Another Friday is here…and I am finally able to breathe! This week has been a bit crazy busy. But it all went well, and I was able to manage all the important-to-me things with good planning of my time. That makes me happy. 

I am glad that even though I get lazy about planning on paper on a lot of days (that is, in my planner), I do have a plan and I know my limitations. So things are able to fold out in a manner that I can manage and get through whatever is on hand.

I think one thing that helps me a lot is my morning pages (introduced by Julia Cameron). This is where I write 2 pages (she recommends 3, but I only have time for 2) by hand, with whatever is on my mind first thing in the morning, without any regard to handwriting, spellings or punctuation without stopping. The idea behind writing this is to get all the gunk thoughts out of one’s mind so we can move in our days with more clarity and creativity and with less chatter. 

But I find my writing of morning pages helps me with planning out my day. It helps me list everything I have to get done, and then I talk to myself on paper figuring out the Tetris of it all. And the writing also helps me get clear with what is really important to me, and what is fluff and hence, expendable.

One of my aims in life, hopefully starting soon, is to get better with using my planner. I have been getting lazy about it, but I also know how calm it makes me feel when I do use it. Because it’s all clearly laid out in front of me, and the day seems simpler because of it. I am not one to have a TO-DO list of a hundred things. A list of upto 5 things is what I can do, and make sure my life feels light, and not heavy with the burden of too much.

Maybe having a nice writing space that I am hoping to set up in the dining room will help with me wanting to sit down and work in my planner every day. Ok, I would give myself the grace of missing it on the weekends unless there is the need to do so. But I have dreams of waking up before the family on Sunday mornings (which is what happens anyways), and instead of getting stuck on useless things (aka the phone!), I actually plan my week and do a look back of the previous week in my nice planner in my writing space with a nice hot beverage. The romantic-ness of this image makes me happy. Now, I just have to actually execute it!

I want to keep my planning really simple. I have realized time blocking is not for me. I don’t have meetings all day, and I am not so tight on my timelines that every second has to be assigned. I am more task oriented. So if I know what all is on my plate, or how (and how much time) I want to spend my day on working on various things, I can make that happen. 

I have been doing this just for my work time and it’s going fabulously. I write down my tasks the day before. Once I am done for the day, I write notes on what worked, insights etc, and tasks for the next day based on what’s needed. And that’s it- simple and sweet. And most importantly, sustainable- both the planning and the work, which does not seem overwhelming due to ambiguity. 

I think life tasks would benefit from this routine of planning for me as well. So that is what I am going to try for the next few months. And not hold myself into strict ways of time blocking just because others advocate for it with ferocity. Simply because, that is not suitable to my life situation or my personality…