Most people think of ways in which they can structure their life, to make the most out of it but hardly take the first step. Structuring one’s life starts with changing the routine habits.
As it has been rightly quoted,
Make good habits, and then good habits will make you.
Not structuring your life will be much more fatiguing than having a well-structured life. You will exhaust yourself physically and mentally without a plan or a routine.
We know most of you think it is extremely arduous to stick to a schedule, but not having a schedule is even more difficult.
You will end up piling up all your work either from the workplace or home. Once you start a structured life, you will realize how you have been divesting your body of tranquility and satisfaction.
Why is it important to plan your day?
Life coach Ritu Singal remembers how she used to think that 24-hours were too little for her to work. But with testing time and healthy habits, she conquered those 24-hours with full efficiency.
She remembers how once someone guided her, about the best use of time in fulfilling a task with wisdom and attention.
She was told, if you try to catch three rabbits at a time, and you run after one of them, you’ll lose the other two. In the same way, if you try to be present everywhere, trying to acquire everything at one time, you will not even be able to manage even one of them properly.
Later, when she had to take care of her personal, professional, and social life, she had already realized these are the three rabbits she has to catch and manage each one of them graciously.
You see, this is how some people make the most out of the 24-hours in a day while some just sit and think, 24 hours are too less.
Some points of improvements through planning a routine are:
- Firstly, by planning and working on a routine, you will already be ahead of a lot of people out there just wasting their time doing unfruitful activities.
- Secondly, creating the right plan will give you ample time to work on your hobbies or just a relaxing time.
- Thirdly, you will be able to set priorities. Prioritizing work and doing the important tasks on time will lessen a lot of your burden.
- Fourthly, you’ll realize that with each passing day, you are getting closer to achieving your goals.
- Finally, you will enjoy the best of your health by creating and sticking to a schedule. A proper bed-time and wake-up time will grant you enough hours of sleep.
How to plan your day?
- Plan your day a night before
Planning your day a night before, instead of the morning is the best time to plan. Now, if you start planning your day in the morning, firstly, you will waste a small chunk of the day already. Secondly, as the day begins, we tend to assign lesser work to ourselves. If you plan your day a night before, you wake up with a mindset to complete the decided tasks. When you know what all you have to accomplish in the day, you can start working towards your goals as soon as you get up.
- Wake up early
Well, the most essential part to plan your day and to structure your life is to wake up early. Most of us don’t even realize how many precious hours we waste sleeping. We spend almost half our day asleep, especially during the holidays. After losing half a day, we feel guilty about not doing many productive tasks. As quoted,
“Challenging to get up five minutes early is a human revolution”.
- Create To-Do Lists
The next challenging step to structure your life lies in making prompts and to-do lists for the day. Prepare a to-do list according to the highest to lowest priority works and then stick to the schedule. Not only will you feel your life more planned, but also you’ll see how active and efficient you feel about yourself. As you’ll keep on doing the tasks, you can tick them on the list. This activity helps you complete your work on time and also helps relieve stress.
- Weekly Plans
Many people find it arduous to take out time daily for creating a schedule every day. If you are one of them, what you can do is make a weekly plan. No matter how busy you are, you can spare at least 30 minutes on a Sunday to schedule your upcoming week. So on a Sunday morning or night, sit at a tranquil place, check your meetings, assignments, or classes, and sit and write a schedule for the next week. By doing so, you’ll be able to accomplish all your week’s important tasks without stressing. Also, you don’t have to take out time daily by following this routine.
- Eat the Frog
One of the oldest and most effective ways to attain the best from your day, week, or month is the “Eat the Frog” method. According to this method, you have to schedule and think of the most critical task for your day. When you know this task, then it should be the first thing you accomplish in the morning. It is a very simple method but works wonders! You don’t have to worry throughout the day, thinking that a big chunk of work is still on your back. Also, if there is a particular task you don’t like to do, that you try to linger on as much as you can, you can make it a frog task. The frog task should be your priority and should be completed as soon as the day starts.
How to write daily routine for yourself?
What you do daily becomes your ritual. You have to make sure your daily routine consists of everything from work, to relaxation, to self-care time, to family.
Are you confused about how to write a daily routine for yourself?
Follow these handpicked tips to generate a great schedule to play your day.
Step 1: Decide your routine type
Before creating or planning your day, you should decide what type of routine you want. It depends on your profession and your choices. You can decide on working early in the morning or late at night. For instance, if you are a housewife, you’ll plan a day where you’ll cover your kitchen chores, kid’s homework, exercise, and managing other activities. So firstly, you need to decide your routine type.
Step 2: Tell yourself why you need a routine
To stick to a schedule and work on it, you should know why you are creating one.It always suggested to people to stay motivated no matter what task you perform.
So before writing a routine, you have to remind yourself why you need a plan. When you’ll know the reasons and importance of following a schedule, you’ll work towards it more attentively
Step 3: Prioritize your work
As you sit to write a routine, jot down your tasks according to the priorities in which they are to be done. You should know the most important and the least important tasks that you’ll be doing, and it will be helpful if you schedule your routine according to your priorities.
Step 4: Time management
An efficient routine is the one where you know how to manage each minute of the day. Your list should seize your day. We suggest that activities that can be done simultaneously to other tasks should not be given extra hours of the day. For example, you can listen to your voice mails or emails while traveling instead of sitting and replying to them on the bed. In the same way, you can go for a mini walk during your lunch break. Such time management activities save a lot of time in an individual’s day.
No matter how efficient you think the routine you created is, it will always require regular amendments. Following the same routine will also make you live in a loop. It is crucial to edit and make minor to major changes in your routine after one or two months. You can cut time on some activities and increase time in some other activity. Such edits will bear good fruits.
Step 6: Add self-care
You see when it comes to creating routines; people think it is only for the workplace or workplace tasks. However, when you design an agenda for yourself, it becomes your duty to add some goodness to your day. Apart from your work, you should plan time for self-care activities. You can add time to read a book, listen to a podcast, watch your favorite show, workout, or cook a new recipe.
Step7: Chart out a routine
Now that you know what all you have to include in your routine, it is time you map down your roster. You can make a to-do list, create a journal, or simply set a diary to write your routine. Write the tasks to be done first, second, and so on. Make sure you add grooming and exercises or yoga to your routine.
Step 8: Stick to the schedule
To be honest, this is the most difficult step of any routine. Writing an agenda is one thing, and to follow that agenda is another thing. Once you are ready with your routine, keep yourself motivated to work according to the itinerary. It might take a few days or weeks, but soon you’ll start living according to your roster.
How to structure your life
Bonus Tips:
According to us, to structure your life, you should know about self-control.
What you can do is, know your boundary of laziness. Some bonus tips to do so are:
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- Put a healthy snack on your work desk. Each time you’ll feel hungry, you’ll eat it instead of ordering an unhealthy snack.
- Put a phone time limit for yourself and your family. Make it a rule to not see screens post 9 P.M or whenever you feel convenient.
- Read a book or journal in your free time. While doing so, make sure your phone is in another room, so that you don’t have to spend every 10-minutes using it when a message pops.
- Do not burden yourself with loads of work. Give your mental health a priority. Distribute work in a way that you get time for mindfulness activities like yoga or meditation.
- While planning a routine, do not forget to give yourself 7-8 hours of sleep. Your body will work more efficiently, and you will bring fresh ideas to the table only if you have taken enough rest.
Final thoughts
Structuring life is very important for each one of us. No one likes delaying work until you have a mountain of undone tasks. By planning a routine, you will be able to finish all your tasks while taking care of your health.
We have a great experience in counseling and helping people attain a better life. We have always helped our clients lead a beautiful life. These tips to structure your life and planning a routine by her will prove an asset in your life.
