The husband and I read a book a while back called “Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success.” It’s a motivational type book written by Rory Vaden and designed to help the reader achieve their goals by figuring out how to work hard, basically. Don’t take the escalator, take the stairs! It’s harder, but better for you in the long run. Makes sense, right?
One of the activities in the book is to write out your perfect day. If you could design the perfect 24 hours, how would it go? I was intrigued and “funemployed” at the time, so this was a particularly interesting challenge for me. I had complete control over my 24 hours! So I drafted an Excel spreadsheet and came up with my perfect day. It looked like this:
This plan allowed me to set up certain tasks to accomplish, like writing for my blog, cooking or baking elaborate recipes, researching job opportunities, working on contracts, completing household projects, or contribute to volunteer projects.
Just the other day, the husband suggested that we do this exercise again to help us be more structured in the evening. The biggest change since the last draft? We now have a 2 month old. Here’s my ideal/realistic day:
Note that I am no longer planning by the 15 minutes, nor do I have the time to get our printer working so I can have a clean printed copy. And of course the schedule looks drastically different. I’m a mom now. So I now spend roughly six hours a day feeding my baby and no time working out, reading, or napping. Or showering. That should be on there somewhere…
Every mom out there is nodding her head and saying, “I coulda told ya so!” and many of you did, in fact, tell me so while I was pregnant. But we already cut the hospital tags off the baby, so there’s no returning him. And I wouldn’t if I could. I love him to pieces and (almost) gladly give up working out, reading, napping, and showering. The husband disagrees with the showering part. Poor husband, he gets to smell me every day!
Hopefully when we compare notes, the husband and I will come up with some sort of “schedule” that involves washing the baby, me, and the dishes at least twice a week. Gnocchi the cat is clearly not supporting the old schedule.
I hear a baby waking up….
Posted by 
For the Love 
Dear Marian,
First off I gotta say Thank You. You are tirelessly supporting Baby J and have very limited time for much else. Every day I look at our son and I see him growing healthy and strong. It is your endless commitment and love for him that makes it happen. Reading this article makes me feel very grateful for you and proud to call you our son’s “mommy”.
On another note I am clearly shameful for not fixing our printer after 6 months and the little fur ball I insisted we bring into the house is being his usual productivity enabling self. It looks like all three of the boys in the house are causing trouble! Will you forgive us?
Thanks again. Your my hero.
Love,
The Husband
Forgiven! I have the best husband. 😉
It does get easier lol. In the first 6months I wondered if I’d ever read again. Now my boy is 3 and according to my kindle I read 47 books last yr. hang in there 😀
That’s awesome! Thanks for the encouragement. I think once naps become somewhat regular, that’ll help a lot!