When you think of the word routine, what comes to mind? Are you instantly filled with joy and peace, knowing there will be order in your home? Maybe hearing this word makes you feel dread or annoyance, because you’ve tried routines in the past, and they haven’t worked for you. 

Maybe they have felt too confining, or you just weren’t sure how to implement these routines. Maybe it’s more chaotic when you think about routines because it’s not something that comes naturally to you.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of emotions that are stirred up when you hear the word routine, I’m so excited to dive into today’s episode, and really unpack several routines that I think can create a peaceful team environment for your family.

I love being able to help you in your motherhood journey and make it simpler and more enjoyable for you because when our personal ducks are in a row, and when our family is taken care of, and when we are taken care of ourselves, it’s so much easier to dedicate the time and energy and attention to our business that it needs and deserves.

So, in this episode, I’m going to share 4 ways to cultivate teamwork in your home and give you some practical tips for how you can start to implement these routines for the long haul!

First off, reflect on these questions:

• How are your current routines serving you?
• Are any routines currently working that you want to keep using?
• What are some routines that you want to start implementing?
• Do your current routines need to be modified or revamped?

This pulse check that we just paused to do is going to help you figure out how you can move forward. And don’t stop here. Really use this to move forward and take actual action.

Now, let’s move on to the 4 ways to cultivate teamwork in your family!

#1: Implement Weekly Check-Ins

Implement a Personal CEO Day

Have a certain day or couple of hours a week to focus on what you need to do to prepare for the week or the month. 

This helps you take a pulse on what’s going on in your house and family life to help prepare you for two more important meetings: Your spouse check-in & your family meeting.

Your personal CEO day helps you think about where you’re going, and where your family is going, and then map out a plan of how you’ll get there. If you want a deeper dive into the importance of a personal CEO day, check out episode 83, where I dive into all those details.

Implement a Spouse Check-In

In this meeting, I want you to review your budget together, discuss upcoming events and your schedules, thinking about meal planning and household responsibilities. 

I want you to reflect on your family dynamic, your children’s behavior and schedule, etc. Once you really start to prioritize this, it’s going to cut down on a lot of communication issues, and future tension and conflict that may arise later in the week. It’s really important for you to be on the same page when it comes to the needs of your family.

Implement a Family Meeting

This will keep everyone on the same page. Ideally, this meeting should happen weekly. It’s a great space for you to be able to come together and discuss what’s on the agenda for the week, and what they can look forward to while including them in the process of the creation of the schedule for the week with things like meal planning, family contributions, responsibilities, and more.

Once the meeting is over, always end with a really fun activity like playing a game or going on a family walk, so that the family meeting doesn’t become something that people dread, rather it becomes something that your family looks forward to. 

#2: 10-Minute Connections

It’s really important that we keep our children’s and our spouses’ attention buckets full at all times.

With Your Children

For your children, this is one on one time that you spend with each one of your children every single day, where they get to choose what they want to do. 

So if your child is really struggling, and they’re being really defiant, or they just don’t want to do what you’re asking them to do, connect with them first, and spend 10 minutes of this special time with them.

Connection is great for preventative parenting, but it also works in the moment as well when you see that your child is melting down.

This can look like reading, playing together, and more.

With Your Spouse

The second 10-minute connection is a couch, check in with your spouse. I want to challenge you to spend 10 minutes per day face-to-face just having a conversation. I can’t tell you how much you can accomplish in a 10-minute uninterrupted conversation with your spouse without kiddos around. It’s amazing.

Between Siblings

This is just a special time when your kiddos get to play with their siblings for a special time. This is a chance for them to bond and play intentionally together. 

This could be a time when you introduce a new activity that they can only do during sibling time.

A supervised sibling date out somewhere is a fun idea to try out too!

When your kids feel connected to their sibling(s), they are going to be less likely to fight with them because they understand each other on a deeper level.

 #3: The 5-Minute Tidy

This is the perfect way to enlist the whole family to quickly clean the house. 

Now, it can feel daunting, if you just ask your family to like clean up the kitchen, but if you say “Hey, guys, we’re going to set a timer for five minutes so that everyone can help out.” it feels manageable. 

I recommend doing this regularly, at least 3 times a day. After each mealtime is a really good time since you’re already in the habit of being in the kitchen together during that time frame anyways.

Anytime you see that a room is getting really messy, do the 5-minute tidy and have everyone work together to get it picked up. If it doesn’t all get picked up in that 5-minute frame, move on and come back in a little bit and set another 5-minute timer. It sets the expectation that we will get it done, just perhaps at a later time.

#4: The 20-Minute Blitz

No more two-hour cleaning sessions on the weekend. We’re tossing those out the window! 

The concept of this routine is to focus on one project or one problem area for 20 minutes a day. 

I always recommend starting with the messiest area that requires the most help and enlist your spouse and your kids to help you. It’s not our job as moms to take care of everything and everybody. It’s our job to take care of ourselves first, and it’s our job to teach and help our spouse and our kids be able to support us. Because running a household is multiple full-time jobs.

I just want to give you that empowerment and that courage to ask for help. It is not your job to do absolutely everything in the home. So enlist the help of your spouse and kids and knock it out in a 20-minute time frame together!

These habits are super important to instill in our kids. It’s really important that they understand how to recognize when an area needs to be cleaned or decluttered, and then that they have the skills to actually execute it.

I highly recommend you take these and start implementing them in your family! I know there’s so much value to them, and I can’t wait to see how you start using them and what kind of change they bring for you and your family!

Remember, they are:

1. Implement Weekly Check-Ins
2. 10-Minute Connections
3. 5-Minute Tidy
4. 20-Minute Family Blitz

Come share with us over in the Organized Mom Photographer Facebook Group which one you implement!

Quotes to Note:

“We need to be focusing on the things that are working well so that we can replicate them so that we can do those same things in the other areas in our life that are not going well.”

“We need to create systems for the things that are bothering us.”

“When your kids feel connected to their sibling, they are going to be less likely to fight with them because they understand each other on a deeper level.”

Resources:

1. Need support managing your time well and creating systems to streamline your Photography Business? Join the Efficient Mom Photographer (12 Week Group Coaching Program)
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