There are a lot of misconceptions about what a typical day looks like for me as a creative. I thought I’d give you a bit of a peek at what I do all day.

First and foremost, I am a wife and mom. I get to stay home and homeschool my kids while building my art and writing businesses. What follows is a typical day for me unless life happens. On those days, I pray I don’t go bonkers because my schedule has been thrown out the window.

Many years ago I fell in love with planners and have used one daily since. This allows me to plan my days with purpose. 

When I took the time to sit down and nail down a routine for my day, I started getting more done. Several years ago, I bought a Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt. It is a brilliant planner and has some beneficial tools. It wasn’t exactly what I needed; I still recommend people check it out. This planner helped me design a few things in the custom planner I made for myself.

One of the tools was the daily rituals. While I call mine routines instead of rituals, they serve the same purpose. The purpose is to plan out your whole routine for the day. What you will do in the morning is in one section, how you start your workday is another, closing down your workday is section three, and an even routine is the last section.

At first, I tried to use these pages. I would print them out for each quarter with the intention of using them and making the most of my day. Honestly, I didn’t see the value in using these sheets until I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book talks about clearing up mental space to work on other things. Routines help your mind have more space and make focusing on new things easier. With a daily routine, your mind doesn’t have to think about each thing you have to get done daily because it is planned into your routine. Thus freeing your mind to think about other essential things.

After reading Atomic Habits, I sat down with my daily routine sheet and started working to make everything I do regularly fit into different time slots during the day. This also helped me to stack a few new habits I wanted to develop onto things I was already doing. Habit stacking is covered in helpful detail in Atomic Habits and is worth reading about. 

This new routine took me over a month to figure out what fits best where. Some things were easy to get settled into their time slots because I was already doing most of them. However, the new habits I was working on didn’t have a place yet.

When I was finished, I noticed an increase in what I could get done during the day and had more peace that everything would get done. This has resulted in the day I typically have now.

I wake up at 5:30 every day of the week. I do not sleep in on the weekend because I want my body to know that it will always get up at the same time. 

From the time I wake up to when breakfast is finished, several things must be accomplished. I let the dog out, get ready (this is when I listen to podcasts), make my morning tea, do my Bible study, and have my prayer time. Once all of this is finished, I review what I have to accomplish during the day to start mentally preparing to get my to-do list done.

My work day starts with a sketching session followed by everything I need to do for my family and personal life. I allow two hours for these types of tasks. Even if I don’t finish them during this time block, it helps me stay focused, knowing I only have two hours to work on them. During this time my kids are doing school and I help them as needed, but I don’t teach them their lessons. Our homeschooling program is through Abeka Academy so all the classes are of a certified teacher in an actual classroom teaching the kids.

By this time my morning is usually over and my kids and I eat lunch together.

The rest of my day is filled with tasks for my business, ranging from blog posts, social media, marketing, skill-building to expand my publishing business, and working on my illustrations, patterns, and works of fiction.

Once these are finished, I am done with work, my kids are done with school, and we all move into our evening routine as a family, including things like dinner, chores, a family devotional, and going to bed.

I end my day by reading non-fiction and fiction books and practicing piano before I go to bed. These are habits that I have wanted to develop for years and habits that I stacked on top of putting my kids to bed.

It has taken me way too long to get a routine for my day that works to grow my relationship with God, serves my family better, and supports my ambitions as an artist, writer, and entrepreneur.

I encourage everyone to check out the Focus Planner. It may fit all your needs or start you on a path to develop specific routines that will benefit you and the creative life you wish to grow. Atomic Habits by James Clear is a wonderful read and helpful for tackling habits you don’t have and understanding why you keep unwanted habits.

My routine is different than most, but it works for me. I want you to have a routine that supports your goals as a woman, wife, mom, and business owner. Start brainstorming the best order for your daily tasks and see how much more you accomplish.