Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
Family routines create a healthy and happy home. Establishing routines for yourself and your family will make your days much smoother and more organized. In this episode of the routine and things podcast I'm sharing where to start when building out your family routines, tune in.
Ashley Brown 0:31
Before we get into today's episode, have you ever wondered which routine is the best for you to start right now, if you are unsure of which routine will best meet the needs of your home and life at this very moment, you now have a way to find out I've created for you a very simple and free routine assessment that will help you identify which routine you really need most right now, to take this quick assessment that will point you in the right direction and get you started with the right routine. Click the link in the show notes or headtoroutine and things.com. All right, let's go ahead and get into today's episode.
Ashley Brown 1:06
Hey, hey, welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast where we talk all things routines, organizing your life, using routines, all of that jazz. I'm super excited that you are here joining me this morning. So before I get into today's episode and topic, which is about where do you start when building out your family routines. I think that is really important to show a listener some love today. If you have been a listener of the podcast, I am so appreciative of you if you just started listening. Welcome, girl. I'm so happy that you're here. So I want to share a review that someone wrote about the podcast and I am just super super grateful for any review that I get when it comes to podcasts. And so let me share this review and show a listener some love the listener that I'm showing love to today is a her name is Toothless mongrel go ahead, mongrel , I love it.
Ashley Brown 2:13
This is her review. She says the most calming voice that always cracks me up because I'm like, do I have a calming voice? I don't know what y'all are hearing. But I love it. She says I subscribed over two years ago and this is my go to podcasts when I'm stressed or in need of a pep talk. Ashley has the best voice so calming and down to earth, whenever a new episode drops into my feed I get a little thrill. I often listen at night when I'm winding down and then listen again in the daytime to fully digest the tips for my day. Thank you 1000 Ashley for getting me through the early days of nursing my third baby, I just love your approach to planning and organization. Keep it coming! Yes Toothless mongrel thank you so much for that review. I am so grateful for you leaving this and thank you for being a listener. And I hope that your babies are doing great. I hope that your children are doing great and that you're doing great. So thank you so much.
Ashley Brown 3:12
If you would love to leave a rating or review of the show, please do so if you enjoy the show, it means the world to me when there is a rating and review left because it helps the show grow. It helps for women who are looking for this content to find this content and this information that will be really helpful for their lives. And so thank you again, let's get into today's episode and topic which is on where to start when building out your family routines. Oh my gosh, okay, let's get into it. Let's just dive right in. So when it comes to where to start when building out your family routines, the first thing that we have to think about and you have to think about is understanding what our family routine. Okay? So just to clarify, family routines are routines that help you and your family function well, that's it.
Ashley Brown 4:00
That's what it is routines that help you and your family function well. And this can be like a whole gamut of routines. It can be from the top of your day to the bottom of your day, any routine that's really helping you and your family thrive. That is a family routine. And like I said this can include a rainbow of routines, I specifically share five routine categories to consider when starting routines. And these apply to your family as well and to your family routines. And so if you want a more thorough breakdown of what these five routine categories are, check out episode 159 which is five routine categories to consider when starting routines on this podcast because that will give you more information about the five routine categories. And so that is the first place where you start just understanding what a family routine is, is any routine that helps you or your family function well.
Ashley Brown 4:55
The second thing, right after you now, we've clarified what a family routine is now it's time for you to assess what routines you currently have that are working. Okay? This is really vital for you to stop and asses not to just jump to start creating your family routines, because you've learned about the five routine categories. And now you're like, Okay, I want to start one of these routines. No, you first want to assess which routines you currently have that are working for your family that are working for yourself that's working for your family in general that's working for your kids, which routines are working. And you can think about this as what routines do we repeatedly do that work well for us. And maybe you don't see certain things that you do as routines, I feel like sometimes we can not see certain things that we do as routines.
Ashley Brown 5:49
But all it is is like certain patterns, patterns that you repeatedly have in your life that you and your family are doing on a day to day basis, or even on a weekly basis that you see keep coming around that y'all are always moving in the same way every single time. And it's helpful. So maybe right now you have a certain flow to your morning, that is really great. But maybe it works for you and your family, y'all aren't really rushing too much, it feels pretty smooth. Everybody knows what's happening, how things are going, it kind of flows. Well, I'm not saying that you don't have days that are a bit wonky, because that's just life. But for the most part, if you have a flow to your morning, that typically works for you all, then that could be one routine that you put and you assess, and you say you know what, our mornings flow pretty well. And when you are assessing which routines are working well for you and your family, you're going to be writing this down, because I really want for you to get a picture and really see on paper, what routines are really working well.
Ashley Brown 6:47
So when we get into the next step, you can fill, you can fill in the gap. But we have to start here assessing which routines are currently working for you. And so I want you to pay attention to these certain areas of your life to assess if you have routines that are working well for you and your family. So pay attention to your morning, to your bedtime, to your evenings, like that time between when you get home and your kids are home to like bedtime, that gap typically from like maybe four to 730 or five to eight that gap. Think about you know, paying attention to your evenings pay attention to your weekends, pay attention to after school time, meal times even pay attention to like Sundays, because Sunday's can be sometimes you can have certain like rhythms or routines on Sundays that you haven't been aware of, but that maybe you do to prepare for the week ahead.
Ashley Brown 7:42
So pay attention to that day as well. So just pay attention to these areas of your of your day, these times of your week. And you can just kind of just really pay attention and assess like, do I have things actually work? Do we have certain family routines that work for us? And if so jot them down on the paper, which routines are really working well for you all and you can even write out what you do in those routines like how things flow. Okay, so that's that's the second thing. Once we know what a family routine is, now you've assessed which routines are currently working for you and your family. Then the next step of this is to fill in the gap. Where is there room for improvement? Where is there room for a routine to be established? And this doesn't mean that you need to fill in every gap with a routine. It's just when I share with you the areas to pay attention to I also want for you to pay attention to see if those areas could be improved like Could your bedtime be improved?
Ashley Brown 8:40
Could your morning be improved your morning routine? Could your routine or just like the flow of your evenings be a little bit smoother. Could your mealtimes be a little bit smoother? Maybe you're always like shuffling to try to figure out what you're eating for dinner each night when maybe you could do that as like a Sunday prep routine, right? So think about where's there room for improvement? Where could there be a routine in place that will help you and your family function well, okay, so that's the next thing. And then lastly, depending on who the routine is for, you can either move forward with a routine if it's for you, and start to build it out, like actually build out the steps of the routine or if the routine is for your kids or for your entire family then it's going to be important for you to communicate with them before you begin actually creating steps and changing the routine because if you start to change a routine or just create a routine by yourself that's gonna be for your kids, especially if they're a little bit older are going to be for your your partner and your kids and all of you together.
Ashley Brown 9:47
If you don't communicate with them, they can just feel as if you're trying to change something and they may not have as much buy in. And so it's really important that you think about communicating and that you actually do communicate with your family. If you're like, I believe that this routine could be helpful for us to function better just communicate that with them. And then you all can either work on the routine together, if they agree that you can create the routine and you just share it with them, then y'all can go and move forward with that. So those are really the steps when it comes to starting to build out your family routines. That's where you want to start. And that's the process that you want to go through. And hopefully that was helpful. I'm gonna repeat the steps to you and the process again. So when you are thinking about where to start when building out your family routines, first gain clarity about what a family routine is as routines that help you and your family function well.
Ashley Brown 10:40
Episode 159 will go through the five routine categories with you. The second step is to assess which routines you currently have that are working for yourself and or your family, which routines are working for you and your family currently write them down. And then the third step is to fill in the gaps. Where is there room for improvement? Where can you establish a routine that will help you and your family function well? And then the last step is to just go ahead and move forward with the routine if it's for you personally, and start to build out the steps or you may need to communicate with your family if it's a routine that you are going to be doing together or if it's for your kids and they are older, okay, before you start to build up the steps. So that is the process that you will go through.
Ashley Brown 11:26
Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for listening to this episode. I enjoy talking about this because you know how passionate I am about helping you to establish routines that are going to be very helpful in you managing your stress, managing your time managing your energy, such a beautiful thing. And I would love to know that you're listening, you can take a screenshot right now share it on Instagram, tag me at routineandthings and please be so kind today to leave a rating and review of the show. If you have some time. I would love to hear what you think about the show and hear from you. That would be really, really nice. But until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay happy and I will talk to you soon. Thanks for listening.
Ashley Brown 12:11 [Outro]
If you enjoyed today's episode, take a screenshot and share it on social I would love to know you're listening and for tools to help you start maintain and enjoy your routines. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com Here's to staying happy