Get a behind the scenes look into my daily routine

How I plan out my year

I’m going to start today by giving you a rather positive look into my life and kind of what I hope that it looks like – what I wish it looked like every single day. And then toward the end, I will give you a peek into what it actually looks like.

In full transparency, this is the first year I’ve done this. At the end of 2020, I planned out all of 2021. I planned it out by quarters, kind of generally, what do I want to do and focus on in each quarter. Then I planned the first quarter really, really well. I am planning to go to a hotel for a night next month, sometime in mid-March, to plan out the next quarter.

Then once I’ve done that, I take 3-4 hours on the second to last Saturday of the month to plan out the coming month. And then I plan weekly and daily as well. So that is the structure that I’m going to share with you, this type of planning. Again, this is my goal. This is not what I always do. This is what I wish I always did. It’s what I want to be doing regularly and how I believe my business and my life would run best if I was able to do these things regularly.

What my ideal week looks like

Ideally, my morning looks like this. I get up in the morning and I meditate for just 5-10 minutes. I believe in meditation, but I have not yet made a lot of time for it in my life. After I meditate and then pray for a few minutes, I go for a walk. Typically, about a 45-minute Speed walk. I have something called hypermobility disorder, which causes a lot of joint pain and I can’t run. So I speed walk and it helps me feel a lot better emotionally and physically.

When I come home, I stretch for probably about 10, 15, sometimes even 20 minutes. Again, this is part of what really helps my hypermobility disorder. I get ready for the day and then I read my scriptures for 20-30 minutes in the morning. All of this happens while my kids are getting up and ready to go. I do not get up exceptionally early. I typically get up between 6:45 and 7:00 AM, which is about the same time that my kids get up.

Once my kids are all gone, which happens around 9:00 AM, I then start working for the day. I work from 9 AM – 2 PM most days. Every single day, I start with 30 minutes of Ask Me Anything. This is a private group where people can ask me any questions they have about their business; tech, marketing, or otherwise. I spend 30 minutes answering these questions, typically through video, every morning.

I will go through my email every morning and file things into the appropriate folders, delete things, unsubscribe from things, reply, do anything that I can do under in under a minute or so. Otherwise, it gets moved to a different folder for a different time. What I do after that varies depending on the day. And I’ll get into that and just a little bit.

Next, I do take a lunch break during that 9-2 window, usually about 30-40 minutes or so. I eat lunch. I do Marco polo with any of my coaching clients. I will also follow up on Marco polos with friends and family, and I do some of the things my physical therapist is asking me to do for my hypermobility disorder.

Then my junior high boys who are 13, they get home from school around 2 PM. So that’s the time that my work time typically ends. After work, I spend an hour each day going on a date with a kid. This is something I do probably 80-90% of the time. This is really important to me. I spend an hour with one of my kids each day,  Monday through Thursday.

Then I do other random family stuff that needs to be done. Mom stuff that needs to be done, cleaning, that type of stuff.  and I’ll give you some more details of that when I go into each individual day.

We typically dinner around 6 PM. I usually have a kid, the same kid I go on a date with that day, help me with dinner. They’re learning to cook more meals.  There are a few meals that they can cook on their own, which is really nice. If I need to take a dinner night off, I can hand dinner off to my kids on occasion.

 After dinner, I’ll do more family stuff. Sometimes I’ll watch a TV show. On Wednesday evenings, I typically work for two hours once my kids are in bed, which happens between 8-8:30 PM, depending on the kid.  And then they typically read until 9-9:30 PM.

After that, I always take a hot bath. I read, there’s always some sort of book I’m reading. I try to break down projects and things that I’m going to do into little 10-15 minute snippets. And then I’m in bed usually by 10-10:30 PM. So that’s kind of my overall daily schedule.

My Ideal Daily Routine

Mondays are kind of my flex day. I do not always work on Monday. This is the day that I schedule errands, Dr appointments, things that need to happen that I can’t fit into the evenings. I will schedule those always on Mondays. Now, sometimes there isn’t anything so I will work on those Mondays. But if I do have things scheduled then I don’t work on Mondays. This is when I’ll do things like write blog posts or create a YouTube video.

Also for work, I will always go through my action needed emails. As I go through my email every day, if it’s something that’s going to take me more than a minute or so and it’s not exceptionally urgent, I move it to an action needed folder. I go through that folder twice a week, once on Mondays and once on Thursdays. Every Monday, we also have a family night and I do our laundry.

On Tuesdays, the first Tuesday of the month I record three podcast episodes. On the second Tuesday of the month, I update a tutorial inside of Tech School. On the third Tuesday, I record three more podcast episodes. And on the fourth Tuesday, I address any feedback that has been given to me inside of my membership, whether that is an e-course, Tech School, the free portion of the membership, any of that feedback has been given a ‘things I need to change’ label.

On Tuesday evenings, I work on some sort of a family project, whatever it is that I feel like I need to be doing for our family as a whole. Maybe that is creating a video from our family’s recent vacation or something like that. But I’m working on some sort of family project. I also go through and update everything inside our budget. And then after the kids are in bed, I will usually read or do an e-course or something with my husband.

On Wednesdays during my work time, the first Wednesday I create a new tutorial. It kind of varies; two Wednesdays a month I create a new tutorial for Tech School and then two Wednesdays a month I work on a custom design for a client. And then Wednesday evenings I usually work for two additional hours. And that’s typically whatever current project I’m working on for work. My current project right now, in February of 2021, is website templates and getting all of that ready for you guys.

On Thursdays for my work time, I write the email that will go out the following Tuesday. I have some time set into set aside here that’s just catch-up time, things that I didn’t get done earlier in the week that I wanted to but wasn’t able to. If I don’t need that catch-up time, I continue to work on whatever work project I’m currently doing. I post in my private community. I go to lunch with my husband. And then, that afternoon after the kids are home, I will order our groceries and work on some sort of a personal project. 

On Fridays, I have work project time. So, again, this is a time for me to work on whatever project I’m currently working on. I do my action needed emails and I schedule out all of my social media on Fridays. Once the kids are home, I will pick up groceries, usually take one of the kids with me. Friday evenings are completely open for me. Sometimes I will work if that’s needed.  Sometimes we just play as a family.  It completely varies. Lots of different things happen on Friday evenings.

On Saturdays. I plan out my week. We clean the house as a family. We typically have some sort of family activity, right now it’s rock climbing. So most Saturdays we go rock climbing as a family. And then that evening I have a date with my husband.

Sundays, I try to do an hour or so of family history. We also plan family home evening. We have church, we do family council. I’ll almost always take a nap on Sundays. We usually watch a Book of Mormon video. And once The Chosen season two is out, we’ll be watching those videos as well.  We play family games. We have extended family dinners, things like that on Sundays.

So that is my ideal week. That is what I want to get done every week. It’s what I shoot for. I believe we all need to have that type of goal. 

My daily routine in reality

 I really do believe in planning. But I do not want you to think that I always accomplish that plan. So here are a few of the things, more real-life things, that have happened in the last week or two in my life.

I wake up tired, so I skip my walk, which means that I’m grumpier and in more pain throughout the day. I try to study my scriptures in the morning and my kids are here and they’re getting ready for school and there’s random fights or whatever, or just mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, kind of stuff going on. It can make it really hard to really dive deep into the scriptures. 

I follow my kids around during the morning (and at night, honestly), trying to get them to take their meds. I have two kids who struggle severely enough with depression and anxiety that they are on meds for that. And if they don’t take them, our family’s life is significantly impacted. So I will follow them around to make sure they take those darn meds. 

I will sometimes forget my own meds. I am also on meds for depression and anxiety, and if I don’t take them, I get grumpy and frustrated and our family’s life is significantly impacted. If I have forgotten my meds or not gone on a walk, I will sometimes slip in an extra nap or maybe an extra TV show in the afternoon when I should be working. Then I have to make up work when the kids get home, which brings on a lot of mom guilt and things that I get frustrated with myself for continuing to be weaker than I want to be. 

I pray regularly throughout the day. Yes, I have my morning and evening prayers, but I feel myself constantly all day long, begging God for help to be better, to be more like the person that I want to be. To be better to you, to be better to my kids, to be better to my husband, to be better to myself. I am praying all day long.

Last week I took the whole day off on Tuesday when my husband was at work and my kids are at school. It’s the only day all week that I have completely alone. I took the whole day off. And that meant I was behind on podcast episodes because I was supposed to record three podcasts episodes and I didn’t do it. So then I had to play catch-up. 

Even though I have time scheduled for Marco Polo when I’m working with my coaching clients and things, sometimes I get into Marco polo throughout the day. And I get into a big, long conversation. I did this yesterday with my assistant, Audra.  We were talking about some things in her life, but we were also talking about the workshop that I want to plan for you. So was I technically still doing work? Yeah. But did it throw other things off in my planning and my schedule? Absolutely. 

I break up fights between my kids all the time. Yesterday, I broke up a fight between my daughters. The younger one had on the older one’s pants, even though they’re the exact same size. The older one really wanted her pants back, but the younger one didn’t want to give her her pants because she was already dressed and they had to leave for school in five minutes.

So they were screaming and fighting. I was dripping wet in the shower trying to come out and figure out what was going on so that they could get off to school. And the older one’s trying to pull the younger one’s pants off. So that’s part of my life.

Oftentimes when I take a whole day off or I watch a TV show or I take a nap instead of working when I should work, then that means that I have to put off a project that I’m working on for you guys off until the next week. And that again brings in some guilt.

Long talks with kids, at completely unscheduled times; I have a love/hate relationship with it. Mostly a love relationship with this. They ask me all sorts of questions. My kids and I have a lot of really good talks. I mean, deep, deep questions. I have a daughter who was really concerned about women and the priesthood right now.

I have another daughter ask me this question about “mom, what would you do if I chose to get pregnant when I was 15?” Random questions that my kids ask and that I have to drop everything and address right then because they’re really important questions.

Errands and doctor appointments. I have a doctor’s appointment for my son today that was just scheduled yesterday. I’m not going to get three podcast episodes recorded today because of that.  He has an ingrown toenail, and it’s really difficult for him to walk on it. So now I’ve got to take him to the doctor today.

 My kid’s drama teacher randomly rescheduled a practice the morning of. I went to bed on Sunday, I checked when their practices were for drama and then I went about my day on Monday. Then found out that afternoon that she had changed the practice midday and it threw everything off. I was at a doctor’s appointment with different kids, another kid had to wait at the school for an hour for me all by himself because he didn’t have a phone. And so life, life happens.

One tip that helps me when it comes to planning daily routines

One thing that has been my saving grace over and over and over again, is to under schedule myself. Now, I still struggle with this. I really do struggle with this, but I’m getting better. It is something I really believe in.

I leave blank space in my schedule every day because, ladies, life happens. It happens to all of us. The unexpected comes up. Sometimes that unexpected is our own weakness, our own humanness. This fallen world. Sometimes I just am depressed and I just can’t work. And other times I’m just really tired or I’m in a lot of pain and I just can’t do what I had planned that day.

If I have a few hours of extra time scheduled in my day, every day, then I have room for that. I have room to give myself and others grace. I have room for patience. I have room for stillness. I have room for connection with God when I don’t over-schedule myself.

How do I do it all?

I have people say to me all the time in real life, on social media, how do you get done every day? How do you do everything that you do, Misty? And here’s what I want to tell you – I don’t do everything that you think I’m doing.

I don’t volunteer at the school.  While I say yes to callings, I don’t say yes to everything else that I’m asked to do in the church. I don’t spend as much time with extended family as I would like to sometimes. There are many things I am saying no to in my life. If you have any questions about what my day-to-day life looks like,  I’m happy to answer them. Shoot me a DM on Instagram. 

If you would like help setting up this type of structure, this type of goal in your own life, this organized plan, I highly suggest the Steps Program from April Perry of Learn Do Become. There’s a link to it in the show notes.

I fully back this program, I don’t become an affiliate for just anything and everything. I only become an affiliate for things that I use, that I love, and that I believe will truly benefit the majority of those who follow me. So check that out. There are two links, one links directly to the Steps Program if you’re ready to enroll in that, and the second links to a free webinar that April offers in order to introduce you to her concepts and the Steps program in general.