5 Things That Happened When I Began To Timetable My Days
In this day and age I think a lot of us are trying to find the best method to ‘get the most out of our day’. Lately, it seems that the day is shorter than 24 hours — there’s so much to do that it often feels like a day should be longer.
While I’m fully aware that there is no magic cure or easy way to suddenly make you a super productive person, I’m always interested in finding small things I can implement to help tweak my time management and make me a bit more efficient.
I’ve heard about timetabling your day many times before, but I never really thought to give it a go. After coming across it again recently though I decided, why not? I may as well try it.
Now, while I love notebooks I decided to use an online calendar. Seeing as I have a gmail account I used Google Calendar. There are a few reasons for this, like how quickly it can be done this way. If I used a notebook I would spend a long time designing and colouring and making it beautiful. I just wouldn’t be able to help myself. Also, if something changed, correcting it on paper could be messy, whereas online it would be simple.
So, what did I discover along my timetabling journey?
1. I Was Better Able To Organise My Day
While this may seem like a logical assumption, I was still a little skeptical at first. How much difference could it make to lay out a simple timetable? I know what I have to do in my day, would putting it on a calendar really make much of a difference? It turns out it did.
My work schedule tends to change and is not always in that 9–5 window. Sometimes I have to work in the morning, take a break in the afternoon and then continue at night. With my calendar I was able to add these times easily and alter them if they changed last minute. With my work hours laid out clearly I was then able to see what spaces were available for other tasks, and the best way to move from one to the other. The timetable made me stick to the routine and allowed me to to do things I previously found hard to find the time for, or things that fell by the wayside due to the importance of other tasks. Suddenly I was able to find spaces for these activities that I thought I was too busy to do.
2. I Discovered How Little Sleep I Actually Got
That’s right, I even sleep timetabled in my sleep — when to go to bed and when to rise. The original idea behind this was simply to see how many hours of my day I had available while I wasn’t asleep, but what also happened was that I was able to see, right there on the screen, how little sleep I was actually getting. Not only that, but the time I had for sleeping was actually even less than on the schedule. Even though I went to bed at the time I on my calendar, I usually spent 30 or 40 minutes ‘unwinding’, either by reading or scrolling through my phone.This took away from my sleep time.
How much sleep you need can depend on the person, however it’s generally recommended to get between 7 and 9 hours . I try to aim for 8, with 7 and a half being acceptable. What would end up happening though is that I would aim for 7 and a half, but because of my ‘unwinding’ it was reduced to around 7, and then by the time I actually fell asleep it was closer to 6 and a half.
Timetabling my sleeping hours let me improve my sleeping schedule, which ultimately allowed me to be more productive and energized throughout the day.
3. I Found Out I Actually Enjoyed It
When I was starting I felt like it might be a bit annoying. Timetabling out all my days seemed like it would inevitably get a bit, well, boring and maybe even become a bit of a chore. Surprisingly I found that I really enjoyed this time. I colour coded different activities so that it was bright and attractive looking and I had fun playing around with how I titled the activities, with some words like like yoga, sleep, and lunch producing images. I also made it a little bit of a challenge, trying to organise my day so that I could fit in everything I wanted to do alongside everything I had to do. The timetabling also produced a small bit of satisfaction when I completed a task, even something as mundane as food shopping or clean house. It was like ticking something off a list.
4. I Was Able To Maximize My Time
This was one of the best and also most surprising of the bunch. I really saw that it was possible and there was time in the day somewhere to do most of the stuff I wanted. By scheduling in everything (and I mean everything, even things as simple as wake up, chill time and shower) I was able to see the empty spaces that were available. I could physically see how much time I could dedicate to things like writing, reading, exercise.
It also made me aware of just how much time I lost by scrolling idly through my phone on social media, and how much other stuff I could get done in that time; it was almost scary! Adding up those small sessions per day led to a huge chunk of time during the week that I could have dedicated to language learning or other self-improvement activities I want to pursue. I was able to redistribute this time and channel it into something productive as well as fun.
5. It Wasn’t As Constricting As I Thought It Would Be
Now, I know above I’ve stated that I literally block my whole day — I mean there’s no unused space left of my calendar, from wake up to bed time — but what’s great about using a digital calendar is that it’s not set in stone. If something pops up or I need to alter my day I can make changes easily. What’s more, I don’t let myself feel guilty if I didn’t do what was scheduled. The timetable is fantastic and I find it really helped me stay on track and complete tasks… but we’re all only human. If it was time for a task and I just wasn’t feeling it or I was in the mood to do something different, that was ok.
It was important to recognize that this system is a tool that I used to help me, not something I was a slave to.
While habits and routines are always good it’s important to know when something isn’t working for you. You don’t want to be tied down or restricted by methods that were originally meant to help you. If you find yourself dreading your organisation method or it doesn’t make you happy, don’t be afraid to shake things up and try something new. You can always revisit it after some time has passed. It might even turn out to be perfect for that new period of your life and you can go back to using it again.
Overall I really enjoyed my timetabling and I feel that I’ll continue using it, at least for now. If there comes a time when it’s more convenient for me to go without, or I find a different way to try things, than I’ll be open to that.
