If you’re anything like me, you might find that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Or even worse, you don’t think there are, so you give up and procrastinate.

It’s hard to budget time for things when we don’t know how long they’ll take to get done, or we feel rushed to get to the next thing. That’s why it always amazes me when people manage to break down their schedule into thirty minutes to hour long chunks of time. It just doesn’t seem that realistic to me.

But there has to be some type of system or we find ourselves not getting anything done at all!

• Don’t start by scheduling the time right when you wake up. Starting blind isn’t the way to go.
• Do start by writing down all your appointments, things that need to be done at a certain time without question.

• Don’t try and do any of this without writing it down, you won’t remember, or won’t follow it.
• Do buy a nice planner or even a notebook that you fill in. It needs to be soild. This will also make you less likely to change things on the fly.

• Don’t plan down to the minute, saying study from 12:30-1:45.
• Do give yourself an order in which these activities need to be done. Studying first, than going to the gym, then watching netflix.

• Don’t rush to finish things before your scheduled appointments
• Do give yourself a pocket of time to finish tasks that weren’t finished earlier in the day. A catch all for all the extra stuff around dinner.

• Don’t get rid of spontaneous plans with friends, these are a big fun part of life. Keep them.
• Do make sure you leave room for the unknown, this is one of the reasons why you don’t want to do it minute for minute, things come up, both good and bad.

• Don’t make rewards for finishing every thing. Rewards are nice but if we use them too often we’ll rush ourselves and end up not taking the time we need. They can also be very distracting. Use them, but use them wisely.
• Do make your planner pretty, color code for importance, make it not seem like too much of a drag.