Hi, everyone! I’m back with a new article about planning ahead. This week I challenged myself to write a schedule for each day and try to stick to it. Planning is something I really enjoy but not always something I make time for. I was really excited for this week because I thought it would be a great way to form a new habit and stick to it.
On Sunday night I wrote out an hourly schedule for the next day but quickly realized that I was not allowing for any flexibility in my day. For instance, I gave myself about 45 minutes to do my math homework, but I ended up wanting to spend extra time on it and got behind schedule. After I finished, I basically threw my whole schedule out the window for the rest of the night because I was so off track. That night, I decided that for the rest of the week I would give myself a rough outline of what my day would look like instead of a minute-by-minute plan. The next day, I found that I was much more relaxed and not checking the clock as much. I could prioritize tasks that I was in the mood for, and I felt a lot more in control.
On Wednesday, I looked back at the past three days and realized how much I had put on my plan that I was leaving undone. A lot of what I had been scheduling was pretty unrealistic after a full day of school and sports. It’s not like I could spend an entire evening reorganizing my closet (as I had written into the plan). I realized that even though my days were very busy, my own schedules were making me feel unproductive. Wednesday night I decided that for the next few days, I would try my best to split bigger plans into smaller, more manageable tasks. For example, cleaning my room would turn into cleaning a shelf in my room. Just the small feeling of satisfaction that came from checking off more of the items on my list was really motivating and made me feel like I had used my time well.
In general, I would really recommend making schedules. However, they’re not necessary if you’re not the kind of person to benefit from them. I prefer structure in my day, but I still ended up pretty overwhelmed before I realized what parts of planning worked for me. Overall, definitely give it a try but still spend your days how you want to in the moment.
- Nora
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