Well, as the title say. I'd love to hear how you ppl do it. I struggle a lot organizing or sticking to schedules unless it's work... Any tips? Do you structure your days or you go with the flow? Sometimes I do most of the stuff I was supposed to do but I still feel bad because I didn't followed the structur I planned or ended up having a lot of free time that I didn't invest on something useful...
That sounds actually as a good technique! And I guess it can help me plan in a guilt-free wayš¤š¼ Also, I loved the that you keep track of your success AND "fails". How do you track it? You have a coloured grid perhaps? Or it's just on your journal? I'm a bit messy with it, as I can't find " my way" so I just journal when I need clarity on a subject...
My journal is a freeflow... kinda. So it will be formatted like this:
Today's date, then right beside it, [155-25 / 366]. 155 is days i exercised, -25 is days i missed / 366 days bec it is leap year today. This equation helps me check if i miscounted. š¤£
Right under that, depending on mood, id say the things i did/completed that day and things i am grateful for. It can be bullets or paragraphs. If i skated, i put day 65 of skate! (Im learning how to figure skate so i know how much ive gone)
If i have something im completely anxious or unsettled about, i also do it in dear diary style things. If i am feeling lost on my affirmations, i also write it down.
Ive always wanted to do the fancy journalling but i end up judging myself on the way it looks rather than actually spilling my guts out. So i quit that dream haha. A regular notebook and black pen is enough for me. If i want to doodle, i do, but i rarely do it.
If i miss a day of journalling, i write on the next day... or the last few days i didnt write. It keeps me intentional on being productive and being grateful for all that i have.
Good luck!
thank you for sharing this. This has helped me a lot
This is also very adaptable! Exercise could be a quick walk, productive could be laundry, hygiene could be face mask, etc. I love that this can be applied to each persons daily capacity
Thank you!
If you're going through something difficult like grief or mental health issues--it really does get you through on the days itās hard to take care of yourself.
Best of luck!
Thank you ā„ļø
This is better than endless to do lists that just make me feel guilty and overwhelmed. But
Love this
This is actually very clever, I might try it, coz I noticed if I give myself too much of a detailed structure I rebel against my own rules haha.
Screenshooting this ASAP!
Thank you! I had to be clever for myself, too! And yes, just like you I rebel against my own rules...
But let me tell you, writing stuff down and being accountable by writing -- you do not want to lose to that. I dont!
Good luck!
I also like that some goals are easier than others so that doesn't set you up for a failure. And things are sort of grouped, like the productive thing that can be a lot of different thinga. I used to track too many things that I thought I should be doing, got super detailed and specific about it, and then got depressed that I wasn't able to meet my 1987636890 goals for the day š
sometimes ask yourself, is the "bare minimum okay for today?"
Example: laundry.
My bare minimum is: washed clean.
Society expectations: separate whites from darks, follow all laundry instructions as per label, folded neatly or pressed to perfection.
What i do: I dont separate my whites from my darks (all my clothes go in same wash, who cares) and i line dry because i dont want to pay for evaporation hahah. The clothes dont get folded until i feel like doing so, and nothing is ironed.
If i know I won't be able to mentally handle hanging laundry, ill pay for the dryer and let the clothes be in a nice clean mound in the laudry bag until im ready to deal with it.
Some things dont need to be perfectly done, and give yourself grace that you did it anyway. If you're not happy with laundry this time around, tweak the process for next time and see if that works.
Im glad you like my process. Best of luck to productivity!
Thanks š
I wake up at 6am. Take the dog for a walk. Get home around 7am. Make coffee. Get ready for work. Eat breakfast. Leave for work at 8:30am and listen to my daily podcasts during my drive. Get to work by 9am. Leave work around 5pm and get home around 5:30pm. Change and take the dog out. Make a quick dinner around 6pm. Two days a week I go to a 7pm pilates class, leave around 6:30pm and walk there. Do the hour class, walk home. Get home around 8:30pm. Shower and get ready for bed. Tidy up the apartment. Try to climb into bed by 9:30pm. Read or watch tv for 30min and try to fall asleep around 10pm. The nights I donāt have pilates Iāll schedule work drinks and dinners (my job involves a fair amount of networking). My weekends are far less structured but I love a structured weekday :)Ā
I structure (time-block) my day, using my calendar app (Apple)
It already holds events, and each morning I insert entries after reviewing my task list
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Prioritizing tasks is so smart. Sometimes my to do list is so long that it paralyzes me. Picking 3 everyday could be helpful !! Iām going to try
If prioritizing is hard, just pick between A and B, two tasks at a time. A vs B, A vs C, B vs C, etc.
The task that you internally see as most important will keep winning the comparisons - itās much easier than trying to organize an entire list. Just organize two things at a time until theyāre all sorted.
Keep the top 3; put the rest in storage for later.
Block schedules might work better. Or what I call rhythms. The minute I pin things to time on paper I get all a mess lol but if Iām like
wake up time (which a gentle morning routine),
9ish is this specific set of activities (I homeschool so for me itās generally that work along w light chores like moving laundry and tidying the kitchen as we work through things),
lunch,
reading time for the kids/break for me,
afternoon work time (in my case this consists of household chores, yard work, prepping food, etc),
dinner,
evening time (hang out, clean up dinner and such, be with my so after work until time for bed). Iāve been trying to put my phone down for an hour after the littler ones goes to bed. That helps the day slow down some too.
Every time is an āishā. lol. Then I donāt get angsty
I don't do a full structure, I just have a to-do list. There are a few daily habits I'm trying to work on, plus housework. Everything goes into lists on Microsoft To Do, set up to repeat at the frequency I want to do the thing at. Every day, I just try to get through whatever is due that day. That means some days I have a lot to do and some days I don't; those days are the ones I use most for recovery and planning ahead.
I am intensely organised and structured:
So when I have goals I ask myself what would a typical week look like for me to meet the goals. Based on this I have day per day concepts. I typically put a Monday, Tuesday, ... reminder into my google keeps that will pop up each of these days to remind me of the theme of the day. BUT for any of this to happen I need to have an understanding of when this could happen, so I structured the regular days off into parts and how I have experienced my energy to be. This is typically built upon 4 to 6 segments of the day. What I then really do with the day depends on the day but hereby I have some concept of "if I can , this is when". I tend to have a minimum routine: I remember a youtuber saying: if you have zero energy at least make sure to nourish yourself. So I keep that in mind with my minimum routine. But I also have reminders throughout the day and nfc checkpoints to track what I did they somehow help for me to remember to do things.
Could you go into this a little more? Sounds interesting
I wish I could filter by people with young kids vs. not.
Yes! I was thinking the same thing while reading another post from earlier.
Same! How old are your kids?
2 under 8.
Well it may sound weird but I work on an allowance system.
1 chore/task = 1 reward
So let's say I workout, in turn I earned an equal amount of fun time, whether that be video games, tv, or whatever. Modern society has us convinced we have to work 5 days a week to enjoy 2, I think a more equal approach is appropriate, so I work 3 days a week, fully relax 1, and have 3 other days of life balance where I further my worth, enjoy family and friends, self-improve, and support others.
This push-pull kind of momentum gets a lot done in an unorthodox way for sure but that routine seems to rub off on a lot of people in my circle and works for them so I know I'm not just a motivated hippy.
Thatās such an interesting concept I should implement. š¤ Never really thought about equating the whole equal amount of work to reward ratio of time. Thanks for sharing! Iāll need to try this, especially to prevent burnout
I use two things to keep me on track with my ideal day flow:
Pledge notebook
At the end of each day, I write in it what I'm gonna do tomorrow (and sometimes attach to it the mood I want to feel about it) and each morning, I do it again (basically it's more or less the same text). It helps me: - organise my thoughts - always have in mind what I want to do - keep in check my emotions about my goals
Todo gamified app
I use "Finch" and so far it's the one that works best for me, because it has nice scheduling features and is focused on mental health
Notion calendar :)
I use "Keep Notes" app by Google, I create small checkboxes from yesterday for today and write down all required activities I should do, when I able to complete it I click the box so I marked it as finished
I use an AI todo list
It's on wait list
Blocking out activities in google docs- even chore time / Jonny time. I do art, so if I have something I want to draw, Iāll schedule it into my calendar around work and working out.
Finding events around town (especially Friday / Saturday night) and putting them in my calendar so I have something to look forward to.
I also know that Iāll sit there, do nothing, and spiral into a sense of hopelessness and shame if I donāt adhere to my schedule, so Iām inclined to stick to it.
There is no āflowā for me to go with. I cannot freestyle. I will half start activities and finish nothing. Itās fine if every day is different, but I know what itās going to look like the night before.
I find loose time-blocking works best. So, I allocate time to ābucketsā of activity - work tasks, personal matters, etc.
I keep a to-do list, and I work off that list during time allocated to the relevant taskās bucket (doing work tasks during work hours, for instance), but donāt try to schedule specific tasks. Thatās too granular for my taste, and itās demotivating to feel like youāve violated your own planned scheduled.
As an initial step, it can also help to time-block ādonāt do thisā periods. So, if scheduling 2 hours of work tasks is hard for you to stick to, at least schedule two hours of āanything but social media.ā Think of it like intermittent fasting for disfavored activities - schedule when not to do certain things.
I loved this too! I'm going to blend that with writing down the tasks and tracking down both success and failures.
Heads up for the "don't do this" period! Reslly good tip! I hope to do something with that. For instance, do you have any app, good for both PC and Android? (sync)
Thanks a lot, seriously š¤š¤š¤
I use this app - https://test.focusme.com/how-it-works/ - on my desktop computers. It's not available for iOS, so I use other apps for my iPhone, but I think this should work on both Android and Windows. It definitely works on Windows.
And yeah, you'll have better success doing the right thing if you first pick off a few of the most compulsive "wrong things." Quitting compulsive/addictive behaviors and nurturing less compulsive "good ones" are two separate things, and you can work on them separately.
Google calendar, time blocking, Eisenhower matrix, Google tasks/ tweak planner and Google keep
These are all the tools I use to go about my day Ā In my opinion, Google calendar is the best free tool. Integrate it with Google task and Google keep and you should be all set.
I referred to this video when I first started to make my Google calendar: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRThzZV1G7k&pp=ygUPR29vZ2xlIGNhbGVuZGFy
I do the daily list posts here cos my structure is different. Iāve started one day a wk volunteer work so that day is different again. That and google calendar I currently use:
Iām pretty structured (Accountability Coach here!) I get up, meditate, do deep work, exercise, shower, get my kiddo up, eat, kiddo off to school or camp, then my day is meetings with time blocked for short brain breaks. Evenings are kiddo, dinner, chill. Repeat.
What is deep work?
Work that requires thinking/focus š
I don't have a "structure" but id have a list of "successes of the day" that i journal about at the end of the day.
1) exercise everyday. I have a running tally of how many days of the year I've exercised. So far, I've missed 25 days this year due to illness or travelling. There are days i do 2 sets of physical activity, sometimes 3. Exercise for me is defined as: 1hr swim / 10k steps / figure skating/ youtube exercise. Ive been doing this since covid and i hate exercising sometimes but id rather not add to the 25 days due to laziness.
2) do "something" productive / housechores /hobby - laundry, vacuum, cook my meals/mealprep etc.
3) daily hygiene. A 2x daily shower keeps me in good spirits. And flossing. I love my teeth
4) gratitude journalling - for accountability on my exercise and to tell myself that i used the time wisely instead of just watching tv all day.
This way, i can do stuff at the order that makes sense for the day, and if i do other things like socialize.
Having my successes of the day and gratitude practice proves to me that i lived well, especially on days when i have to deal with grief.
Good luck!