How do you organise your time?

[cgull]

I've been feeling guilty lately about not spending enough time with DS. I mean, we're nearly always together, but I'm nearly always doing something - housework, reading, computer... Sometimes I start something with him and promise myself I'll stay with him but I quickly get distracted by something else.:shrug
So I decided to schedule regular one-on-one time into my days, and I thought, while I'm about it, get housework etc into the schedule as well, and why not try to make it a framework that will last for years to come, as my children grow and learn. So this is what my days/weeks will hopefully look like from now on:

Early mornings:Breakfast/get dressed/list of essential daily tasks (feed the chickens, washing out to dry, etc) - I aim to be finished this by 10am, but it doesn't always happen.
Then, the next hour or two, from morning tea to lunch is DS time.In the last two days we've played with play dough, fridge magnets, read books, coloured in, dressed his teddy bear... 2 or 3 days a week we have things on at this time - play group, mothers' group, ABA. So I don't know if this is enough time or not.
After lunch, DS has a nap and I have me-time
Then, after he wakes, I intend to once-a-week chores (which I'm working on a list for), including gardening and baking, with DS helping if he wants, or doing his own thing.
From 4-5 or so will be more DS time, then I need to cook tea.

Obviously, this will need to be flexible, allowing for visiting friends and things...

I'm hoping that over the years, the chores will be more shared and take less time, and morning time will become a semi-structured 'learning' or 'projects' time - for everyone, not just the kids - and the arvos will probably pick up some 'after-unschool' sports or clubs or whatnot.

What do people think? It'll need tweaking as I go along, of course, so I'm interested to know how others organise their days (or not) ans what works for you when the whole day (or week) just doesn't work.

[Ceres]

Sounds far more organised than my day! I love one on one time with my DS too, but I usually leave it to him to tell me when he needs my presence in his play. I love hearing him happily playing by himself, and he checks in with me if he needs help or wants to do something together.

[Hera]

Yeah that sounds pretty much like my day except I have an older dd.

Bath, breakfast, teeth for us all and then I put cartoons on while I do general tidy stuff and jump on the computer.

We either go out to group stuff or do craft ect at home together and have morning tea and play outside or go for a walk if weather is nice and I'm not feelign lazy.

Ds has a sleep around lunch so dd and I do stuff together and seperately in this time. This is when I usually do things that she enjoys like beading and craft that would be way to messy and stressful for me when ds is awake.

We have lunch and just do freeplay stuff.
Sometimes we watch a video or the kids watch a video and I do general house stuff.

Afternoons are usually spent outside together or I prepare dinner and then we put on music cds to dance and sing to.

Our days are flexible but this just seems to be a reoccuring theme to our day.

Sometimes I cant wait for a day to be over and other times I think they just arent long enough. I quite often go to bed thinking ok I will definately do more one on one play tomorrow :lol I have faith that it will get easier as they both get older.

[Beatrice]

:uhh We don't. But if you're the personality type who likes routines, it sounds like a sensibly balanced one.

I prefer to go with the flow of our days and check in with my kids' behaviour for clues as to whether I'm hitting the balance right. Sometimes we get in a rut, like now, and I've just finished writing a list of suggested activities for tomorrow to get us doing things together. But if one or both of them aren't interested then I'll do something else. I've never managed to stick to a routine for more than about three days so I've give up trying to convince myself that it's just a matter of finding "the right one" :lol

[~*heket*~]

We organise our day when we wake up. We decide what to do, attempt to do it, and that's about it :lol

[Belinda]

I think of our day as having a rhythm rather than a routine. That means I don't get hung up on times, but our day is still fairly predictable. I still have very young children and for one of them in particular having a wind-down time before sleep is really important, so it helps me if I have a pattern.

I would suggest you make sure your rhythm follows your children rather than your children following the rhythm. For example,we have an early lunch so that they go to rest at the time they are the most tired, rather than having lunch at a 'normal' time and having overtired children.

For me, a pattern is important too, because I need reminders to eat and drink regularly to prevent 'crashing' later. I have to build in things for me! When my rhythm is disrupted I forget.:oops

[cgull]

I've never managed to stick to a routine for more than about three days so I've give up trying to convince myself that it's just a matter of finding "the right one" :lol

:p That's why I decided to post my latest plan on here, so I would feel like I HAD to make a go of it. My personality would rather go with the flow but my experience (particularly working in nursing) is that I just don't get enough done, or prioritise as I want to. This routine is really just based on the rhythm a lot of our days take anyway, but with the self-promise that I will prioritise time with my children - and hopefully also get a bit more housework done;)

Thanks for the comment that it seems balanced, Beatrice, that's what I think I wanted to know.

Now I wonder where I should fit in 'trip to the shops to buy milk or veggies...'?:blueroll

[Ceres]

We organise our day when we wake up. We decide what to do, attempt to do it, and that's about it :lol
Your routine sounds like my budget!

[~*heket*~]

Our routine is configured around OUR budget :lol