I have one confession I am a professional procrastinator. Keeping up with a schedule is difficult. I want to be productive, and responsible. I want to be able to wake up before dawn and stare into the sunrise while I meditate, do my most important tasks, and be done by noon.
I want to do exercise for that afternoon rush, instead of that four in the afternoon sleepiness. I want to sleep early before midnight would be ideal.
I want to cook for myself. Try an exotic recipe that is hard to make, low on dirty dishes, and ultimately delicious.
I want to be able to play video games without feeling guilty. Same thing with watching Netflix.
Instead, I wake up at two in the afternoon and I do none of that.
I always start my calendar at ten in the morning and by the time I wake up, I am already late.
This stresses me out so much. I have tried: journalling, to-do list, morning routines, night routines, gym, meditation, heavy breakfast, light breakfast, I’ve tried everything and nothing works. Except for one thing. Calendar blocking, and not worrying about the specific times.
Calendar blocking is something really easy and productive to do. Out of all the things I mentioned above, if you could do only one, I would recommend calendar blocking.
What you do is you open your favorite calendar app, and start blocking your day. You start by putting in your routines, or hopeful routines like going to sleep. If you want to do exercise in the morning every day or every other day you put that under routine. If at four in the afternoon you are going to see a friend, you would block out that time on personal. My personal appointments are red, while my routines are purple. You can pick any color and any denominations that best fit your lifestyle.
I have a routine, work, personal, learning, task to-do, and task complete.
If you want to learn more go on youtube, there are a ton of results. I will leave you the video that piqued my interest.
The truth is that even though calendar blocking is incredible it is also extremely stressful. If I don’t keep up with it, I just see every single activity being pushed further and further down. By lunch I already feel defeated because I was supposed to be relaxing by that time, instead, I am barely getting my readings done.
The benefits of a schedule are well documented, but nobody talks about the stress of keeping up said schedule, or what happens when you cannot meet your high standards.
That’s why I am here to tell you to calm down, breathe, and relax.
Scheduling and routines are important, but are they worth your mental health? No. Ever since I started following the activities on that calendar, while not worrying about the times, I have been less stressed, and I get the same things done.
Make sure you do all the important stuff but take your time and breath.
If you were supposed to be done with your reading at two and you started at four, that’s fine.
If you were supposed to be done with your responsibilities by five but finished at seven that’s fine too.
Needless to say, this doesn’t apply if you are on a deadline. That’s why I am telling you, be responsible, fulfill your responsibilities, but if you have time to spare, relax, and do the best you can.
Maybe you don’t have this problem, maybe I am the only one, however, I would be willing to bet that I am not.
We all want to live a perfect life. Have time for work and play. Advance in your personal and professional life, but life is not perfect it’s the opposite.
Like one of my heroes says “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.”
If calendar blocking is not working out perfectly, don’t worry keep it, and sooner or later a natural routine will form.
Mine has not kicked in yet like I said I do fulfill all of my responsibilities. Every single day I write for Medium for one hour. Every single day I read, I take a class, I advance in my freelancing career. Every day I do all of that and mostly finish late at night, even though I was supposed to end by five.
This used to drive me crazy, sometimes still does. I see the day pass by, become night and I am still stuck to my desk, but so what? I talk to my beautiful fiancé, hang out with my mother, watch and play some cool stuff, and talk to friends. Except I didn’t appreciate all of that at all. Sometimes I even felt like I shouldn’t spend time with anyone because I was “behind.” I don’t make that mistake anymore and I am so much happier.
Sometimes you get so focused on keeping up with that schedule that you forget every thing good in your day and that is unacceptable.
So relax, keep doing what you are doing, the best you can, and sooner or later you will acquire a routine that works for you.
That routine will lead you to be consistently productive. It’s just a matter of doing it every single day, and not stress too much about keeping up with that damn schedule.
Also, this goes without saying, but if calendar blocking just doesn’t work for you at all, try something else. Maybe a journal would work best. Maybe a physical calendar that you can touch and fill out. I have even tried sticky notes, but that was a whole mess I don’t want to recreate.
At the end of the day, you have to take care of yourself the best way you can.
Sebastian Sanchez is a gamer, writer, and film lover. He received his B.A from UCSD in Creative Writing and he considers himself a child of La Linea. You can follow Sebastian here, on twitter, or his podcast “Best of All Time” available on Apple Podcast & Spotify for more.
