mind after the day. I typically read until 9:45 then fall asleep quickly after. |
| 10pm-6am | Sleep |
Update As Needed And Be Flexible
Our lives are ever-changing. This activity can be done time and time again as your life changes to rediscover the best schedule for you and your family.
Be a little flexible with your schedule. Don’t want to throw your schedule out the window, but allow yourself some grace as every day is different and unexpected challenges or commitments may arise.