10. Plan out your week on Sunday evenings and prioritize what needs to be done first.
Planning out your week on Sunday evenings gives you an overview of what is coming and allows for prioritizing. This will help to keep the week running smoothly because everything that needs to get done has been planned out in advance.
At the end of the day, structuring your life will lead to a more productive and happier you. We all have 24 hours in each day which means that we can do anything but only one thing at once.
With this in mind, it’s important to know how best to maximize time spent on what matters most and avoid distractions like social media or getting caught up in other people’s drama.
The 10 tips mentioned above should help get you started with implementing some structure into your daily routine so that you are able to focus on productivity without feeling overwhelmed by the demands of life. Which structures from our list did you implement today?
The Organize Your Life Framework
Rules can feel rigid and joyless: do this, not that. But in reality, following a set of guidelines in life can be freeing. When we have a predetermined set of ways we aim to act, we limit the analysis paralysis that comes with choice and the agony that flows from indecision. That’s not to say that life shouldn’t include some serendipity – we include “Experiment” as part of this framework so you can find the happy accidents in life without feeling like everything is spinning out of control.
1. Develop habits and build a routine
We all have habits that have solidified in our lives over the years and routines that determine our actions without conscious thought. The question is whether these habits are intentional or simply the result of inertia.
Build health everyday habits
Good habits set us up for long-term success and make us feel good. Bad habits rob us of our time, health, happiness, and money. Take a look at the habits in your life too see what’s working, what needs to go, and what new habits would help you reach your goals.
“Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. They are the channel through which you develop your deepest beliefs about yourself. Quite literally, you become your habits.”
Once you have the habits you want in your life, assemble them in a daily routine that keeps you productive. When you have good habits and can string them together into a strong routine, you can rely less on fleeting motivation and leave minimal room for procrastination and distraction.
2. Plan ahead
Life has unpredictable twists and turns. That doesn’t mean a little planning doesn’t go a long way. A task manager, like Todoist , and a calendar are the tools you need to think and plan in advance and organize your life.
Set aside time to map out your days and plan your weeks. When you know which day your work presentation is due, you can work backwards and add to-dos to your task manager to get it done. If you capture when your kid’s parent-teacher conferences are in your calendar, you can rest easier knowing that things aren’t slipping through the cracks.
“…well-planned blocks of 168 hours are big enough to accommodate full-time work, intense involvement with your family, rejuvenating leisure time, adequate sleep, and everything else that actually matters.”
Of course, the emphasis is on “well-planned”. By scheduling everything on your calendar and adding all your tasks to your to-list, you can work within the confines of your week to give focus to everything that’s important to you.
Don’t Be Afraid to Mess Up; Just Start!
It’s important for me to let you know that this isn’t what my daily routine looked like at the beginning…not even close. I was happy to just be doing one of these things on a daily basis! No, this has been a constant process of experimentation, optimization and change…it’s not always easy but it’s so worth it.
It’s okay to “let yourself be sloppy” when it comes to creating new habits. In other words, be specific in what you want, but also keep the flexibility necessary to work within in your lifestyle and schedule so your habits actually stick.
ONE PAGE PER DAY. That’s it. Sometimes writing that one page would take 10 minutes…sometimes an hour. Many times he would write for two hours before he had to turn to his “day job” as a lawyer.
“The alarm clock would go off at 5, and I’d jump in the shower. My office was 5 minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my office, with the first cup of coffee, a legal pad and write the first word at 5:30, five days a week.”
It took Grisham three years to finish his first novel (“A Time to Kill”)…and since getting it published in 1988, he has gone on to write one book per year…selling more than 300 million copies worldwide and amassing a net worth of over $200 million! All of that started with one page per day…
Source:
https://basicsbybecca.com/blog/structure-your-life
https://blog.doist.com/organize-your-life/
https://buffer.com/resources/daily-success-routine/