Rin-ring. Ring-ring. Ring-ring.
There goes the alarm, and we’re up for the day. You work a 9-5, have a significant other, and also have hobbies that fall on top of that. Add in friends, family, and most importantly personal time to that list, and you’re in for quite the balancing act. That’s when I began to research some tips and tricks on how to fit it all into my schedule on a weekly basis. Today, we’re going to go over a few basic steps in order for you to live a more efficient, stress-free lifestyle. Let’s hop to it!
1. Create a Visual
Everybody nowadays has a cell phone, and some of the apps on it are really useful for providing a visual of your current schedule. Imagine yourself gaining a new perspective of something you’re doing in the present – consider it your own personal bird’s-eye-view. In some cell phone models you may need to download a free calendar scheduling app, but I just use my iPhone’s calendar app. Once you put in your essential time-blocks (i.e. work, volleyball practice, dog walking, etc.) you’ll be able to graph your schedule and see where there are gaps of free time in your day.
Pro tip: colour code your activities throughout the week so that you know their specific locations (ex. Red time-blocks are home, yellow time-blocks are work, etc.). This will help for you to maximize travel time between activities, and make your life so much easier!
2. A Consistent Bed Time
I feel like this may be the hardest advice to follow, but I can’t stress this enough: get to bed at the right time, and you’ll wakeup at the right time. If your sleep schedule is inconsistent, it can open up a whole box of other problems, but if you adhere to a simple bedtime, you have a higher chance of creating healthy sleeping habits. Even if you aren’t “sleeping” and are just on your phone, crawl under the covers to create a positive lifestyle routine.
Pro tip: have a time where you “black out” all electronics. If you go to the bedroom at 10, try to power off your phone by 11. By putting down the phone, and picking up some z-z-z’s, you’ll find an improvement in your mood on a day-to-day basis.
3. Plan a “You” Day
No matter how busy a week gets, I always try to pencil in some time for numero uno, myself.It’s important for your own well-being (as well as everyone else’s) that you set aside some alone time in order to defuse all the tension from a busy week.
Pro tip: much like how you need some “me time”, you also need a prep day for the week. I tend to do all of my prep for the week (lunches, laundry, etc) on the Sunday evening to ensure smooth weeknights. This alleviates doing small amounts of prep each weekday by handling it all at once on the weekend.