A glossy customized planner won’t make you more productive I reminded myself as I perused 2023 academic planners. Still, I bought two.

November will be the year mark for homeschooling my son. I’ve moved up from slips of paper planning our daily lessons to full-blown academic planners.

It began as a solution to a Thanksgiving Day international move from the UK to Germany coupled with an overdue month-long trip back to America (we hadn’t been home since September 2019). By March 2023 when we were finally settled in our German home with no extended trips in the foreseeable future we analyzed the schooling options and found they weren’t a good fit. Since then, we’ve fallen into a solid homeschooling rhythm.

As organized as I am and even with all the care I take in my schedules there’s always a productivity curveball when it comes to raising kids. Their schedules shift and send a ripple effect into ours. Being home all day with both my six-year-old and three-year-old (we’re on the waitlist for a great part-time daycare — I had hoped she’d already be in the daycare by now) isn’t necessarily new but the added responsibility of making sure I’m providing a solid education for them did affect how I think about our days.

I’ve learned a few productivity lessons over this past year and, even though they solidified for me as a result of homeschooling, they may apply to people with or without kids, homeschooling or otherwise.

Triennially Versus Quarterly Scheduling

When I attended school, without realizing it, I set my goals triennially, correlating to my academic schedule: Fall (September-December), Spring (January-April), Summer (May-August). As a working adult, I became aware of the fiscal year in my professional life and shifted to mostly monthly goals when planning my personal life (my goals were mostly habit-building and were limited to working out, drinking less, and spending less). Then, starting around the time I had kids, I’ve been set on quarterly planning and goal setting to the point where I rev up my intentions in the fall, take a slight breather in the winter (for the holidays), rev up again in the spring, and shift down for work in the summer months.

My planning sessions take about an hour of reflection on the previous cycle (if I hit my goals, what I did great, what I could have done better, etc.), reviewing my upcoming schedule, looking at overarching plans, and getting into the right mindset for the coming months.

The August when we solidified the decision to homeschool my 6-year-old son, I set to work planning his overarching fall curriculum with hints of what we might cover in the spring. I had to weigh in on his and my 3-year-old’s sports activities as well as the homeschooling co-op we attend on Wednesdays and how some of the social groups we belong to usually plan their outings on Fridays. From this, I made a weekly outline of what our days look like and then a nitty gritty day-by-day snapshot of the subjects I’ll cover with my son. The plan covers September to December at which point I’ll make a spring schedule reflecting any new extracurriculars and moving subjects if required.

Here’s what our weekly to-dos look like:

And my son’s academic plan:

Admittingly I spent a solid few days working on the schedule: considering what he’d learn, choosing sports and activities that allowed one sport a day per kid without overlap, writing down learning goals, and figuring out when I’d write, work out, and keep our house clean and bodies nourished. But, it’s been easy-going since I made the schedules. There’s no “What do I do now?” Or “When will we have time to do x/y/z?” It feels even better knowing I’ll have a baseline to work off of when I plan the spring schedule in December since most of the activities will continue on the same days and time, and I don’t have to do that planning for a few more months.

It hit me: If I do a triennial plan I spend less time planning and more time doing. Additionally it better accounts for stretches of holidays versus quarterly planning, and gives us time to settle into a routine before we analyze it.

In December I plan to shift my writing and personal goal planning to triennial as well.

Systems in Place Truly Cut Time and Effort

Anyone who has read about productivity and the benefits of routines and systems has heard this before and I’m here to emphasize the point further for individuals dealing with managing people, be they small or large.

Our homeschooling journey began when my son was five years old. I took the role seriously but kept in mind that he was a little kid and needed time to explore and play. I wanted to continue the basic math skills, reading, and writing he had been learning at his former school, as well as explore whatever topics he was interested in. This very light, flexible tactic had me piecing together lessons the night before. I’d plan out a week or so of topics and note exercises I wanted to do, but, especially for math, I’d write out problems for him to solve the evening before. It usually took about 10–30 minutes to plan the next day’s lessons (or I’d wait to do it the morning of) between writing our exercises, looking for and printing off worksheets, and priming myself on how I’d explain things like the life cycle of a star (he was very into the solar system so I wanted to tell him all about it but at a little kid understanding level).

For two months in the summer, we simplified lessons to help my son learn time management: I’d write out a handful of math problems and a writing drill. He’d do the tasks at any point during the day as well as practice his reading. This helped free up some time for me but was more of a maintenance phase.

To prepare for the fall semester and acknowledge he’s a bit older and very hungry to learn, I consulted a handful of homeschooling books for advice as to what to teach him with what materials. I bought a spelling book, a grammar book, a math curriculum, and books on the topics he wanted to learn about this year: Romans for history, and geology for science. He’s shifted to an intense curiosity about the human body in recent weeks so we shifted as well, and he’s very into Halloween, so for October our history lessons have focused on the history of Halloween and its very traditions.

With the basics covered in workbook form and having all the books for history and science on hand, prepping for lessons has taken considerably less time. I feel I can devote more time to coming up with fun projects to solidify his learning and involve my three-year-old.

Squeeze in Fun Daily

This one isn’t necessarily for my kids — it’s for the adults. Kids will find moments of play in the busiest of schedules, but adults tend to get wrapped up in all the things they have to or need to do. When we “relax” we tend to succumb to mindless activities like scrolling social media or online shopping for something we don’t need. I don’t know about you, but scrolling never leaves me feeling energized or positive, in fact, I often feel guilty for having wasted my time.

Being at home with my kids most of the time is also draining for this introvert. I love my kids but I also love my quiet time. I’ve been waking up early to write ever since they were small, but now I’ve begun cutting my writing time in favor of reading a book. I also keep books around the house to pick up when I have a few minutes. When I clean or cook, I’ll pop on headphones and listen to a podcast. It’s a little escape for me. Don’t worry — I check on my kids periodically, plus they’ll come crying to me if there’s a problem.

We also try to take morning walks in our neighborhood and take trips to nearby parks on Thursdays and Fridays when we have fewer commitments. Leaving Thursday and Friday relatively free helps ensure a bit of flexibility in our schedule. Appointments? Bake cookies? I have to catch up on work? Pencil it in on Thursday.

Prioritize, Prioritize, & Cut

You can’t get everything done every day; there will always be something else to do or something you can work on longer than anticipated. But what should you cut? It helps to know what you’re in for before your day begins. I’ve been using a Bullet Journal for a few years and it usually works well, except for days when I suddenly realize I’ve listed twenty “quick” tasks and five longer ones. Enter Moleskine Timepage or Apple’s standard Calendar app (I prefer the look of Moleskine but inputting into Apple’s is much faster for me).

I’ve found I need to time block my tasks and day entirely and space those blocks 5–10 minutes. These spaces serve as in-between time for child needs, like getting my 3-year-old daughter ready for a walk, taking a minute for myself, and filling up water bottles. The “breather spaces” are essential when dealing with smaller children. Most times I can’t jump from one task to another right away, I need five or ten minutes to make sure my kids (mostly my daughter) are good to go, maybe even play a quick game if I’ve been busy with my stuff for a couple of hours. The extra time also helps with tantrums and the “I do it myself!” situations. I’m more patient since I allowed the extra time and know we won’t run late for anything. A bonus is some days my tasks get done quickly, I don’t use the breather spaces, and we have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.

I prep the night before, and time blocking also helps me see what I simply won’t have time to accomplish. Then I can move those tasks elsewhere, or recognize “Hey, it’s a busy day, we’ll need to stay on track in the morning.”

Conclusion

I don’t think anything I’ve covered is revolutionary, but sometimes when we get busy we forget some of the basics or don’t see that a way we’ve defaulted to doesn’t work as well as a different way.

One of the most important productive lessons I’ve learned since having kids and keeping them at home is to get tasks done efficiently so we can get on to living and enjoying each other. Our time is limited, both in a single day and life, the goal of productivity shouldn’t be to see how spotless your house can be or how much work you can do in an hour, it’s to get the have tos out of the way so you can get to the want tos sooner.