If your weeknights are always rushed, stressed, and the opposite of calming after a long day- read on! I’ve got some insights as to why that is, and how you can change it.
Do you ever look at other parents and wonder how the hell they keep it all together? Especially when it comes to managing weeknight routines and general family craziness.
Since we’re all here juggling too many balls with not enough hands, I wanted to let you in on a secret to managing those weeknight routines: these parents don’t have some magic wand they wave to get shit done. None of us do.
But what they do have, and what you can have too, is a formula that works with their personality. Knowing how to add a routine to your day in the right way, so that you’re feeling on top of yourself, can make all the difference.
The right routine will add structure to your weeknights at home, creating a rhythm to your evenings that runs on autopilot.
And the best part about creating these autopiloted rhythms? Doing so creates more time in the moments between that lets you stop, relax, feel present with your family, and appreciate the day you have.
Creating routines and rhythms that work with your personality to help managing weeknight routines is, in effect, a practice of minimalism. It’s discarding all the stress and bother and worry and ugh-ness of a rushed evening, and embracing one that is simpler, and easy to handle.
And your personality type plays a lot into that!
Related: 7 Ways a Mom Working From Home Can Keep Her Sanity
Do you remember taking a personality quiz in high school? I do! I was a big fan of women’s magazine quizzes at the time (and still am, which is why I created this quiz for meal planners), and taking the personality quiz in my psychology class felt just like that. I couldn’t wait to find my “type”.
How do you find your personality type? You can sign up at MeyersBriggs.com to pay and have a comprehensive test taken, or you can take a free version at 16Questions.com. Take it and then come back here for a general outline of how you can approach routine building with your personality type!
Ready to figure out the best way to start managing your weeknight routine? Ok, let’s get started.
Remember: I’m not psychologist. I just think this stuff is cool. And a lot of what is to follow is my own interpretation of the Personality Types. If you’re really into learning more about how your personality type works and how it can affect your relationships with others, I recommend this book.
Personality Types, as defined by the mother-daughter duo Myers-Briggs, who first created the test widely used today, are broken into 4 categories:
Extraverted (E) vs. Introverted (I), which is how you express energy into the world. Do you feel drained from human contact, or energized by it?
Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N), the method by which you receive and process information. Do you tend to take
Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F), which is how you tend to make decisions. Do you explore all the facts and possibilities first? Or do you tend to go with your gut more often than not?
Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P), or how you then act upon that information. If you like creating a plan and sticking to it, or if you’re more “take it as it comes”.
So you could look at creating a routine as something that works with your natural tendencies.
This way, instead of working against the grain and going along with what others tell you to do, figure out a way that works for you, instead!
The most important “letter” to look at when determining your best routine style is the last letter, a J or P. This is the letter that determines how you act upon things, how well you work within the confines of a routine.
Do you have a whole hour while your husband takes the kids on a grocery run? Use that to make as many lunches as possible for the week, and pack them in the fridge.
Got 15 minutes while Paw Patrol is playing? Grab a basket and throw in a week’s worth of clean clothes and leave them where you can grab them quickly in the morning.
By thinking ahead, looking a defined list, and taking charge in small pockets of time, you can effectively cross things off your to-do list while also allowing flexibility and not needing to stick so rigidly to a “routine” every single night.
