Here at CGD HQ our lives are awash with schedules, from the editorial calendar to our planners, notebooks and to-do lists. It leaves little time for spontaneity and it’s kind of a bore, even if we’re addicted to it. So cut your scheduling down to the essentials and read our guide on avoiding over scheduling for a more balanced life!
Find out what’s essential.
Try and boil it down to the most essential schedules. I couldn’t live without our editorial calendar, so that’d be number one on my list, followed by some of our other spreadsheets and general to-do lists. I also need a regimented exercise plan, so I need a schedule for that, everything else isn’t essential. Don’t worry if you’re struggling to narrow it down, just take a critical look at the schedules you already have and see if anything can go!
Establish your outcomes.
So you need to know the outcome of all the tasks you’re pushing yourself into, what do you want to come of all this hard work? Whether it’s losing weight or grabbing a promotion, if you know what you want and there is a clear goal it might actually be good to keep those things in your schedule.
Stick to one medium.
My problem is that I have a hundred scheduling apps, calendars and notebooks. I have so many tasks I’ve actually forgotten where I’ve written them all before, and that’s not healthy. In order to keep on top of things the best thing to do is find out what your favourite medium is. If you like to write things down, do it. If you prefer a tool-bar extension, install one and dump the rest!
Don’t make time you don’t have!
Seriously, if you’re busy as hell just admit it. A lot of the time us ambitious women are a little scared to say no to things and find ourselves juggling hundreds of things in one week, just say you need some help or that you’re far too busy. You need some slack!
Have a few days with no schedule!
Plan your week in a way that if you leave anything undone you can only pick it back up on Monday, you need a few days of rest. It’s hard if you’re used to living busy to just sit and watch television or read a book, but there are actually lots of things you can do with your time to stop yourself from thinking about work or pesky schedules, like going for a swim or making a list of favourite blogs to read.
Do one spontaneous thing a month!
While you’re still young you should aim to do one spontaneous thing a month. I don’t mean something crazy, but just accept an invitation at a moment’s notice or travel to see your family or friends for a weekend. Invite people over for lunch or dinner, go for a run, do something crazy. It’s all fun and games!
Talk to your friends!!!
You might not have time to see them but a call is greatly appreciated. Keep them in the loop about all aspects of your life, even if you just send them stupid Snapchats every so often, they’ll appreciate it and it’ll help you to feel less burned out!
Girls! We’ve been nominated for Best Life Improvement Blog in the Bloglovin’ Awards 2015. It’s all thanks to you, our lovely readers, for recommending us, Tweeting us, sharing our posts and giving us great feedback! So thank you! It would mean so much to us if you could vote for us to win! X