How to plan the family week

Pick one regular time to plan

Choose a slot you can repeat, such as Sunday evening or Monday morning. A short planning session every week is easier to keep up than a big one now and then, and it works best when both parents take part.

Start with what is already fixed

Before you plan anything new, write down the things that cannot move:

• School start and finish times
• Each parent’s work days and shifts
• Clubs, lessons and appointments
• Anything that falls on a different day this week

Put the school runs on the day they belong

Decide who does each drop-off and pick-up, and put it on the day with a time. When it is written down, the question “can you get them today?” does not need asking at 8 am.

Choose dinners next

Give every evening a dinner, even a simple one. Pick the busiest days first and plan something quick for them. Planning dinners alongside the school runs shows you which evenings are tight before you get there.

Share the chores

Give each chore a day and a name. Chores that belong to “everyone” tend to belong to nobody, so one named person per job is clearer. Kids can take their own jobs when they can see them on the same plan as everyone else.

Keep one shared version

A plan that lives in several places, such as a message thread, a note on the fridge and someone’s head, drifts apart. Keep one version everybody can see and update, and review it briefly once the week is under way.