3 Different Ways To Schedule Your Days More Efficiently

When you know what you want to do you need to make a schedule. This is irrelevant of it being a goal, a dream or something random that needs to get done. What matters is that it needs to get done. Scheduling the things you have to do not only makes it easier to do them but also gives you an easy overview of what all needs to be done. When scheduling everything it is important to figure out how much time a ‘’to-do’’ takes. For me this has been a process of trial and error, not only because of being wrong about how long something takes me but also how long I want to work on it. Through this process I have come up with 3 different ways you can schedule your days more efficiently. Mixing them seems to give the best results.

Schedule blocks of 1.5 hours

This I find works particularly well with things where it is very clear what it is I have to do. Such as writing a blog post, study a chapter or sort through information. The hour and a half seems to be just enough time to keep me focused without reaching that point of being bored with the task if it were to be a bit tedious. Also knowing that it is just for an hour and a half really helps the focus. Another aspect that helps is even if I were to get distracted there is time calculated in for that. It is precisely why I schedule blocks of an hour and a half instead of blocks of an hour. I’m a serial daydreamer (former ruminator but now I think mostly of fun stuff) so sometimes I find myself a little lost in my own mind (more reason why I especially need to schedule my days efficiently). The extra half an hour provides just that extra time to keep me feeling on a schedule as in ‘’get stuff done’’ – mode but not rushed if I were to daydream for five minutes or so.

Schedule for a morning / afternoon

This is the one I use with tasks that are repeatedly the same thing but not necessarily a fast process, when I want to get a lot done of a task or a task that has a few steps. Let me further explain with some examples. A good example that goes for all uses is creating pictures for pinterest. Yes I could get a lot done in an hour and a half but it feels more natural to continue and do it for a full morning or afternoon as I do have several things to do to get to a finished product (sort photos, size photos, add texts, etc). It also allows me to set a number of pictures I want done.

When I schedule an activity as a morning or an afternoon activity I do make sure that it is not one that I tend to dilly dally on because given the ample amount of time the activity gets when putting it in my schedule. This is a real risk even with good focus you’ll still have to curb the thought of ”I have plenty of time to get this done thus I can … (insert time waster of your choice)”. Allowing that to happen kind of totally goes against scheduling you day more efficiently.

Schedule for a full day

I know this seems kind of like an old school ‘’duh’’ moment but stay with me. I have a reason why I sometimes only get ‘’one’’ thing done in a day. I schedule just one activity / task a day because it enhances my focus and creativity. I often do this when writing. I plan a full day to just write posts. No editing, no adding photos, no uploading, no nothing. Just writing. I feel that it gives my mind a break from having to switch between tasks a lot. This post is actually one of a two-day just writing binche.

I also schedule tasks I could potentially breakdown in smaller ones as full day activity instead of fitting the smaller tasks into my schedule. For some tasks this just feels like the right way to go. For example every Thursday I would do all my school stuff. Yes this sometimes was for different classes, however as a lot of my classes use the same knowledge it overlaps nicely.

Combine these different ways to schedule your days more efficiently and not have time be your enemy.

Love,

DCPR.