Free spirits do not need a schedule. Try this instead.

Have you ever seen a work schedule for free spirits? Over the past few months, I have written about how to create a work schedule as a work at home mom at least two different times.

First, I wrote this article about creating the schedule, and then I wrote about how I was tweaking my schedule because my first one did not work.

Well, it may come as no surprise to anyone that my second schedule did not work either.

Then I began to feel sad about my problem of never being able to stick to any schedule that I made for myself. I mean, these were schedules I created myself, and I still cannot do it?? Why??

I have had plenty of time to think about this, and I had two big epiphanies about the sticking to a schedule problem.

Maybe free spirits simply do not need a strict schedule. This obviously does not work for me. Perhaps that is just fine.

#1. I can still use to do lists, somewhat successfully.

A free spirit can pick and choose from the to do list by going off what you currently have the energy for and what has the most urgency on the list.

You can thank my friend Amy for this reassuring realization. Amy works full time and has always been a working mom. One day we were out walking, and she said she just works through her to-do lists each day. I think she also said she has one to-do list for work and one for all the rest of life. (One of these days I am going to interview her for more work at home mom tips!)

So I thought to myself, “Hey, yeah. I do to-do lists. That works. Even for me that works.”

Now I have not worked myself up to Amy’s level of having two to-do lists. Instead I have a list of blog tasks, and sometimes that is all I have. But I think two lists is something I could work towards.

The more I think about it, the more I am pretty sure that the most productive people I know just use to-do lists.

Epiphany #2: Setting Work hours worked perfectly.

One day it dawned on me, “Maybe I do not need a schedule. A schedule is a joke to me. I have too many kids and that is not how my brain works. I just need work hours.”

So I began to experiment with simply setting work hours for myself.

I was afraid I would be too much of a free spirit to even stick to that kind of schedule, but it turns out I am not!

Work hours are a much simpler form of schedule. Instead of a suffocating hour-by-hour plan, I just had to figure out one block of time each day I would unashamedly devote to writing.

Excited about this idea, I set to experimenting on what my work hours should be. First, I tried 11am-2pm. I thought that would give me time to do some chores, write, do a few more chores, and then pick up the boys from school.

Nope. The house completely fell apart that week.

11am-2pm are some of my BEST working hours, which left me only my lower energy hours to devote to housework and cooking. I got behind on laundry, cooking, cleaning, everything.

Noted.

The next week I switched to 12-3pm for work. Would you believe that was the perfect work hours for me?

It was just one hour later, but it was perfect. First of all, I had too much trouble quitting the task of blog work at 2pm. My brain wanted to keep going and it absolutely could not switch gears to house cleaning. Nope. No way, Jose.

Second of all, it turns out I do not accomplish all that much before 11 am. I get the kids to school and exercise, and then I tend to waste the rest of the morning or take a long bath. I don’t know. Self-discipline is also something I am working on.

Now that I have a productive routine that works, I find myself squeezing in extra blog work time in the morning when I used to just look at my phone.

Productivity gives rise to more productivity, and now I am in a much better cycle.

As I was preparing to write this post today, I scanned Google for what other people have to say about a work schedule for free spirits.

This was my favorite article I found: What Free Spirits Can Teach You About Time Management, written in 2020 by Hunter Meine at Calendar.com.

He talks about how free spirits do tend to focus their time on things that are important to them. Yes, tedious tasks sometimes get neglected, but hey, who doesn’t want to spend their lives on what matters?

Reading that article was affirming to a lot of the thoughts I have had that can seem very anti-hyper-productivity culture.

Have you ever noticed how society tends to take an idea/word/thing and make them suddenly trendy?

Like kale. What PR genius represents such a bitter cruciferous vegetable? “Super food” my rear end, that stuff tastes like garbage. The other cruciferous vegetables are just as healthy.

But this trendy thing applies to more than just food. We do it for words too. Trendsters love the words “self-care,” “intentional,” and “mindfulness.” Gag. They may mean good things, but I have heard those words too much now. Also, is it weird that I do not actually know what mindfulness even means? Maybe I will look it up some time…

So I am going to re-brand my inability to stick to a schedule, or free-spiritedness to sound like a trendy, positive thing.

From now on we will call the non working schedule for free spirits “intuitive scheduling.”

Well, drat. I googled that, and it is already a thing! But I doubt they are doing it the way I mean. I am not sure. See, I did not actually read their articles because I do not really care what they mean because I am finally happy with what I am doing.

You can call anything a trendy name and make it suddenly sound sophisticated. Haaa!! Intuitive scheduling, basically no schedule at all…

In conclusion, schedules do not work for everybody, and that is okay!

Also, time blocking gives me anxiety. It is the opposite of helpful for me.

Giant, general time blocks “intuitive scheduling” like this actually works like this, my work schedule for free spirits:

And I have NONE of this schedule written down anywhere. I just know where to be when because it is simple and it is easy. Plus, flylady.net taught me what my morning chores are a long time ago.

6:30-7. Begin to wake up

7-8:30 Hang out with the boys while they get ready for school.

8:30ish Drive boys to school.

8:30-12 pm. Hopefully exercise, do chores, and shower. Bonus points for makeup.

Have lunch when you get hungry.

12-3pm Work. hours.

3ish Pick up boys.

3-5:30 Hang out with boys. Do things. Finish cooking dinner.

Somewhere between 5-6:30 Eat.

After 6:30 Do whatever you need to do.

Sometimes randomly do work in the morning or at night.

When absolutely necessary, go to the grocery store.

This is what works for me. If you have trouble sticking to a schedule, give this a try. You might find this more freeing and happy.