MotherShip: Daily Autopilots

Make Mom-Life Routine

Are you ready to get your ship together? 

MotherShip is the mom-life management system that helps you eliminate the chaos of your home, your family, your mind & your body. 

Simply put, MotherShip is a series of routines; routines that are meant to be done ‘most’ of the time. We’re fond of the 80% rule. If you feel like you’re accomplishing 80% of life, 80% of the time, you’re doing really well. What of the other 20%? Let it go! We recognize the need to be realistic and we know you simply can’t do all of the things, all of the time. We aspire for progress, never perfection!

Daily Autopilots

The first step to navigating your MotherShip is known as your Daily Autopilot.

Your Daily Autopilot is the routine that gets your day started, sets you up for success, and guides you to the end of each day with peace of mind. 

We’ll show you how to get more intentional about these routines and how to customize them so that they become second nature. In time, your Daily Autopilot will happen without having to give it much thought. 

Why do moms need this?

Once you designate solid Daily Autopilot routines, you will wake up each day without having to reinvent the wheel. It is designed to meet you where you are and is tailored to accommodate your life.

Each day consists of three autopilots: Morning, Afternoon & Evening. 

With an established morning routine in place, you’ll find that you’ll get more done in the morning than some moms do all day. 

The afternoon autopilot will help you prep for your busy evening; ensuring your kids are prepared for their evening activities (packing snacks, water bottles, etc.) and that dinner and carpool logistics are set.

Similarly, the evening autopilot triggers a short checklist that invites you to tidy your kitchen and get a snapshot of the next day so you can enjoy what’s left of your evening and go to bed with your mind at ease. In time, you’ll begin to awake to a peaceful environment, feeling prepared for the day ahead.

How to use Daily Autopilots

Let’s build your Morning Autopilot: Think of the tasks you need to do to set yourself up for a successful day. Consider what you can do before the hustle of the day sets in (i.e. the kids wake up). We suggest something like this:

• get up at 6:30 am
• start a load of laundry
• enjoy some time to yourself (reading, journaling, meditating, sipping coffee)
• empty dishwasher
• rotate laundry
• wake kids & facilitate school prep

This next routine is a game-changer. Start it just before the kids get home from school and end it with a post-school check-in.

Afternoon Autopilot: Think of the tasks you could do to set yourself up for an easy breezy evening of activities and dinner. Here’s what we think could be helpful for a busy mom! 

• 5 minute home race (more on this soon)
• Think about/start dinner
• Prep for evening activities
• Put laundry away
• Check-in with kids & empty backpacks; ask about homework (make sure it doesn’t include a surprise project requiring an emergency run to the office supply store).

Now, for the Evening Autopilot: Think of the tasks you could do to wrap-up the evening while keeping tomorrow in mind… clean the kitchen, lay necessary items out for the morning, start your night-time/self-care routine, get to bed at a reasonable time. 

This routine should be lighter. This is our time to wind down. Here’s Amanda’s exact Evening Autopilot:

• Clean kitchen & start dishwasher
• Glance at tomorrow’s schedule and prep anything I can
• Have some family time (watch a show, play a game, etc.)
• Go to bed at a decent hour

Important Guidelines

• When you start utilizing Daily Autopilots, time yourself to see how long the routines take. Oftentimes, we underestimate how long a task takes and it’s important to set ourselves up for success and not overwhelm.

• Be careful about how many tasks you add to the autopilots. Again, the goal is to succeed at these routines not to beat yourself up for “failing” at them. Incorporating Daily Autopilots shouldn’t feel like adding something else, it should feel like getting intentional about what you’re already doing by putting it on repeat (aka autopilot!).

• Get specific about the time you block in your schedule to do these routines. Most moms are consistently home in the mornings and evenings (following the evening rush) so these two autopilots should be fairly easy to schedule. The afternoon might vary depending on the demands of your work, volunteer, or other responsibilities so plan accordingly!

• Finally, know that setting these routines does not mean locking them in place for life. We find that routines tend to shift with the seasons and so we incorporate a quarterly reset to course-correct. This ensures that the system keeps working for us! 

If you could benefit from a system that sets your routines on autopilot, get the MotherShip app and get your ship together!