How to schedule your way to mental health
The power of a schedule is underrated and underemphasized. Every Thursday morning from 9am-9:30am, I plan the following week. Here are some tried and true tips that I use to keep my sanity while managing two business, and three kiddos.
Use a scheduler that works for you.
I love the ease of my iCal, but realized I don't remember them if I just enter them. But I also won't remember to carry around a paper planner to enter the appointments. Enter the digital Passion Planner. In my planning periods, I go through my iCal and then physically write out my appointments in my digital Passion Planner in my iPad. It is in the GoodNotes app so I can also view my planner via my phone.
Have a planning period where you review the upcoming day, week, month, and year.
By writing it out and reviewing the following week, I can think about the time it takes between appointments or tasks that need to get scheduled and completed for that 10am meeting with so and so. Because I do it on Thursday, I have time to reschedule anything that doesn't work for the following week by the end of this week. And I don't have to worry about it over the weekend.
Use time blocking to block out periods for task completion and deep work.
For example, I review my finances weekly rather than monthly. My financial review is scheduled in Simple Practice (which then connects with both by google and ical) for every Tuesday at 9am. Guess what the planning period is in there too. If I need to work on newsletters, blogs, contacting someone...it all gets scheduled in the calendar.
Cushion your appointments-don't try to cut it too close-it will leave you exhausted and anxious.
For example, I leave 15 min between each appointment to stand up, use the restroom, eat, do some yoga poses, or complete small tasks.
Schedule your health care needs.
This includes appointments, meds, labs, body movement, medications, eating. Make sure to include enough wind down or recovery time. It takes me several hours to recovery (ie turn my brain off) from doing therapy, so I make sure that I don't plan anything too early the next morning if I have to practice later into the evening because it will take me 3 hours just to recover enough to begin my bedtime routine.
Note: the scheduling isn't to create rigidness in your life. Think of it like a budget. If you don't plan where you will spend your money, it just goes wherever, we are treating your time the same way. Plan your time according to your goals and values, so it doesn't just go wherever.
