How I Design My Day

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On:

Questions we ask ourselves when we feel we don’t have enough time in our day or when we are stretched too thin:

  • How should I manage my time? 
  • How can I have enough time for everything I need to get done?
  • How can I make my life easier and more meaningful?
  • How can I involve God more in my daily life?

Read on to find insights that will surely bless your life, as well as the lives of those you love and serve.

Designing My Day with God

I’m in my greenhouse today, and it is snowing outside! 

I’m excited to share with you what I think is one of the biggest keys to the success and progress I find in my family, in my homeschool, and in my life. So many people ask me how I get so many things done, and really it comes from the way that I design my day. God is truly the great designer. I see His majesty in the far-reaching sky and in the delicate details of a flower. The God who made the mighty mountains and designed the perfect patterns on a butterfly wing also greatly desires to be the designer of our daily lives.

  • A photo of a sunny sky over the top of foggy mountains | The Good and the Beautiful
  • A close up of an orange yellow blooming flower | The Good and the Beautiful
  • Stony mountains covered in fog | The Good and the Beautiful

Transforming Ordinary Days

It is what we do with our seemingly ordinary days that becomes the very design of our lives. When we seek God’s help in designing these ordinary days, our lives become extraordinary. Like all of you, I have days in which I don’t get out of my pajamas and days when our homeschool is a disaster.

God’s Grace

I have found that God’s perfect design for my days doesn’t require having a perfectly clean house, perfect mental health, a perfectly shaped body, or perfectly behaved children. I have come to see that God never expects me to do more than I can do, and He always meets me where I am. He lets me rest. He lets me be imperfect. But He also leads me to see how I can be more, how I can do more and bless more people, and how I can experience more joy and fullness in this one beautiful life that He has given me.

Intentionally Planning Beautiful Experiences 

I love growing herbs and plants and making tea with them. Today is the first time I’ve tried pine-needle tea. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t really love pine-needle tea. But I can’t help smiling while I drink it because growing flowers and raising butterflies and making pine-needle tea are experiences I decided I wanted to have. They only happen because I intentionally planned to do them. Our lives and opportunities will swiftly flow past us if we don’t intentionally plan our lives.

  • A hand pouring tea from a clear glass teapot into a clear glass teacup | The Good and the Beautiful
  • Flowers in terracotta pots in a greenhouse | The Good and the Beautiful
  • A path through the woods surrounded by purple wild flowers | The Good and the Beautiful

Doing very simple planning every day will make a difference. However, counseling with our almighty, wise God and planning in partnership with Him will foundationally change our lives. It has been the most impactful part of my life.

Fullness Is Found in God

All of us have different faith perspectives and ways that we seek guidance from God. But we all have this in common: It doesn’t matter how many self-help books we read, how determined we are to set and reach goals in homeschool and in life—we will always fall short in finding the full joy and growth in life and in homeschooling if we are not spiritually nourishing ourselves and seeking God to direct our paths in all things.

  • How I Design My Day: My Routine

    I start the planning of my day with Bible study, prayer, and pondering in the morning. The house is quiet, and I am not exhausted like I am at the end of the day. I am a morning person. In the warm seasons, I sit out on my porch and I hear the birds and watch the sunrise. In cold seasons I sit at my desk in my greenhouse or in my front room with a cup of tea. During my study and prayer in the morning, I also go over my schedule.

  • A sunset with birds | The Good and the Beautiful

Evaluate Myself

I evaluate myself and where I need to improve in my physical, my mental, and my spiritual health; I ponder about my children and my husband and my homeschool; and I write down inspiration and ideas I have. I usually write down action items. It’s like a guidebook for the day. 

Evaluate My Loved Ones

I’ll ponder each one of my children specifically every day asking, “What do they need and how can I help them? Where are they lagging? What is the most important thing that I can do for them today?” It might sound overwhelming, but it is beautiful and hopeful. 

God Cares for Us Deeply

I am often amazed at how much God loves my children and how readily He shows me the things that I can do to guide them and to teach them. They are usually very simple, small things, and they are so effective. I actually made a list of some of the things that I have written down in the past year, and I will share it with you.

Ways to Be More Intentional with My Day

  • Stop working on my computer when my children wake up. Give them my full attention for the first hour that they are awake. 
  • Leave a note on my daughter’s bed. 
  • Give my husband a back rub today. 
  • Make plans to visit my brother and nurture my relationship with him. 
  • Make sure a particular child is not hungry when starting language arts. 
  • Sing a hymn with my son every Sabbath day and teach him to sing the tenor parts of the hymns so he’s more comfortable singing in church. 
  • Make sure my family all sits down and talks together during dinner more often. 
  • Set a timer for 8:30 every night to remind myself to say my end-of-the-day prayers right then, since I’m too tired when I go to bed.
  • Visit the new neighbor down the street. 
  • Plan a more consistent, regular schedule for homeschooling. 
  • Encourage my girls to go on a sisters’ date. 
  • Get back to starting homeschool with prayer and a song. 
  • Start clocking my work hours so I don’t overwork. 
  • Set a specific time to exercise each day so it actually happens. 
  • Text scriptures to my teenagers during the day. 
  • Plan a hike with my family. 
  • Stop reading the news so often. 
  • Put my kids to bed earlier so I’m not too tired to tuck them in. 
  • Play uplifting spiritual music in my home more often.

A Lifelong Pursuit

I usually only write down two to five things a day. And to be honest, I don’t always end up doing them all. I think it’s a lifelong pursuit, and I do feel myself being refined and improving and getting better and better at following through with the things that I write down. When all of these things that I have done are combined together, it has really impacted my life and my family, and most of the things are things that I would not have done and would not have happened if I didn’t intentionally ponder and plan to do them. 

  • Strength Through God

    I truly believe that if you make prayerfully pondering and planning a consistent practice, you will find more hope, more inspiration, and more fullness of life. Seeking God’s guidance every day has become a non-negotiable priority in my life, and I believe it is the number one best thing that I have done to improve my homeschool and to strengthen myself and my family.

  • A woman praying with her elbows on the table over an open bible | The Good and the Beautiful

The Master Designer Will Design Your Life

We have one beautiful life. There is so much fullness and beauty and power available to us when we seek God’s help. Rather than just getting up and trying to do the daily grind with our own strength, in our own way, and with our own mind, we can allow God, the designer of the universe, to help us design our day, because it is these ordinary, precious days all bundled together that determine the very design of our life.

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"Planning My Day Intentionally with God”

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