How to schedule more fun

Today I want to share a little bit about how to schedule more fun this season. It's a lot easier than you think. Many of you are thinking about summer. Your kids are getting out of school soon if they aren't out already.  And you are looking to add more fun into your summer.

I know every single year I have these grand plans that we're going to do more than we did last year. I'm not going to work as much or try to catch up around the house. We're going to have more fun. And then what happens is September comes and all I can think is. "Where did the summer go. I missed it again!"

So I came up with this really simple technique to schedule more fun into your summers and enjoy your life. The great thing is you can do this for the summer, for June or July, or you can do it a week at a time. It depends on how much you like planning, and how much change you're trying to generate. But you can do this at any time.

To schedule more fun you need a weekly schedule

You can just do this for your weekly schedule. This is how I do my ideal week when I'm doing the exercise.

I redo my ideal week, anytime there's a shift in my life or my schedule. So I was telling the folks in Bookkeeper Training School on one of our coaching calls, that I redo my schedule three times a year. I would do my summer schedule, a fall schedule, and a spring schedule.

You might just be in a funk and you need to change things up since what you have been doing isn't working for you anymore. Change it, change your schedule around.

How do you change your schedule around to have more fun?

So how you do change your schedule around? I want you to start with a blank calendar. If you don't have a blank calendar, you can go to Passion Planner and print out a template.  You can also print out some beautiful planners if you're looking for a planner. These planners are undated.

Maybe you think you can’t start any plan because it's not January, or it's not the beginning of a quarter. That's the beauty of undated planners like the Passion Planner or Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner, is that you can start anytime.

Start with a blank calendar

You need to start with a blank calendar. And the reason you need to start with a blank calendar is that you need places to write all this down. If you do not put things on your calendar, you're not going to get them done. It's that simple.

We've seen in Bookkeeper Training School, that those that go through, finish the course, get clients and do all the things, are the ones that put on their calendar when they were going to work in their business. And part of working their business was getting to the course. So if you want things to be important, you have to schedule them.

Now, if you want, you can also do this digitally. You can clear out your Google calendar except for the must-do’s. And we're going to talk about those in a second, but you need something blank to start with. Because the problem is you pile all this stuff onto your calendars.

To schedule more fun you need to know what your must-do's are

One of the things that you need to do, if you're going to schedule more fun this season is you need to figure out what your must-do’s are and what would be nice to do's are. You need to separate your must-do's from what you think you must do.

Now that you've got a blank calendar, open up your existing calendar. In your blank calendar, put in anything that is not moveable. And that is anything that is a must-do. It is set in stone and has a concrete time that it must be done. So if you have any work commitments, existing meetings, church, an existing doctor's appointments, or anything like that, put those in there.

Do not add the things you think you must do. At this point, make sure you do not add in anything flexible. For example, my work schedule is pretty flexible because Jeff and I are both home with Erik. So I have a lot of flexibility when I work. Jeff and I could switch when we're working.

One of the things with living in Florida is the beaches get busy on the weekends. And so if we want to go to the beach, we can go to the beach during the week. Despite people thinking that I have to be on my desk during the week.  I don't.  I can work at my desk on Saturdays instead and go to the beach on Wednesday.

Your fun day does not have to be on the weekend

That would be a good option.  You can make Wednesday a fun day. Or maybe you make it Monday. If you wanted to take Sunday and Monday off instead, that'd be okay. But you know, you don't have to work Monday through Friday.

So because work is flexible, do not put that on your calendar. I want it to be things that are hard and appointments that can not move.

What about your kids' sports schedule? Or their art classes? At this point, I want you to sit down and talk to your kids. Ask them if they want to do all of those activities? Because I think a lot of times you confuse your must do's with, your think you must do.

I think a lot of times you pack your kids' schedules because all good moms do that. But you're not giving your kids just time to be kids. That's one thing that I'm conscious about when I'm scheduling stuff. Because I love having the flexibility to just say, you know what, today we're going to go to the beach or today we're going to sit by the pool or play at home.

I want to encourage your to listen to your kids.  Sometimes they won't verbalize that they're exhausted or burnt out. But you will see it in their behavior.  Many times your kids think that they must do things because you want them to. But if you talk to them and allow them to make the decision, you might find that they don't want to do that thing.

Now it's time to schedule more fun

Once you've scheduled all your must-do’s, work commitments, church, existing appointments, and you've assessed the activities that you're signed up for. Now it's time to schedule some fun. And I know many of you are wondering about the work blocks, workouts, and all the other things yet.  You're scheduling fun next because you desperately need some fun. Once you get to the stage where you're not burnt out and exhausted, and you feel a little bit more refreshed, then you can peel back some of the fun time and add other things. 

To schedule more fun you need to know what is fun for you

So one thing that is important for you to be able to schedule in fun, is that you need to know what you think is fun. Greg McKeown in his book, "Effortless," talks about how he and his wife each did a list of 20 things that they like to do. 20 things that bring them joy.

And I love this concept because a lot of times you're going to schedule in fun. And then you maybe you and your spouse don't have the same idea, or you and your kids don't have the same idea of fun. It's a really good idea to have a list for each one of you of what you think is fun. And then also maybe have a family list of what is fun for the family to do.

You need to schedule some more mama fun 

Now here's the thing you're going to need family fun time, and you're going to need mama fun time. Okay. And so sometimes mama fun time looks like just reading a book on your own in peace and quiet. It might be going for a walk on your own, going shopping, getting a massage, swimming, or taking a bath. But it has to be something that is just for you without your kids.

Try and schedule at least 30 minutes of fun just for you every day. It could be as simple as taking 30 minutes first thing in the morning to reading a book or maybe at the end of the day.

And then schedule fun things with your kids multiple times a week. Okay. That could be as simple as hanging out, watching a movie, going to the park together on the way home from school. There are lots of different things you can do together, so schedule something that you can do together as a family.

Now schedule anything else remaining

Then once you've got your must-do's and you've scheduled in some fun now add in anything else that's remaining. This is another part where you're going to have to make some compromises. Maybe you can't spend 10 hours a week cleaning your house, or three hours a night to make dinner. Or maybe you're not going to have five hours a day to work. 

So then what happens? If you're not intentional about what you want, you will fill the time you have. 

Jeff and I have gotten pretty good at cleaning in small spurts. We've also gotten much better about trying to clean up after ourselves as we're going through the day. And we found that that has greatly reduced the amount of time of day cleaning our house.

I will do batch cooking to make freezer meals, and then utilize my Crock-Pot or Air Fryer.  If I make a plan for what we're going to eat based on what we're doing every day, that is very helpful. And I've also found that when I have less time to work, I get more done.

Sometimes you need to compromise to schedule more fun

I would encourage you to compromise and see what you can get done in less time so that you can schedule more fun.

And if you need help with this check out the Mother of all Time Course. Sign-up for this course where I'll teach you to save at least 10 hours a week on just things that you're currently doing. And so I give you some of the tips that we use in our home to help get things done faster.

I can't wait to see your schedules and how you're scheduling fun. Let us know how are you scheduling fun? You can email us at podcast@smallbizmama.com. Or you can go to the Small Biz Mama Community on Facebook.