It’s a safe bet that us moms of active families with younger kids are barely keeping their heads above water. Doing just enough to make it through the day. Keeping kids alive and what not. Does that sound familiar at all?

It can totally work for some people, for a period of time. But it’s not a place that is easy to stay in for long. And as your family grows and everyone begins to have their own schedule, having a day that is dedicated to all things planning, will help keep you organized (and keep your sanity!).

Why you need a planning day:

 I think the importance of having a planning day, where planning is your only focus, can be super freeing.

And that’s because your focus is on planning, not stressing over running to the store, or getting all the laundry done, or even huge amounts of cleaning.

Just planning.

You will need to do all the things anyway, at some point. Usually, you just end up stressed, late, and exhausted. 

But when you implement a planning day, which really is probably just a couple hours of your day, you can alleviate some of the crazy that comes from doing everything on the fly and last minute. 

What to do for your planning day:

1. Start with comfy clothes & coffee

This is not errand day, sister!! You are staying in and planning your week. Keep your comfy clothes on and coffee warm in your cup!!

 2. Get out your planner

Each week for my planning day I bust out my most favorite planner system, my Happy Planner. I religiously fill it out on a weekly basis, because it sets me up for having my "you know what" together for the rest of the week. 

It helps me focus on the daily tasks I need to accomplish, without feeling the need to try to do everything all at once. Because there is a scheduled time for (almost) everything.

You can get a Happy Planner system like the one I have, or just grab yourself a copy of my Perfect Weekly Planner for Moms (the one pictured above is in my Printables Library, you can get access by clicking below - for free!!). 

 3. Get to Planning! 

The specific items I "plan" on my planning day are:

Planner work: This is the time I take to actually write in everything into my planner.

Things like our schedule, appointments, my daily tasks, and menu for the week. Plus any website or Etsy related tasks. 

Click here to see how I assign each day a "Theme" to help make this Planning Day simple. Plus how I include everything I need to in my weekly schedule. 

Meal Planning & related tasks: Each Planning Day (Mondays for me!) I figure out the meal plan for the upcoming week.

In addition to the Meal Plan, I create my grocery list and "shop" online using Walmart's Grocery Pick-up service (It's truly a dream come true!).

You can get a Meal planning Printable in the Printables Library as well! (Don't forget to grab it by clicking the image below!!)

Errand Planning: Since I have an "Errand Day" in my weekly schedule (Tuesday's for me) I plan out all the errands I have to do so I am only running around dragging my 5-year-old twins everyone one day, instead of 3 or 4!

Errands you could include on your Errand day would be: picking up groceries (since you've got a meal plan + grocery list), Post Office, Pharmacy or other needs, taking donations, or ???

The list is whatever things you need to accomplish - just on one day! 

Chore/Cleaning Planning: I just write in the tasks I need to do each day to get the cleaning and chores done for the week. 

To be completely honest here, the last thing I want to do with my time is clean. It's the worst. 

But with 5 kids, certain things HAVE to happen for us to function, and leave the house with underwear on, as a family. 

Writing in specific tasks on each day helps me to not feel overwhelmed by it all, get things done, yet still feel like I am not only running around and cleaning up after everyone else. 

I don't think you need to kill yourself trying to get everything perfectly clean each and every day. Just write in the tasks you need to do each day to keep your house running, plus one weekly item that will help in the overall cleanliness of your home. 

 Adding more into your already crazy-busy schedule may seem a little counter-productive. But I can promise you from my own personal experience as a mom to five young kids, that having a day where the main goal is to plan your week - makes all of the other days go so much smoother!! 

Getting all the planner work, meal planning, errand planning, and cleaning items on your weekly schedule so you know exactly what to focus on and accomplish each day will help you feel so much more organized and at peace in your home and life! Give a planning day a try and let me know what you think!