Let’s be clear: being a parent to three kids, an entrepreneur, and a long-distance runner– and attempting to be a decent wife and friend, too– isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.  There are only so many hours in the day.  But I’ve always been the kind of person who tries to maximize my time and productivity, and I learned several decades ago that having a schedule allows me to do that with the least amount of stress.

The last two school years have been tough, no doubt.  My kids go to three different schools, which means three different school runs every morning and afternoon.  This has been a real find-my-zen challenge, as the thing I tolerate least well in all of life is wasted time.

I had a revelation a few months ago, though, that has reset my schedule and increased my productivity (and, therefore, my happiness).  Instead of using the early morning hours to run on days I don’t have pre-work hours clients, I now use the time to complete work projects that always seemed to get back-burnered before.  I’m able to squeeze my run into another time of day– either the mid-morning hours in between clients or the afternoon when my boys can run with me for a bit.  My over-40 body doesn’t run first thing in the morning as well as it used to, so this time swap is beneficial for a lot of reasons.

My mid-morning work hours are when I have most of my personal training client sessions.  I still have time on two days per week to volunteer at the elementary school, where I lead an enrichment class for over 100 students in grades 2-5.  (Though thankfully not all at once!)  Having a balance between a meaningful family life, work projects, community involvement, and personal endeavors is my daily goal.

The Mom Time in the afternoons is probably familiar to many of you– driving kids to soccer practice and piano lessons, reviewing homework, chatting about what’s going on at school, and generally being available.  I am grateful to have a life where I can be there for my kids, yet it’s bittersweet how independent my boys are becoming and how much less of them I see in the afternoons, as they’re involved in more after-school activities and bigger class projects they work on with their peers.

Most weeks I run for about 8 hours divided over four days, but at least one of those is a weekend day.  I also practice yoga daily just before bed (about 30 minutes on most days), and do an hour of strength training per week.   The weight work happens while my husband and I are Netflixing something after the kids have gone to bed.  (Most recently, “Freaks & Geeks”– I highly recommend!)  All told, I estimate 12-13 hours per week devoted to my fitness.  It may sound like a lot, but that’s well below 10% of my total weekly life (and only just above 10% of my total waking hours).  It’s a good investment in my mental and physical health!

Never fear: I face the same drudgery of grocery shopping, meal preparation, and housekeeping as everyone else.  Sometimes these things get done really well, and sometimes we scrape by on scrambled eggs with veggies for dinner.  My home is not a museum, and for someone with degrees in art history and architecture, you’d think it would be far better decorated than it is.  But we’re grateful for the hand-me-down comfy couches and will get around to mopping the floor sometime soon (maybe).

Knowing that there is a basic plan for how the days will unfold gives us all something to plan around.  While there are daily flies in the ointment, it’s the fact that I can be flexible within that framework that brings balance to my life.

Do you have a daily schedule?  How does it help you keep it all together?