stick to a schedule

Three days ago I started over on this goal for the third time since setting it! I can’t believe I’ve gone through my entire life without ever using a planner consistently. It’s really time to make that a top priority – unless I have a to-do list to keep my time organized, I’m not likely to make much progress on any of my other goals.

I originally said that I’d consider this accomplished when I’d stuck with it for three months straight. So with that in mind, I’ve made it my personal challenge to do that by November 18.

That happens to be the day that Tomb Raider: Underworld comes out. Now, although I mostly abstain from video games these days – due having been basically addicted to them for years, and having many other things to which I want devote my attention instead – Tomb Raider is the one series that I make an exception for and follow sporadically. Hey, I don’t know – I just really love it. I’d really like to get the new one when it’s released, but it’s pretty obvious that if I can’t even stick to a schedule and keep my life organized, actually doing the things I want and need to be doing every day – I really should not be playing games. So, as I’ve written in my personal challenge, I won’t get Underworld until I can stick to a schedule and finally get this goal off my list!

I tend to wake up and let the day waste away without getting much done. When I am in school or working, I am on a schedule and am much more productive. I am going to try to stick to a schedule on my off-days so I actually do the things I need to do!

I tried sticking to pretty strict scheduling for a few weeks. I was able to do it some days, but I mostly took it as guidelines and didn’t bother to follow it exactly… Mhhh, I think I can only stick to scheduling like that for work and school, everything else tends to vary quite a bit. So, my next step is to try to follow a more flexible schedule, sort of per day instead of per hour. I hope I’ll be able to keep this up and get everything that I need to finish done. On time.

To do this well, I need to prioritise things and then stick to those priorities like glue. I find I get caught up in other stuff – useful, productive stuff, but lower-priority stuff nonetheless – when I should be sticking to my plan. I need harder time limits on tasks.

that I am lousy at keeping to schedule. Instead I seem to frivolously waste time, with the minutes spreading into hours, hours spreading into whole days. I don’t see the need to pressure myself about time, especially when it comes to fun things or personal-life things. I always feel there will be more time, which is a bad assumption. And is pretty ironic for someone who constantly (subconsciously I guess) feels the pressure of too much to do in too little time. I end up doing work at the last minute and not achieving stuff in my personal life.

Well, time to incorporate more scheduling into my life. The problem is, I’m not great at judging how long things will take me – I often find they take way longer than they should do.

The will is there, now I have to work out how to implement this.

Well, one month later, I’m starting over on this… again! I really haven’t been paying attention to this goal at all, which is ironic considering that keeping a schedule and prioritizing my time is pretty much essential to accomplishing most of my other goals. I keep being lazy and just thinking I’ll remember what I need to do each day, but I inevitably don’t, and besides, all that trying to remember just clogs up my brain unnecessarily. I know it works much better for me to write things down.

So this morning I got out a fresh notebook and restarted my planner system. I have lots of things on the agenda for today so I’d better wrap up this entry and get started!

I resurrected my planner and used it for a few days, but then end-of-semester mania set in and I fell off the wagon—just hoped my overloaded brain would remember what I was supposed to be doing. I started over today, though! Classes are done, so I’ve got some time to regroup and get back into this.

For the first time in my life, I did this successfully last year, though I only stuck with it for a couple of months. I had never had much success using systems or planners designed by other people, so in a moment of clarity I just grabbed an empty notebook and developed my own.

Each day had its own page, on which I put the date, a “high priority” section, a “medium priority” section, and a place for random notes, such as specific times I needed to do things. (There was no “low priority” section, as I decided that anything designated low priority probably wasn’t really worth doing.) My rule was that I had to do everything on the high priority list for each day, so I had to be very realistic about what I put there. Things on the medium priority list were optional and would carry over to the next day if I didn’t do them.

It was that simple, and it worked amazingly for me. I got so much more done and felt great about it. I even started writing down at least one thing I learned on each day, which was neat.

After a while I got lazy again and abandoned my schedule, but starting tomorrow, I’m reviving it. I just have too many responsibilities and too many interests to avoid this any longer. When I keep it up consistently for three months, I’ll consider the habit formed!

I’ve gotten as far as creating a schedule, but I’m just not able to stick to it… I’ll have to work on this and create a routine that actually works for me.

I got most of the things done this weekend that I wanted to. It’s pretty easy, though, when you don’t have work getting in the way. We’ll see how this week goes. I’m really nervous, actually. Saturday’s my first day back to school and I’m trying to keep up with this Sparkpeople regime. All these goals are great, but time consuming. When stuff starts stacking up, that’s when I tend to get overwhelmed and defeated. I’ve got to figure out how to NOT let that happen this time round.