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Finding a daily rhythm feels good.
You feel refreshed when you go to sleep and wake up at the same time. You look forward to your meals, coffee breaks, and an afternoon walk. And you feel a sense of accomplishment when starting and ending work right on schedule, crossing everything off your to-do list.
But that isn’t always the case. Maybe a significant life event, like a move, shakes up your sense of time. Maybe you switch jobs and have to learn how to achieve work-life balance in this landscape.
Everyone falls out of their rhythm sometimes. Creating a daily schedule can help you get back on track, set good habits, and maximize productivity. It ensures you have time for what you have to do — and what you want to do.
What’s a daily schedule?
A daily schedule is a time-blocked to-do list that explains what you plan to accomplish every day and at what approximate time. This 24-hour calendar helps you organize your personal and professional tasks while squaring away moments for self-care and rest.
A daily schedule may include tasks like:
- Work deliverables
- Work breaks
- Meals
- Exercise
- Naps and sleep
- Appointments
- Classes
- Meetings
- Networking
- Social events
- Transit
- Hobbies
- Family time
A schedule doesn’t have to consist of minute-by-minute instructions for every task above. Think of it more as a guide with the structure you need to achieve your goals.
A daily schedule can be as open as a bulleted to-do list or as specific as an hourly playbook, and it can ebb and flow as priorities change. It’s up to you and the way you want your life to look.
The importance of having a daily schedule
Having a routine feels good for a reason. A report from the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine shows that slowly incorporating new routines into your lifestyle improves your well-being and makes you more likely to build positive habits. Analyzing your behaviors with a daily schedule puts you on track to becoming a healthier self.
Studies also show that having a regular routine can help reverse the negative effects of stress exposure. Both primary routines, which are biologically necessary behaviors like sleeping and eating, and secondary routines, your individually preferred behaviors like exercising and studying, are vital to well-being.
Using a schedule to keep track of your routine ensures you have the time and energy for all the behaviors that bring you health and joy — which could be anything from maintaining your circadian rhythm to manifestation journaling.
Here’s how a daily agenda can help you achieve goals and boost your mental fitness:
Setting and meeting daily goals
Making, and sticking to, a schedule helps you understand what daily goals you can realistically complete. If you have a doctor’s appointment in the morning that limits much work you’ll finish later, creating a schedule gives you the foresight you need to finish everything urgent or assign tasks to another day. Without that, things might slip through the cracks.
Set yourself up for success by only planning to do the work you can reasonably take on. You might find that an extra meeting throws your day out of balance, or that penciling in time for breaks actually adds stress to your day. Finding the right balance takes trial and error, but taking the time to create a routine that works for you is the first step to realistically reaching goals.
Limiting procrastination
Stress and anxiety cause you to procrastinate because if something overwhelms you, the natural thing to do is avoid it. Procrastinating for a few minutes won’t set you back too far, but when this practice becomes a habit, you risk not completing work or causing later burnout.
When you create a life schedule that balances your day's personal and professional tasks, you visualize whether you’re taking on too much before pressing play. Scheduling enjoyable tasks along with difficult ones gives you something to look forward to. In turn, you limit procrastination breaks and create more time for the work that matters.
Valuing healthy productivity
When you think of a productive day, you likely envision yourself flying through tasks and completing them well. But measuring productivity is tricky. You can quantify how many emails you send, but the productivity value of a meeting, professional development session, or brainstorming huddle is subjective and depends on the day.
When you use a daily time planner, you can assign worth to the tasks in your day and prioritize the most important ones, optimizing your time to be as productive as possible. This tactic will also help you reevaluate moments when it feels like you’re not doing much, but you’re actually making great strides — like having a long call with a client that results in a thriving project.
Boosting motivation
Making a daily schedule gives you the satisfaction of seeing how far you’ve come in the day, encouraging you to keep going. And the more complete your daily schedule planner, the better insights you gain about how you work. Creating a schedule gives you the clarity you need to set goals, find work motivation, and feel accomplished.
How to make a schedule like a pro planner
Using even the most basic to-do list can spark better organization and a greater sense of achievement. Here’s how to make a comprehensive daily schedule template that limits procrastination, fosters flow, and budgets time for balance:
Prioritize
You don’t always need to finish your to-do list right away, but some items can’t wait. Maybe you have a tight deadline or interdependent tasks. Start making a schedule by slating what you absolutely have to finish, and add additional activities after. Prioritization can be challenging, but you’ll end up with a smoother workflow and more free time if you strategically plan.
Remember that some imperatives are personal ones. Your coaching session or friend’s birthday party is a priority, and it’s healthy to treat them as such, even if you have a busy work day. If you’re having trouble deciding what should come first, a priority matrix that maps out your to-dos can help.
Set deadlines
External deadlines can be nerve-wracking, especially when other people rely on your work. But one of the benefits of setting a daily schedule is you can plan ahead to finish tasks at a pace that works for you instead of rushing.
Set general deadlines for tasks and break them into an action plan you can steadily complete. When you practice this habit, you personalize your workflow and prevent yourself from getting stuck on one task.
If you have to turn in a logo design by the end of the week and decide it will take you roughly 10 hours to create, schedule work on it for two hours a day and adhere to a hard stop when they’re up. That way, you won’t fall behind on other tasks.
Cluster similar tasks
A flow state is a sensation of total absorption in a task — that feeling when you’re so engrossed in an activity that you can avoid distractions for hours. When in a flow state, your brain relaxes and focuses entirely on your work, helping you get more done. But it can be difficult to enter and maintain.
Clustering similar activities, like writing email responses or editing the copy you’ve written over several days, can help you get into a flow state, so try to do so in your daily schedule.
Implement focus times and avoid switching between tasks, like checking your email mid-proofread. If you share your schedule with others, mark this time clearly so they know not to engage with you when you’re in the flow.
Consider recurring events
While prioritizing your day, look out for recurring events you can’t move. If you have a 1:1 with your boss every Friday at noon and yoga every Wednesday at 6 PM, these activities should go on your calendar first. It’s also best practice to schedule necessary time around fixed events for transportation, prepping materials for your call, or winding down as you see fit.
Once you’ve established an adequate block for those must-dos, you can build the rest of your day around them. A daily routine template or calendar app can help you make sure your plans stay on the radar. Project management tools like Notion or Google Calendar aren’t just for work. They can organize your life, too.
Be flexible
A calendar should give you structure, not rules. An urgent project could crop up, bumping other tasks down the prioritization list, or you might receive a last-minute invitation to a social event you’d like to attend. Be prepared to rearrange your schedule when necessary. Changing plans is nothing to feel bad about.
Needing to reprioritize isn’t a sign of poor planning. In fact, creating a structure for your day makes responding to these shifts easier. A daily schedule gives you a clear visual of upcoming tasks and events and how they’ll move to accommodate changes, making things easier both for you and the people you work with when things do fluctuate.
Visualize the entire week
While it’s wise to plan your day in detail, you should also think about the bigger picture and plot a weekly, or even monthly, schedule as well. A high-level view lets you determine if you’re taking on too much or have gaps in your plan.
Take the example of a task that’s too extensive to complete in one sitting. You’ll need to strategize how to plot this work across several days. Look at the week ahead, break up more significant tasks into sessions, and then schedule the rest. If your week looks rest-free and hectic, scale back.
It also can’t hurt to view your monthly calendar and double-check for one-off events like a special meeting that you might otherwise forget to add to your week.
3 activities to always include on your schedule
The best daily routine is one that establishes work-life balance and acknowledges the fact that your personal life can benefit from structure, too. Here are a few personal tasks you should always include in your schedule to ensure you have time for yourself:
Physical activity
Exercise is good for your mind and body. It protects your cardiovascular health, pumps you full of happy hormones, and helps you manage stress. Plus, research connects physical fitness to better thinking and memory skills, helping you get through other tasks more fluidly. Schedule in time for a walk or your physical activity of choice, especially on busy days.
Meal time
Everyone’s eaten lunch at their desk once in a while. But give yourself space to practice mindful eating. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — a pyramid that prioritizes the actions necessary for a healthy life — establishes food intake at its base, so don’t let it slip through the cracks.
Not only is nutrition vital to the proper functioning of your mind and body, but eating a meal gives you a chance to take a break from work. Schedule time to read the newspaper at breakfast or spend quality time with your family at dinner. The routine could make a bigger difference than you realize.
Rest
The downside of getting into a rhythm or entering a flow state is that you can lose track of time and forget to take much-needed breaks. Schedule time for quiet moments throughout the day, and create a sleep hygiene routine, like light stretching or journaling before bed.
Don’t negate the importance of a nap or time to yourself. There are many types of rest to fit into your daily work schedule template, like mental or emotional breaks and time free of social interactions. Some people might see reading a book as resting, and others might see that as work. It’s up to you and how you like to recharge.
Establish better balance
Making a daily schedule may seem like just another item on your to-do list. But life planning can reduce stress, aid time management, and provide you with more freedom to do the things you love.
With a daily to-do list, you’re not just transforming your week. You’re learning how to work smarter, prioritize important tasks, and make better decisions overall.
