It started with the weirdest thing ever, i wanted to see how good Grammarly the text editing tool was because i’m currently writing my dissertation and thought maybe it’ll be good to have some writing help. Which then led to this video about using Notion to how i study for 4 hours without breaks to a video about procastination. That Youtube rabbit hole be real people. Also i’ve been watching this Youtuber who loves to post videos with the word ‘productive’ in them. I was also very discouraged by how i was procastinating alot and wasting my time, I thought my time management methods of creating a to-do list was good enough but apparently it wasn’t working.
Here are some of the things that i need to work on at the moment
- my dissertation
- finding a job
- studying for my driving test
- finding a new home
- shedding off 1 year of body fat accumulation a.k.a exercise
Here is the schedule i made, yes they’re on receipt paper and yes there were changes made
So how much of the plan was i able to accomplish?
Day 1 – 100%
Day 2 – 85% -felt sick, distracted
Day 3 – 85% Insomnia the night before, feeling sick
Day 4 – 75% had a really bad back pain so i had a 2 hour nap
Day 5 – 60% I really didn’t want to do anything today, lack of motivation, only accomplished those things on my schedule that were ‘easy’
Day 6 – 60% still lack of motivation
Day 7 – 75% I had a really bad stomach ache but i did get in some unscheduled work done so that was a plus
Looking back on the days it looks like i had gotten ill or had some body ailment that did contribute to me not being able to fully follow my schedule which is an important point i want to make early on which is there can be a schedule but also give yourself grace if you don’t follow it to the dot. We are human and yes that can be an excuse but it’s also true, so be strict with yourself as much as you can but if you fall sick or are recovering from that illness whether it be physical or mental then don’t worry about achieving 100% of your schedule.
Did you get more done?
The first few days i did then this hyper productivity started taking a toil on me and i was getting tired and unmotivated. I didn’t plan enough breaks for myself and it felt a lot like it was all work work work. I guess the answer is yes and no? Anyway, here are a few things i learnt from this experience:
- Bye bye phone – I made it a point to hide my phone when i was in ‘work’ time. This really helped me concentrate as i wasn’t getting tempted to mindlessly scroll through instagram or facebook (those two apps are mysterious time suckers). I also put it on silent mode to prevent those tempting notifications.
- remember to plan breaks – human needs don’t count as breaks but breaks are so important to recharge and relax. Yes there is the need to work but we be human and need breaks too. Just try imagining yourself exercising for 8 hours straight, crazy right? Same thing here.
- plan your rewards – I find this really important because if there is no rewards then it feels like you’re tormenting yourself and this would create negative emotions towards your schedule and your work. This in turn can lead to procastination.
- It’s all in the details – yes i did put there that i will do my dissertation stuff from this time to this time but what am i doing exactly? Well this is what i mean by planning the details. Kudos to the Youtuber who can study for 8 hours each day, i got this idea from him (citing my sources) and it’s true, i don’t want to waste part of those hours figuring out what i need to do, i want to go in and get started immediately. This means that you’ll need a LOT of time to plan.
- put in time to plan – related to the previous point and also will relate to point 11 but what i mean here is actually schedule time to plan your plan
- I couldn’t get all 5 goals done in a day – and that’s because you have to decide how much time you’re going to spend for each of them. I put mine in priority order even though they are all important but my dissertation got the bulk of the time because that is literally my job right now, to write a dissertation.
- mix it up a bit – routine is what it is…routine. So since you’re going to be planning in advance you can shake things up a bit within reason of course
- relationships – This one was tough, i did feel like i was ignoring my husband for most of the time and there weren’t those random conversations we would have. When i took breaks i couldn’t expect him to take a break too especially when he was in the middle of work so this one is a tricky one. Still not sure how this will work because i believe you need to put in time for your relationships just like you put in time for everything else.
- Corrections – i wanted to be strict with making corrections because once you do one you’ll be tempted to do another and then before you know it there goes your plan. But through my corrections i learned about my energy levels, what leads to distraction which i have made a mental note for the future.
- give yourself extra time for those activities you can’t really limit time to – ex. devotion, eating, talking to people these are things you can’t put a time limit to and that’s okay.
- Don’t plan it all in one go – this is a but controversial but since it was my first time doing it i wanted to try a few days out first before i went on to complete planning the week. Also i was too tired to plan the whole week.
Conclusions
Because i had so many ‘major’ things to do this scheduling every minute of my life thing took its toll on me. When you have so many things to juggle you get tired and slip up so i wouldn’t do this in the long term if i had so many things going on. We aren’t made to multitask, seriously. I think we humans do way much better when we concentrate our efforts at one thing at a time but alas this is life. I know that sounds self-contradictory but what i’m trying to say is don’t have so many big “to-do” things when you do this, maybe three might work? Overall, the concept of creating a schedule was good and i actually liked that i knew what i was going to be doing and see myself do it. I still have to work on making realistic to do lists and schedules, also need to create more breaks and better rewards for myself to motivate myself. At the end of the day don’t forget to show yourself some love too okay, only do this to help yourself be more organized, if it is causing you anxiety and stress then it defeats the purpose.
