Yesterday was Sunday, and as usual I started the day by laying out everything I needed to do. I’d fallen behind on my Japanese studying the week before, and in addition to being a big 日本語 catchup day, I also had some cleaning to take care of. My plan of attack in order from start to finish looked like this:
- Finish Japanese Kanji Lesson
- Practice all Japanese vocab
- Finish Japanese Speaking Lesson
- Schedule Blog Post
- Reply to Important Email
- Respond to all Texts
- Clean Shower and Sink
- Glue Bedframe
- Clean Out Closet
- Go Grocery Shopping
- Work on Story/Poetry Reading for Lit Mag
I decided to start with Japanese studying because it was the most mentally intensive task for the day, and because I wanted to start my next textbook unit on Monday. Scheduling the week’s blog post about avoiding jerks was also important, but wouldn’t take as long, so this came next. These were my two most important goals for the day, so if I suddenly fell sick with some crazy flu in the afternoon or if something else came up, at least I’d have the essentials done.
Next was a fairly important email I’d been avoiding and needed to get off my To-Do list, so I slotted that in next. I’d also fallen badly behind on about ten different text conversations over the past few days, so these made the list too. These were prime afternoon activities because they required less energy and were less urgent, so it felt natural to do them after lunch.
After that came cleaning—which would also get me away from the computer screen. First on the list was cleaning my shower (you may recall my problems from a few months ago…), and after that I wanted to secure a piece of trim that had come unstuck from my bedframe and was flopping around whenever I pulled the blanket off. (Trust me, it was really starting to piss me off.)
The closet cleanout was also something I’d been planning for a while but wanted to do on a weekend, and Sunday’s my usual grocery shopping day (preferably in the evening when they mark down the sushi and okonomiyaki!). After that the plan was to eat dinner and read some submissions for a literary magazine I was helping a friend with.
It all seemed so simple, but no damn way was I going to get all that done in a day.
The Best-Laid Plans…
The day started off strong—I’d gotten up early, made a good breakfast, and jumped into studying. Then I got a call from my mom, who I hadn’t talked to in the last two weeks, so of course I wanted to make time for the call. While a younger, more callous Ian would have found taking an hour off to catch up with his mom to be a distraction, the older, wiser Ian didn’t feel that way because talking to her was just as important as the studying, if not more so. [Cue sappy music here.]
Snag two occurred when the email took longer to write than I’d planned…and the text messages took a LOT longer because some of them were in Japanese and I had to check a bunch of words. That meant it was well past five o’clock when I pulled out the rubber gloves to clean the shower, so things weren’t looking good.
In the end I decided to prioritize the rest of my evening plans: I wanted to get the shower clean and go grocery shopping for sure, and gluing the bedframe wouldn’t take long at all, so I focused on these things with the time I had left. In the end, after eating dinner I was able to do a bit of reading for the lit mag, and at the usual time I unplugged and got ready for bed so I could be well-rested for the week.
In the end I accomplished everything on my list except for the closet cleaning, though I technically only did twenty or so minutes of reading for the lit mag (well less than I’d hoped for), both of which I’d have to finish later in the new week.
Even though it wasn’t perfect I was fairly satisfied with how the day went. Other days, though (especially busy weekdays!) I accomplish WAY less than I set out to, and get into far bigger crunches than I did last Sunday.
So the question here is, how do I feel when the reality of what I get done falls short of the plan?
I Don’t Beat Myself Up When I Don’t Finish Everything
I used to feel shitty and talk down to myself when I didn’t finish all my goals, whether it was for the day, the month, or the year. I used to feel like a slacker, or worse, start panicking that I wasn’t going to finish everything, both of which were pretty unpleasant feelings.
Now, though, I don’t sweat it— instead, I try to focus on the things I did finish that day (which is usually a lot!) and make plans to slot in time for the other things another day. Remember: I deliberately set out to do the most important things first so I can be sure they get done, and anything I do have to push back to later will have less urgency.
This sounds like simple advice, but I know a lot of people who get discouraged when they don’t finish everything and fall behind on their goals, which then leads them to fall even further behind because they’re discouraged. Or, even worse, they give up entirely because they don’t think they can make a difference and are better off just quitting.
In the grand scheme of things this is a HORRIBLE way to respond when your workday doesn’t go well. It’s just one freakin’ day after all, so why beat yourself up over it? Try again the next day, or better yet, try and figure out if there was anything that distracted you, or that you could do more efficiently next time. (In my case I spent WAY too long writing that email, and I shouldn’t have let a bunch of text messages pile up when I could have answered them quickly over the previous few days during my downtime).
Bottom Line: Tomorrow’s Another Day
I’ve been making daily work schedules for the past eight or so years now, so I feel pretty solid in my work habits and don’t beat myself up when things don’t go perfectly. If you’re just starting to schedule your time, though, don’t let little setbacks destroy your potential! Instead, remember these tips:
- Set out to do more important or deadline-driven things earlier in the day. That way if something unexpected comes up like a phone call or a case of food poisoning, you won’t be absolutely screwed.
- Make time another day to finish what you don’t get done today. You’ll be amazed at how easy this is when the undone thing is still hanging out on your To-Do list—if you want it gone, you’ll find time to finish it soon enough!
- Identify distractions or bad habits that are holding you back, then fix them. Again, I wrote a whole other post about this a few months ago.
- Acknowledge that workdays rarely go perfectly. Things are always going to go unfinished, and working through the setbacks helps you stay on track.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve still got a closet to organize…
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