Guest Author - Melissa Weise
In part one of our series, you learned how to organize your brain and determine what things you can do something about and what things you can’t. While this should have helped you gain some peace of mind, learning what to do with the things that you can do something about is an important next step. And this requires scheduling.
Scheduling is basically determining how you are going to use your time and when you are going to do things. Everyone already follows a schedule because everyone is already living day to day. The difference now is that you are going to take control of your schedule and decide where you want to make some changes.
It is very helpful, in the process of doing this, to start using a calendar. There are literally hundreds of different styles of calendars out there – monthlies, dailies, hourlies and so on. You can spend as little as a dollar and as much as several hundred to purchase whatever calendar you want to use. It can be electronic or pen and paper. Have some fun looking at what is out there and trying stuff out. It can take a few different tries before you figure out what works best for you. Typically, it is best to use something that you can keep with you and that you can use easily and quickly. It is important to remember, though if you have never used a calendar before that it may feel awkward at first and you will probably forget it a lot. People tend to stop using calendars during this time period, but what you are really doing is creating a habit and that takes time so don’t give up!
Once you have found a calendar you want to start practicing with, take out your list of things that you can do something about (or, if you haven’t done this yet, read “How to Start Organizing Your Brain” and make one). Look at the list and rate them by their importance. For instance, you could scale them from 0 to 10 with zero being the least important and ten being the most important. Next, rate them by how urgently they need to be done. Once you have rated these items both ways, you will see almost immediately what needs to be done first. Take out a new piece of paper and list them in order and importance. Now look at the first few and decide if they are things that can be done in one sitting. For instance, “dye my hair” could be done in one sitting (unless you need to earn the money to do that first in which case it would be two different things) while “get my license” would need to be broken down into several steps. Take the things that need to be broken down and do that.
Next, take out your calendar and block out the time you already have scheduled and can’t change. For instance, going to school and sleeping. Now, put in other things like parties, appointments, and birthdays. Once you have your calendar filled in with scheduled things, look at the blank spaces and start filling them in with things from your “to do” list. Don’t forget to schedule fun and relaxing things as well. And make sure that your timing is realistic. For example, cleaning and organizing your whole room would probably take longer than the fifteen minutes you have before school.
Now, the final and most important step in organizing your schedule is to start actually using your calendar and following what you have decided you will do. What tends to work is to take some time at the start of each down and write down your schedule for the day with a list of things that you planned to get done. That way, you only have to focus on one day at a time. And if you don’t get something done, make sure to put it somewhere else in your schedule in the future.
Remember, practicing your schedule takes time but the more you do it, the closer you are to being organized.
