Another late-night writing over here, but I wanted to share this tip since I’ll be reference it in future posts this month. I cannot function without having a weekly schedule. A recent hack that streamlines this process for me is having themed days.
Apparently Elon Musk utilizes a simple themed day weekly schedule to juggle his 80-90 hour work weeks. While he focuses on one of his businesses each day, I like to give myself more of a category to function within each day.
In fact, I use themed day scheduling for work, meal planning, lesson planning, and activity time with my kids. This frees up so much brain space for me to actually do the things instead of trying to figure out what needs to be done.
Themed Days for Batch Working
- Marketing Mondays
- Tech Tuesdays
- Writing Wednesdays
- Tech Thursdays
- Functional Fridays
After spending years trying to jump from task to task throughout the day, I finally accepted I wasn’t good at multitasking. Call it “mom brain” or getting older but it became clear that I could do better and faster work if I focused on one thing each day.
That’s where batch working around a specific business area has been a hug game changer. The individual tasks might change from week to week, but when I’m working on my schedule I know what day to plan for what.
Instead of stressing about getting back to that email right this minute, I know it will be part of my day on Friday. Functional Fridays are for everything backend related with my business – bookkeeping, correspondence, professional development, etc.
I like to start my week with Marketing Mondays. This is a nice way for me to get excited about the projects I will be working on in the coming days.
Tech Tuesdays and Thursdays apply to the digital design side of my business. Writing Wednesdays are for copywriting for myself and clients.
School Themed Days
- Math Monday
- Time Travel Tuesday (History & Social Studies)
- Writing Wednesday (Language Arts)
- Technology Thursday (Science)
- Freetime Friday (Elective of Choice)
As we dive into our first homeschool year with 2 “students”, I’m wanting to do more unit study work than traditional class periods. This will make it easier to work with both boys despite them being at different learning levels.
By now you’ll notice my fondness for alliteration that guides my daily theming. This meant I could get creative with our subject naming.
I’m excited to share how this plays out in my lesson planning and curriculum building in a future post.
Daily Themes for Meal Planning
- Meatless or Meatball Monday
- Taco Tuesday (Mexican Night)
- Wacky Wednesday (Finger Foods & Other Kid Faves)
- Thrifty Thursdays (leftovers, simple meals)
- Stir Friday (Asian Night)
- Slow Cooker Saturday
- Sushi Sunday
One of my biggest daily struggles is figuring out what to make for dinner each evening. If I don’t plan it out in advance, I am completely unmotivated to cook and have a hangry bunch on my hands.
Some weeks we are carving something specific and unique that helps fill the planner in a cinch. More often I consult my daily themes for inspiration. I’ll share some of my favorite recipes for each category in upcoming posts.
Quality Family Time with Themed Days
- Minecraft or Make Something Monday
- Time Travel Tuesday (Nostalgia Day)
- Wind Down Wednesday
- Thirsty Thursday (Get or Make Drinks)
- Fun Friday (Mini Yes Day)
- Splish Splash Saturday & Sunday
Having themed days for family activities is more of a guideline than a set schedule thing. When the kiddos are feeling board, this is a great list to consult for inspiration.
My oldest loves to play Minecraft with daddy while the middle two are definitely makers. They always ask to do both things with us so it’s nice having a day where we can plan for it.
Time Travel Tuesdays refer to the things we enjoyed as kids. This includes board games like Life, favorite childhood movies and books, and classic video games like Pokemon.
Wednesday evening we have religious services so I like for it to be a wind down day where we get the kids in a calm frame of mind.
Thirsty Thursday is a special day to make and/or enjoy yummy drinks like fruit smoothies, milk shakes, or aguas frescas from our favorite truck down at our street corner.
Fridays are a nice free day where the kids can come up with something they think is fun and we see if we can make it happen.
Since we have our own pool, we try to swim as much as possible in warm weather. The weekends are guaranteed days where we get to as a family.
Do you follow any sort of themed days?