“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
Everyone has their own schedules and paces that they are comfortable with, be it for a day, a week, a month, a year...and even for a lifetime. These schedules can typically be differentiated not only by one's geographic location, but by one's personality traits, preferences and socioeconomic status.
For example, individuals who hold high paying and more crucial jobs, living in developed cities, or has a need or desire to do something at the moment to fulfill a purpose, sense or idea, tend to live in quicker paces than those otherwise even though they may live in the same environment.
In daily, more relatable context, you might have also heard of common phrases from family members, peers and colleagues, such as: "She's living based on Hawaiian time." or "He seems to have nothing productive going on in his life at all." and vice versa.
However, how do we know whether we are following the right schedule; a schedule that is well-suited, manageable and comfortable enough, for each of us, to create and to abide on a frequent basis? Some of us (including me, your author) are guilty of not being able to honor the schedule, and might occasionally forego the schedule for certain days of the week due to circumstances and reasons (or harshly put, excuses, of which some can honestly be quite unreasonable and far-fetched).
For example: Skipping 3 days of learning for the Finnish language to binge on Netflix (and soda, popcorn...you name it), doing so on and off for a number of times (when you're "on" you can work really hard), before switching to regret mode when you "conveniently" recall about the major test coming the next month. Then after failing the test (or passing it but possibly not to your expectations), one of the common excuses thought in a bid to console yourself would be the lack of time to practice.
There are other reasons to why people might fail to adhere to their schedules:
It does not cater well to their preferences (timings, number and nature of activities planned per day).
Easily distracted by other priorities/desires, resulting in imbalance (work, studies, relationships, etc.)
Lack of motivation
So, how can we attempt to resolve this issue? Here are 3 ways to create and to follow the right schedule for you.
1. Define Your Priorities
Each task has their respective levels of importance to you. Prioritize those of utmost importance, or what seems to have a heavier weightage or pressing (in terms of deadlines) to you, to the front of the day, the week or the month, and the lighter, less important ones to later parts of the day, the week or the month.
We can also choose to classify these priorities based on their nature, such as work or personal lives, and allocate accordingly to our schedule. I understand that for those who are employed and working, all, if not most, of your weekdays will be largely occupied for work, occasionally having to end and to rest late, leaving time for yourself and your connections to the weekends.
However, it is still vital for you to be clear on how much you can handle, when you should stop or begin a certain task, and why you should listen to yourself (especially to your physical and mental health in the long run). Thus, ensure a healthy and just balance between your work and personal lives.
For those who are more flexible in their schedules, define the amount and the kind of activities that you understand and trust you can manage in a set period of time. Get accustomed to it for a while (perhaps a week or a month) to gauge how comfortable you are to keep up with the new schedule, before eliminating and adding an appropriate amount of activities that seems effective or manageable for you.
In other words, challenging yourself after getting used to the tempo, like overcoming and mastering levels of a Math exam, or a K-pop dance. Once you've managed to fulfill the schedule by the deadline, you have successfully completed your goal, and it'll be time for you to create a new schedule to follow for the next set period of time!
2. Make Your Priorities More Visible
There are limits to how much information humans can retain and remember in their minds for a limited period of time. As some may say, some of us have similar memory capacities to that of a goldfish. As such, we can momentarily forget if something (noise, idea, task, etc.) suddenly pops out of the blue and disrupts our flow or line of thought at the moment.
Thus, we might need to keep our schedules more easily visible in sight so as to remind ourselves (at that unfortunate moment, place and time). Create a digital or print calendar, whichever that is comfortable for you, and fill specific dates of this calendar with details of the activities that will happen on that day, in the form of words, colors, pictures, videos or GIFs (personally, i'm quite fond of DIY handmade ones, whereby you can get creative and purchase art materials to decorate the whole calendar, making it much more memorable).
Ensure that the calendar is big enough for you to read, and placed very conveniently in a clean, visible space, perhaps on your desk, on your wall or on the home screen of your digital device.
3. Set Frequent Reminders
There may also be occasions whereby we get so immersed into what we were doing at the moment that we can literally forget about our surrounding environment, people and sounds. This can especially happen for work or studies. As such, we will need to set an appropriate number of frequent reminders on either our digital devices, alarms or clocks.
Remember to key in details about the activities planned for these specific dates, and ensure that the volume of these reminders are loud enough for you to take note.
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” ― Pablo Picasso
To attain our goal, which is to create a schedule and to essentially follow this schedule for a period of time set by ourselves, we need to have fierce enough a determination to pursue what we want, and to understand exactly the core reasons and meanings behind our pursuit for this goal.
To act upon it would be the first, crucial, and perhaps the most difficult step, before seeing it throughout till fruition, which is the second most difficult step. And alas, those who have met the criteria and managed to withstand till the end of this obstacle shall enjoy the fruits of their labor.
So, be creative, start planning, take a leap of faith, know your schedules and have fun while you're at it!
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