I Tracked Every Second of My Day For An Entire Month…Part 2

Better late than never, even when it’s a week later than intended - and this one is also cutting it pretty close as it’s currently 9:30pm on the day this post should be posting. But alas, I had no excuse to not make this happen because I put this block on my schedule tonight to make sure it happened.

In my first post - I Tracked Every Second of My Day For An Entire Month…Part 1 - I gave the why behind being so thorough with planning out my days the way I do. Today, I’m going to give you some tangible steps to follow if you want to give this method a try using Google Calendar. So let’s go!

1. Determine Which Aspects of Your Life Take the Majority of Your Time

Let’s face it. There are aspects of our lives that demand a lot of our time. Work. Family. Kids sports. School. Oftentimes, these are aspects of our lives that we really do enjoy but can cause us to feel like we don’t have a lot of time outside of those segments of our lives. By acknowledging these components of our lives, we can better prepare our day to make sure that these aspects get the attention they need, but also don’t entirely dictate our lives.

2. Determine Which Aspects of Your Life You Want to Give More Time To

Once you've zeroed in on the non-negotiables in your life, you can start to sprinkle in things you want to accomplish for yourself. This can be anything you want. Literally anything. Want to read more? Want to exercise more regularly? Want to make sure you and your partner make more time for each other? Need more one-on-one time with your children, your friends, your family? Want to start a blog? Make sure you define the things that you want. If you don’t, there’s a strong probability that you’re more than likely not going to make time for them.

3. Segment. Segment. Segment.

Once you’ve determined the aspects of your life that are important to you, it’s time to segment them. Segmentation is key to ensure that each component gets the attention it deserves. For me, without this step, my method of scheduling really can’t happen.

In this method, segmentation = separate calendars.

If you’re a traditionalist and use a physical planner, this step may be really unnatural for you. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who has multiple planners for the different segments of their lives.

In this step, using Google Calendar, you’re going to actually create separate calendars for each of those aspects of your life that you want to make sure you devote time to. For me, those important aspects are - Personal, Family, Graham, Work, Self-Development, Travel. While this may change at some point, and some of the categories are broader than others, I have found creating these segments has been enough but not too much to make it overwhelming.

Creating these separate calendars in your Google Calendar will allow you to quickly toggle between the various aspects of your life and also give you the ability to see your entire day at a glance. By segmenting your life in this way, you can devote yourself mentally to every facet intentionally but also see how they interact, intertwine, and impact the rest of your day.

If you’re like me, you’ll appreciate the visual of what your day looks like as well!

If the calendar above looks overwhelming, don’t worry! This is what works for me. Yours may look entirely different, but remember - segment, segment, segment.

4. Time Block

If you haven’t gathered by now, I don’t literally plan out every second of my day. I’m sure there are those out there who do, but I know without a doubt that wouldn’t work for me. That’s why I chose to use time blocking as my method.

By blocking out chunks of time, you can fill your calendar with the time you need to devote to the important aspects of your life, but still give you the flexibility to do what you need to with that block of time. We need to give our minds time to wander. Time to think. Time to rest. Being too rigid with your schedule may limit you and defeat the purpose scheduling your time in this manner. But again, this is largely subjective, so you get to decide what is right for you.

The key here though - make sure you at least make time!

5. Fill in the Blanks

Now, here’s the cool part about this type of planning - you actually get to see the time in your day that you have FREE. Way too often, we complain that there’s not enough time in the day. We complain that we don’t have time to do things we want to do. We don’t have the time to devote quality time with our partners. But the reality is, we do, we just tend to waste our time throughout the rest of the day because we haven’t focused enough on the other aspects of our lives when we should have.

By blocking off time, we give ourselves no other option. When we commit ourselves to our schedules, we ensure that we are focused, so that we can enjoy other things later in the day. For example, I really enjoy my job. I love my company and love working in digital marketing. But I love time with my family a lot more than my work. But when I fail to plan accordingly, I end up not focusing as much during the day at work and end up having to work at night. But because I have committed myself to my calendar and to sticking (mostly) to it, I do everything I can to make sure that my work block is my work block so that I can shut my lap top in the evening, and spend the time I have with my family and be 100% present.

But unless you fill in the blanks, you are likely to find yourself always longing for more time.

Next Steps…

Obviously, this is just one way among many to plan your time. While this method may be too much or overwhelming for some (I don’t think this is for everyone), I do think that to make sure that you have the time that you desire, you do need to find some method of scheduling that works for you. Play around with your options. Watch YouTube videos on what other people are doing. Read books about time management. Because at the end of the day, if you do, I can guarantee that you will experience the freedom that planning brings. Make scheduling a habit, and you will be amazed at the things you’ll be able to make time for. You’ll find yourself able to have more coffee dates with friends, regular intentional conversation times with your partner, time to give your children extra attention, or even time to blog, start a YouTube channel, start a side hustle.

Just commit.

Making planning a habit may sound like a very type A thing to do, but if you strive to find your version of this, you will undoubtedly find that life has a lot more to offer than you expect.

Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it. In fact, the people who don’t have their habits handled are often the ones with the least amount of freedom… If you’re always being forced to make decisions about simple tasks—when should I work out, where do I go to write, when do I pay the bills—then you have less time for freedom. It’s only by making the fundamentals of life easier that you can create the mental space needed for free thinking and creativity.

- James Clear, Atomic Habits

Remember, your time is valuable.

Prioritize what’s important to you, so that you can make time for it, and ensure that your valuable time is given to the things you value the most.

Happy planning!