Today I’m introducing a brand new challenge: A Daily Rhythm Challenge. This is a 10-week program that will help you form new habits that prioritize the rhythms of WORSHIP, HOME, NOURISHMENT, CONNECTION, and RECREATION.

The A Daily Rhythm Challenge was born from my own desire to establish intentional daily rhythms and develop discipline in my own life. After completing 75 HARD, a mental toughness/lifestyle program on May 25, 2024, I wanted to continue with some of the daily habits and rhythms I’d started during the program, but also wanted to change it to better suit my lifestyle.

I’m a wife & mother desiring to deepen my walk with the Lord, and foster meaningful connection with my communities. I’m an overwhelmed homemaker often faced with decision paralysis (resulting in a neglected home). And I’m a woman who hasn’t regularly prioritized personal nutrition and exercise in over a decade.

I wanted something that helped me continue with sustainable goals, not only developing self-control and mental discipline, but also completing basic homemaking tasks and forming daily rhythms that benefited my entire household. So, after chatting with nearly 20 women, I developed this “challenge.” 

Whatever your why, I hope this challenge blesses you as you bring order and gentle rhythms in your home, spend time with the Lord, and prioritize healthy habits. 

What is a rhythm?

I define a “rhythm” as a priority for your life/home/etc., something you would like to see repeated on a daily basis. A rhythm is not tied to an exact time or place. It’s having a general idea of your values and priorities for your day-to-day living, and incorporating them in a fluid and flexible manner. 

Morning chores get done sometime in the morning. Quiet time should probably happen before anyone else is awake, but this will depend on your current season. Drinking water should be spread throughout your day. Connecting intentionally with the members of our household or communities as we disconnect from distractions and screens.

What is required during A Daily Rhythm Challenge?

During A Daily Rhythm Challenge, every day you will need to complete the required “routines” in each of the 5 rhythms of worship, home, nourishment, connection, and recreation. When you sign up, you’ll receive a PDF checklist that will help you keep track of each day and all the tasks you’ve completed.

Every day, you will complete this list:

• spend time with Jesus
• read 10 pages of an uplifting book
• drink 96 oz water
• follow a diet
• exercise for 45 minutes
• complete morning chore
• complete afternoon chore
• follow your screen/cell phone boundary so you can:
• connect with the people in your life

WORSHIP

• Read your Bible, pray, work through a devotional, listen to worship music, or find a way to spend time with Jesus. I find this works best in the morning, when I wake up before my household. Once my children are awake and needing my attention, I’m less likely to follow through on this discipline. If your season of life is such that you find yourself up all night with a newborn, extend grace to yourself. Prioritize sleep, but make sure you complete this task sometime during the day…putting it off “until later” may equal failure to complete the daily tasks. If you’ve missed your morning alone time, play worship music as you prepare meals and tackle your other responsibilities. It will help refocus your heart and home on Jesus!

HOME

• Establish a morning and an afternoon chore routine for yourself and your children. These can be as simple as “clear the breakfast table” and “sweep the kitchen floor” or “pick up the toys in the living room” and “neaten the schoolroom table.” Find your biggest pain points throughout the day. Having trouble staying on top of laundry? Assign that to yourself. Do the crumbs under the kitchen table drive you crazy? Assign sweeping to your most capable child. Tired of waking up to a messy kitchen? Start “tucking it in” before bedtime. Set an alarm (ours ring at 8:30 am and 4:30 pm) and tackle the chores together as a family. This will take some time to “get used to” and you’ll have to remind some children, and you’ll have to “inspect what you expect” but it will pay off!

NOURISHMENT

• Drink a minimum of 96 ounces of water. That’s ¾ of a gallon. The more water you drink, the more your body will crave it. You can count unsweetened herbal tea, or water that has electrolytes added. Don’t cheat yourself and count watered down juice or watermelon or sweet teas.
• Follow a diet that’s void of junk food. Stick to the diet and don’t cheat.

CONNECTION

• Establish a boundary with your phone and various screens. Disconnect so that you can connect. This might look like leaving your phone in ONE ROOM of your home and treat it like a landline. Limit the amount of time you’re on your phone in front of others, and do not scroll in front of your children. If you must use your phone in front of your children, perhaps consider vocalizing how/why you are using it: “I’m looking up a recipe for dinner,” or “I’m texting Aunt Isabel to make a plan for meals for the weekend.” This will help them understand that phones can be useful tools, but that it is important to establish guidelines and boundaries for their use, even for adults. Another possible cell phone boundary could look like not using or looking at your phone in the morning until you’ve gotten up, had some water, and completed your morning quiet time. This could also look like sleeping with your phone across the room instead of under your pillow or within arms reach. Or turning off your phone for 2 hours every day or instituting the rule of no phones at the meal table.
• Connect in a meaningful way with the people in your home or in your various communities. This can be a conversation during your walk. This can be reading a book aloud. Playing outside or an invigorating nature walk. Making dinner together. If you live on your own, connect with someone else – give someone a call or send an intentional text. Invite a friend or family over for dinner. Check in with your children before bedtime and chat about their day. Play a game with a child or your spouse.

RECREATION

• Exercise for 45 minutes. I’m not going to tell you to not to count gardening (pulling weeds on a summer day gets me sweatier and moving more than a lot of other exercises I choose to do), but I am going to tell you to actually put aside 45 minutes to move your body: go for a walk with your children, stretch, work on healing your diastasis recti, take a hike, vigorously pull weeds, stretch stiff muscles, etc.
• Read 10 pages of a book that is uplifting, challenging, inspiring, educational, or helps you to grow as a person. This could fiction or nonfiction. I prefer non-fiction; there are so many wonderful categories to choose from. Historical, gardening, floral arranging, homemaking, parenting, devotional, cooking, home improvement, art, etc. But choose an uplifting book and finish it! You’ll be amazed at how many books you can finish in 70 days!

What if you miss something?

What if you forget to drink your third quart of water? Or fall asleep in the middle reading your 10 pages? Perhaps you fail to abide by your cell phone/screen boundary. Don’t panic! You don’t have to start over on Day 1. What you do need to do is this: pause and don’t move on to the next day in the challenge until you’ve successfully completed the day where you missed a task. For instance, it’s Day 15 and you forget about your PM chore routine of tucking in your kitchen. You wake up on Day 16 and realize your mistake. Stop the “clock” and start Day 15 over again. Don’t move on to Day 16 until you’re able to successfully complete the tasks for Day 15 in one day.

A few closing thoughts on the challenge…

Establishing order and daily disciplines in our households will have a profound effect on our lives and the lives of our children. It’s so important to delegate chores; mom can’t “do it all” and children need to participate in and have responsibilities as part of a family. Kids thrive knowing boundaries and they crave predictable rhythms. You’ll be helping them form long-term, hopefully lifelong lessons. It takes diligence and repetition, but they will learn and you will be able to breathe.

My hope and prayer for you is that participating in A Daily Rhythm Challenge draws you closer to Jesus, and gently helps you incorporate more order into your home, train up your children, and be a good steward of your body.

A note: Although daily time outdoors is not a “requirement” in the A Daily Rhythm Challenge, I recommend getting outside whenever possible. Go outside in the morning for your daily time of worship. Connect with others (perhaps while you exercise) outside – take a hike or go on a walk together. Sit on your porch for a bit in the evening with your spouse to chat about your day, etc. Set up a blanket and have a picnic in the sunshine, or lie on a blanket while you read your book. There are so many wonderful ways to spend time outside!

Interested? Sign up here!

Love a good challenge? Check out my others: A Capsule Kitchen Challenge and the Live Slow Challenge!