The Daily 5 - Our #1 Strategy for Family Sanity
Last August, I had just gone back to work after maternity leave with my second child. I was exhausted. My work was busy, we had a 2-year-old and a newborn (who, as a normal baby, was not yet sleeping through the night). We were just a year into our new home and had projects going. You know the drill - you're reading this because you are super busy too.
And it wasn't just me - my husband was exhausted too (he was on paternity leave at the time - more on our leap frog parental leave strategy here). We were sitting together after our kids were asleep at the end of our rope - we had to improve how things were working in our household to help things be more sustainable.
The idea we came up with that night has stuck with us for more than a year and has made a huge difference: The Daily Five.
It sounds simple, and it is.
The Daily Five is our personal list of 5 household/family tasks that we make sure to get done every night before we go to sleep.
We wrote our 5 things on a post-it on our microwave. After kids are asleep, we get started on it. It takes us 15-30 minutes if we do it together.
Here's our family's list:
Dishes (unload, load, and start dishwasher)
Trash/recycling/compost out (if full)
Lunches ready for everyone
Litter box
Kids' bags unpacked & repacked
Your list will likely differ depending on your family needs. Here are my tips to make it work:
Keep It Short
I'd recommend you hold it to about 5 items or less - even if Your Best Self vacuums every day, prioritize what truly needs to get done on a daily basis. (Also, if you think you should be vacuuming every day, I am officially granting you permission to stop feeling bad because you are way too busy for that. Also, get one of these.)
Update It
Your daily list will change over time. When we first started, getting my breast milk pump bag ready for the next day was a need, and it's not anymore.
Post It
Once you have your list, post it somewhere you can see it. After a week or so, we had mostly memorized our list. And yet, even a year later, I sometimes have to look at the list to remember what to do. Why? Because I'm brain dead at the end of a long day. Don't use up your precious mental energy remembering the list - paper is way better at keeping track of things than your overloaded brain is.
Make a Habit
Help yourself get off to a great start by keeping track of every day that you get your list done in the first few weeks. Create a place you can check a box each time you do the daily list. Visual trackers are great for accountability and habit-building.
The benefits of doing this consistently have been surprising. Our mornings, while still a little crazy (we still have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, after all) are way less intense than they used to be. Dishes and trash aren't piling up. Because we know how hard it is when we don't get this list done at night, we very rarely miss doing it. Even when we're super tired, even when our work email inboxes are calling.
If you're ready to take the Daily Five to the next level, check out Step Two: The Weekly List.
