Ever hear of those people who balance a hundred things at once during their day and still don’t sweat it? They walk down the street perfectly put together, calm and collected, cool as ice, and one can’t help but wonder, how do they do it?
Early thinking just may be a big part of it. If you want to be the type of person to creatively fit productivity into your day, having a plan is key. Today I am going to explain to you how I plan my life two weeks in advance and why you should too.
It Will Help You Get More Done
Let’s get something straight – planning for two weeks ahead does not mean your plan will go perfectly according to your vision. However, what it will ensure is that you have something to do every day. Even if you don’t get everything that you planned done in a given day, you can at least re-arrange and move tasks around to a more realistic time to do them. Lazy, unproductive days will become a thing of the past. Say hello to the new, productive version of you.
You Won’t Forget Anything!
You know you’re an adult when you literally can’t afford to forget anything. Well, if you have a plan, you won’t. Once it’s written down, it’s there for good. Even if you don’t get to it on time, you will be able to see what you haven’t gotten to yet and reschedule. So all those little things – like stopping by your professor’s office between classes to ask a question, or running a few errands before class – all that stuff, you can put on your plan and not worry about them until it’s actually time to do them.
Tip #1: Use a Calendar!
Doing so will give you an easy visual representation. I have found it most useful to have two calendars – a physical one in my planner for my school due dates/study planning, as well as an online calendar (I use Google Calendar) for all other aspects of my life. This includes my work schedule/meetings, finances, medical appointments, art planning (for my art business), important holidays/birthdays, as well as the most important school events and all other daily tasks.
Tip #2: Use Colors
When you have many different categories of your life to plan, trust me, this one will be so helpful. All for the sake of making things easy to read and manage. In my planner, I only write in black and blue ink since it only includes school assignments/due dates. In my google calendar however, I have my work schedule and meetings in blue, my finances/bills in teal, important school due dates in purple, medical appointments in orange, important events/holidays/birthdays in red, art plans in yellow, tasks in green, and potential plans that I’m not sure about (i.e. meeting up with a friend for coffee), in grey. It will make it easy to keep up with many aspects of your life, and makes your calendar look pretty too! What could be better?
You Will be Able to Realistically See Your Time
When everything is one document in front of you, you will be able to literally see which week you are more and less busy. Do you have many assignments and exams coming up? Does your upcoming week look heavier or lighter than usual? Which week will you have more free time? Being able to answer these questions will allow you to plan even the simplest things smartly – like the most convenient time for you to go shopping for new jeans, or making plans to catch up with an old friend.
Demand Your Life Back!
More of one, actually. When you can visualize the time that your life demands from you, you can also see when you will have free time. You can look ahead and literally see the time you have, and don’t have, and use this to your advantage to plan out self-care days for yourself. You will no longer have excuses to not do things like hang out with friends, catch a movie with your significant other, or have a me-day at home. It will also help you slow down in your busy bee lifestyle around the beehive and look forward to these scheduled “breaks”.
Let’s admit it… Life can get crayyy. It can seem that it piles more and more responsibilities onto your shoulders each passing year. However, with a solid plan and a strong head on your shoulders, you can and WILL get through it all.