It’s time to look at our daily schedule and plan our days to be more productive. There are sooooo many things to do every day that it’s sometimes difficult to even know where to begin. For me, it has to START WITH A PLAN. By the way, the best time to plan for the next day is the night before. If you wait till morning, you’re already getting a late start because your schedule begins the minute you wake up.
So, let’s start with our plan for the next day.Take a look at your planner and the daily page for the next day. Remember, I like to use a page per day so I can put almost everything on that page. For each page, the left side should have the time of day running along the edge. On the right side should be room to write everything in a “list” form. We need to write everything that we have to do on the right side in a list and the list should be in this order:
- Time specific things such as work, social events, appointments, errands
- Preparations for upcoming events
- Priority Projects (from our Weekly Routine List)
- Other tasks, such as laundry, etc.
- Family/Me Time – Add a small section at the bottom of your list to write things you WANT to do.
Then, on the left side of page, we’ll schedule specific times for everything we need to do. First, we need to write into the schedule the time specific tasks such as work, social events, appointments. These are commitments we’ve already made, so they have to be done at a certain time. I think it’s also a more efficient use of our time if we do errands after these tasks, because for most of them, we’re out of the house anyway. This saves time and gas, so if you need to stop at the grocery, etc., this is the best time to do that.
Now you need to write into the schedule basic things to be done every day, such as sleep and meals. You need a set time for these things to keep your family organized.
The next thing to put into the schedule is any preparations for upcoming events. These are out-of-the ordinary things that we do, such as plan for a party, vacation, a move, etc. By the way, if you do have an upcoming event, you should make a separate list for that and write what needs to be done and when, and then when planning your weekly and daily schedule, you’ll be working on this a little each day.
The next thing to put into the schedule is your priority project for the day. This comes from your “WEEKLY ROUTINE” list. So, for example, if the day you’re planning is Monday, and you’ve designated Monday as your cleaning day, you would write cleaning as your priority project for the day. Remember, your weekly routine may need to be shifted according to specific time events you might have. The idea is to spread out your tasks throughout the week, so each day isn’t overcrowded with too much to do.
Then, after scheduling your project for the day, you’ll need to fill in the other things that need to be done, such as laundry, getting things ready for the next day, helping kids with homework, etc. By this point, you can look at your schedule and see when you’ll realistically have time for these things, so put them into the most logical place on your schedule.
So far, we’ve been scheduling all the things that NEED to be done, but when we look at our goals, we see that there are still some things that we just WANT to do for our family and ourselves. So, we should put those in the schedule too! If we don’t actually put them in our schedule, our day will probably be over and we’ll realize our day was all work and no fun. That’s how we get burnt out. It’s easier to be disciplined during the day when there is something to look forward to later in the day. So, on the right side of the page towards the bottom I would write “FAMILY/ME TIME” and write what you want to do that day, such as go out for ice cream, rent a movie, read a book, etc.
So, you now have in your planner a specific list of everything that must be done the next day and a specific schedule to get it all done. As a bonus, you also have a plan for when you get to do some ‘fun’ things in your day. Just remember, the whole point is to not overcrowd your day, so plan plenty of time to do each task. Otherwise your schedule will frustrate you instead of help you. If you’re wondering how to handle interruptions, just remember to be flexible when necessary. PEOPLE are ALWAYS more important than our to-do list. So, tomorrow have a GREAT DAY and come back next time as we learn how to organize those tricky but important parts of our day, our MORNING AND EVENING ROUTINES.