Why Creating a Bare-Minimum Schedule Will Help You Live More Intentionally

The other day I spoke about creating a bare minimum daily schedule on my Instagram account, and it really seemed to resound with a lot of other moms.

Because so many of us are overwhelmed by all the expectations of our days, of this whole parenthood thing.

I love the feeling of community that rose up around this idea. But I have also felt it necessary to elaborate.

The reason behind the bare minimum schedule

The bare minimum schedule became necessary so as to give myself some relief on those days, or in those periods of life, when I could not shoulder the full weight of my intensive expectations for myself - and I am well aware I may have to completely reevaluate these, as well.

I wanted to be sure that, no matter how a particular day may be going, attention was allocated to some of the things that matter most to me.

However, I would hate for my motherhood to be swallowed up by this idea of doing the bare minimum every day, and I would hate to be the reason that yours is, too.

Strive for more great days than mediocre days

I really love a quote from parenting author Maggie Dent which advocates an 80/20 approach to parenting.

As she explains, "Eighty percent of the time, you do the best you can. The other 20 percent you realise it's not going to work out today for some reason, and you're not wrong and your child isn't wrong."

My design for the bare minimum schedule is to pull it out 20 percent of the time when I just do not have the ability to do more.

Because there are inevitably times when it all feels too heavy, or we get sick, or someone has a big job change as my husband did recently, and the bare minimum schedule can act as a kind of buffer, a kind of grace period.

However, my goal is that 80 percent of the time I do better than the bare minimum, that I am striving to have more great days than mediocre days.

Atleast 80 percent of the time I intend to follow a personal mission statement for our family, and a daily schedule that I know intensively meets our unique needs and values. (I will share more about both at a later date.)

We are all in this together

I am so happy to have connected with you if you have felt really inspired by the idea of the bare minimum daily schedule. That weight you feel is something so many of us feel, and is a pretty good indication that you are a wonderful and caring parent - you deserve a to give yourself a break every now and then.

But know you are capable of being exactly the parent your kids need you to be, just as I know I am exactly the parent my kids need me to be, when we strive to give our best efforts.


Want to dive into respectful parenting but do not know where to start, or where to go from here? Check out some of the books that I have found most helpful:

Secret of Childhood - Maria Montessori | No Bad Kids, Toddler Discipline With No Shame - Janet Lansbury | The Absorbent Mind - Maria Montessori | Unconditional Parenting - Alfie Kohn | Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child - John Gottman, Phd

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Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you. I would also love to hear any suggestions for posts you would like me to write about. And if you are interested in following along in our daily adventures, follow us on Instagram where I post daily.

God bless,
Olivia Fischer