The Best Stay at Home Mom Schedule, According to Time Management Coaches
Expert advice on designing your days—in a way that makes space for what matters to you most. Consider this your ultimate guide to setting up a stay at home mom schedule you’ll want to stick to.
Source: Brina Blum
Time management has always eluded me. To wit, there are days when it feels as though time has gone sideways in my home—splitting off, turning back on itself, even rushing forward with incredible speed. To live in a home with small children, I’ve learned, is to simply relinquish your understanding of how time moves. After all, one moment you’re holding a newborn, and the next you’re kissing them goodbye as they head into preschool. Time is a tricky thing.
All this to say that for years I’ve been living in a state of happy bewilderment as far as time and schedules go, never having implemented a daily routine for stay-at-home mom life. Instead, I jump into each day tackling appointments and tasks as they come—simply pleased and surprised when I manage to cross an item off my snowballing to-do list. Am I stressed by this? Sometimes, yes. Do I constantly push unfinished tasks from one week to the next? Also, yes.
As it turns out, I am a living example of what Anna Dearmon Kornick, a time management coach in Madisonville, Louisiana, calls the biggest mistake at-home moms make in regard to their time: not implementing a schedule.
“When you are a stay-at-home parent, you should have some type of daily schedule, rhythm, or routine that you follow,” Kornick says. “What ends up happening is because we get caught up in all of the urgencies of life and all of the little things that must be done, we often don't have enough time left over for those things that really, really matter.”
To learn how to pin down a daily schedule that actually works for families, I turned to time management experts for guidance. Here’s their best advice for designing a daily routine for stay-at-home mom life—one that makes time for all the sundry stuff, as well as things like rest and creativity that often fall off our to-do lists.
Meet the Experts
Anna Dearmon Kornick: Time management coach in Madisonville, Louisiana, and the host of the weekly podcast It’s About Time.
Elizabeth Saunders: Time management coach in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Nikki Oden: A mentor for moms, creator of Your Ideal Mom Life, and author of But Definitely Wear Mascara: Hacks to Help You Love Your Mom Life (And Yourself) a Little More.
Plan Your Ideal “Work Week” as a Stay-at-Home Mom
“The ideal method that I recommend, not only for stay-at-home moms, but for anyone, is called designing your ideal week,” says Kornick. Factoring in some of the realities and surprises of daily life, this exercise, she explains, invites you to plan your life hour-by-hour from Sunday morning to Saturday night.
If that sounds intimidating, Kornick recommends beginning with the biggest milestones—tasks and activities such as school drop-off, errands, children’s naps, meals, appointments, and the like that are standing fixtures in your routine.
From there, it’s a matter of deciding how you’d like to spend your time in between those moments, whether that’s taking care of household tasks, working, playing with little ones, pushing a creative project forward, or connecting with friends. Make your weekly plan in a Google calendar or a paper planner—it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you sit down and give each activity a block of time in your routine.
“When you design an ideal week, you're able to start by carving out space for those things that really fill your cup during the week,” Kornick adds.
Create a Play Schedule for Your Kids
For parents who spend the majority of their days with little ones at home, Kornick advises creating a play schedule to fit inside your ideal week. This could look like finding a block of time in your day, like say after lunch, and holding that space for a rotating selection of activities.
Choose play ideas your children enjoy and assign each to a different day, so that your Monday block is devoted to sensory play, for example, Tuesday’s block to craft projects, Wednesday’s to nature walks, and so on.
Adopting this plan reduces overwhelm and also helps ease your mental load, Kornick says. “Instead of your day being wide open and having to come up with something to do among a million options, it narrows your decision-making,” she notes.
Build in Time for Yourself as a Stay-at-Home Parent
When you’re considering the ideal routine for your family, don’t shortchange yourself, says Elizabeth Saunders, a time management coach in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Build in time for rest, movement, connection, or time to work on your own creative pursuits. Whatever it is you need for yourself, find a place for it in your schedule and block it off.
If you’re feeling like there’s no time to spare to nab for yourself, Saunders has some suggestions. “Carve out some time before the kids get up or after they go to bed to focus on your special projects. Talk with your spouse or partner about having some committed time on the weekend or where they drive the kids in the evening so they take care of the children and you can go to a coffee shop or library and work. Set up an agreement with another stay-at-home parent where they take your kids one day and you take the kids another day so you can both have time to work on projects,” Saunders says.
Mentally Walk Through Your Day
“Instead of trying to change everything at once, a great small step to take starts in the morning. Our mornings set the tone for our entire day. When you have a great morning, you're able to move through your day feeling calmer and more prepared for the curveballs life throws us,” Kornick says.
Often we think of our morning routine as getting out of bed, brushing our teeth, tossing our hair in a bun, and getting dressed for the day. In addition to just getting dressed, setting aside some time in the morning to think through the rest of the day can make a huge difference, plus you can do this without adding any extra steps.
Kornick offers this strategy: Keep a notepad and a pen in your bathroom. It can live in a drawer next to your toothbrush or have its own space on the counter. As you're brushing your teeth, mentally walk through your day. Picture yourself getting the kiddos up and dressed, prepping meals, tidying your home, heading out to the park or anything else you have planned for the day.
As you're mentally walking through the day, you'll think of things you need to do, things you want to add to your grocery list, and more. After you finish brushing your teeth, capture those ideas on your notepad and decide how and when you'll integrate them into your day, Kornick adds.
Just this simple micro-habit of mentally walking through your day while you brush your teeth, followed by capturing your ideas on a notepad can help you be more prepared, more organized, and in a clearer state of mind as you move into the next steps of your day, says Kornick. Anyone building out a daily routine for stay at home moms could benefit from this strategy, she adds.
Try a Sunday Brain Dump
Every Sunday afternoon, when things tend to be quieter, sit down, put pen to paper, and make an unorganized, messy list of all the things that are weighing on you, advises Nikki Oden, a mentor for moms and the creator of Your Ideal Mom Life.
It doesn't matter what area of your life the item pertains to, or how big or small. It doesn't even matter if you believe you'll never have time to do it. If it's on your mind, dump it onto the paper. Even if you do nothing else with the list, once it's out of your head, you'll feel so much more organized because you've captured everything on paper, says Oden.
And if you want to take things a step further, you can prioritize the list and determine which items are most important, which can wait, and which can be done by someone other than you,” she adds.
Find an Accountability Partner
So you have your ideal week planned, you’ve created your play schedule, and you’ve blocked off time to savor for yourself. Well done. But what’s next? Kornick says it’s time to find an accountability partner to help you push forward on your personal goals.
“You can hold each other accountable to starting that small business or making progress on the novel because you're checking in with each other—and we're just better together,” says Kornick.
You can hold each other accountable to starting that small business or making progress on the novel because you're checking in with each other—and we're just better together.
She cites research that finds people are 10 percent likely to reach a goal they’ve set their mind to on their own, 65 percent likely to accomplish it once they’ve committed to their goal by sharing it with others, and 95 percent likely to achieve it if they have committed to regular progress check-ups with an accountability partner.
Stay Consistent With Your Scheduled Rituals
When it comes to creating an ideal stay at home mom schedule, Kornick says it shouldn’t be too prescriptive. It doesn’t boil down to “you must do this in the morning, you must do this in the afternoon,” she notes. “But if you stay consistent, you're able to create a rhythm and set expectations with your kids so they know what to expect and they're ready for the day’s transitions.”
A Sample Stay at Home Mom Schedule
Need inspiration while you create your own daily routine? Take a look at this stay at home mom schedule, which makes space for a proper morning routine, bedtime routine, free play for kids, and time spent however you please.
* Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in 2023. It has been updated for timeliness.
Read More:
How to Be a Calmer at-Home Parent, Even When It Feels Chaotic
FAQs
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The best stay at home mom routine balances essential tasks, family time, and opportunities for personal and professional pursuits. Many moms find it helpful to start by blocking out time for school drop-offs, meals, playtime, and self-care. Establishing a consistent routine helps create a rhythm that supports both family needs and personal well-being.
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Start by designing an “ideal week” where you map out fixed activities like errands, kids’ nap times, and meals. Then, add flexible blocks of time for tasks you want to accomplish, like cleaning, work projects, or personal pursuits. This approach ensures that everything has its place while allowing room for daily surprises.
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Sticking to a stay at home mom schedule is easier when you build in rituals, like a morning or bedtime routine. Some moms find it helpful to work with an accountability partner to stay motivated and make steady progress on personal goals.
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Moms can create pockets of time by waking up early, setting aside time during kids’ naps, or swapping childcare with another parent. Blocking out specific times for activities that “fill your cup” ensures that personal needs aren’t overlooked, contributing to a healthier, more balanced routine.
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Creating a stay at home mom routine that includes downtime can reduce stress. Set aside specific blocks of time for rest, creative pursuits, or simple relaxation. By prioritizing activities that recharge you, it becomes easier to manage daily responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed.
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Creating a play schedule for kids can help manage their activities and keep them engaged, allowing moms to focus on their own tasks. For example, assign each day a theme—like crafts on Mondays or nature walks on Wednesdays. This reduces decision-making and keeps kids occupied in a structured way.
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A structured routine helps stay-at-home moms balance family, personal, and household responsibilities more effectively, which can help alleviate burnout. It can also provide a sense of stability for children and establish a rhythm that makes it easier to manage daily transitions and activities.
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Start by building one small habit, like a morning planning session or an evening wind-down routine, and gradually add more structure as you get comfortable. Small steps can help you build a manageable routine over time without feeling overwhelmed.
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A sample stay at home mom schedule might start with a morning routine, followed by school drop-offs, free play for kids, a mid-morning activity, lunch, kids’ nap or quiet time, and an afternoon outing. Evenings can include family dinner, a bedtime routine, and some personal time after the kids are in bed.
