I’ve never been one for rigid scheduling or down-to-the-minute day planning, but as I’ve gotten further into my adult life, I’ve learned there’s no way around it:
In order to consistently do everything I want to do, I just gotta have a time management system.
Like I said, I’m a free spirit whose usual knee-jerk response is to scoff at the thought of living by a pre-determined schedule. So, between:
The immovable object: The truth that I need some kind of system to stay on top of everything I want to do, and
The unstoppable force: My desire to maintain at least a little flexibility in my schedule, no matter how busy I get
I’ve landed on a low-friction system for time management that feels like a happy medium to me.
So, in case you can relate to my combination of need and free-spiritedness, here’s what my weekly time management system looks like:
Step 1 of 1: Use Your Calendar Like a Diary
Yep, it’s a pretty simple system. I have these five general categories (i.e. colors) set up in my calendar app:
My 9-5
My side hustle
Exercise
Adventures
Personal time
And I use them to retroactively track what I do every day.
(At least, that’s how it started, and as I’ve done this over the past year I’ve gradually started to plan more of my time in advance, but on a loose/flexible schedule. For example, I have a general rhythm I try to follow for workouts and my side hustle every week, but I tend to pencil it into my cal as I go along.)
Aaand that’s it. That’s the system.
Now that that’s out of the way, see below for a quick recap of the benefits I’ve gained from doing this and some tips for if you decide to try it out yourself:
The Benefits of This Approach:
Here’s what I like about this system:
It’s dead simple.
It’s time-efficient (I’m not interested in any time management system that is time-consuming in itself).
It doubles as an actual diary by helping me look back and remember what I did a week, month, or year ago.
It works just like expense tracking (another habit I’ve picked up in the last year): The more aware I am of what I spend, the more intentional I get with it.
In the early days, it helped me cut down on procrastinating because I could literally see how much time I spent watching Netflix, scrolling on socials, etc.
It’s visual. I’m a visual person, so I like the feeling of seeing all of my time accounted for and how much of it is going where.
Some Tips for Using This Approach:
Set up whatever categories make sense for you. The five I shared above are super general (which works for me), but you might want to go more specific.
With tracking, be as descriptive as you want. Sometimes, when I create a new event, I’ll write a full paragraph in the event title to describe what I did, who I was with, etc. Other times I’ll have a full-day event that just says “chill day hanging with my fam.”
Don’t hide your downtime. If your goal is to cut down on binge watching, mindless scrolling, etc., you might even want to make that a separate color/category on your cal so you can clearly see it and reduce it over time.
Don’t be too rigid. You’ll likely fall off the time-tracking wagon fast if you try to plan too much in advance or track everything in too much detail. So remember to cut yourself some slack, and…
Choose one thing to improve every week. This isn’t about becoming a perfect robot – it’s about becoming more aware and intentional with your time. So, every week, I recommend taking a look back at your cal and choosing one thing you want to do more, less, or better in the week ahead.
And that’s a wrap! If you try it out, I hope this deceptively simple system makes a difference for you. I’ve been using it to track my time for over a year now, and it’s transformed how I think about my time and what I get out of it.
Let’s keep on optimizing, but also keep it chill ☯️
Until next week,
–Riley
P.S. For hands-on, personalized coaching on your personal growth, career growth, or copywriting, feel free to schedule a 1:1 coaching call.
How did the calendar evolved over time?
That tips on tracking with who I was with is really cool! I can see myself using it to write some pointers with who I met and what we discuss. Might even throw some thoughts and ideas!