Create Your Ideal Schedule and Feel Less Frazzled

Frazzled is no way to get through the day!

An ideal schedule can help you be more productive and boost your energy levels. Feel better at the end of the day. Plus, insulate yourself from bad days — all by creating your ideal schedule. It’s not too good to be true. Simply follow the simple steps below to create your perfect daily routine.

Don’t Forget Your Vision!

An optimized daily routine can help you take advantage of your natural energy peaks. This maximizes your efficiency. Similarly, it will have the space in it to do all the things you need to do to maintain your life and work. Plus, there will be enough time to do the things that jazz you up!

While efficiently scheduling tasks is a huge part of a smooth workday, your schedule is not ideal unless it speaks to your vision and desires.

Most of us go into business because we want to be in charge of our own work. We have robust ideas and ample energy to pursue our vision. However, that energy is drained when we fail to create a schedule that reflects our vision. Instead, we try to shoehorn our new ideas into the old comfortable way we worked for someone else.

Stop complaining about your busy schedule. Instead, let’s dump the old habits and find your perfect work schedule – or even the perfect schedule for your life. Then you can start spending time focused and full of vigor.

Many successful people use routines. Notable schedule followers include Benjamin Franklin and Barack Obama.

How to Set Up A Daily Routine

Finding your best daily routine is easy. The method below is a quick way to update your existing schedule and get it looking more like the one you dreamed about.

• First things first, what does your ideal week look like? I like using a week as the guide because it is easy to scale up or down from, and gives a nice snapshot of how things can work. From there, you can figure out how to set up your daily routine

Take a few minutes to list all the things you want to do with your time.  What would a perfect work-week look like? How do you want to start your day? How do you want it to end? What about the rest of the day? Don’t forget to list your big goals and small moments. The activities that make up that week are your list.

• Now, what does your actual schedule look like? Our schedules tend to get away from us. So, write it out. What is your morning routine? What do you actually do on a daily basis? On Mondays? How about Tuesdays? Maybe it's possible you are trying to do more things than fit into 24 hours. (Jack Dorsey, the entrepreneur who brought us Twitter and Square, even gives each of his days a theme).
• Next, compare the ideal and actual schedules. Check off the things on your ideal list that already happen in your actual schedule. Then you can work towards a more ideal schedule over the next few weeks. Make it a priority to fit in the stuff you want to do in small doses and you will be less frazzled.
• Finally, merge the two schedules with reverse engineering. The secret to maintaining an ideal schedule is to make it realistic and doable. Chances are many things will have to go. By starting with the basics – sleeping, eating, your exercise routine, and time commitments. As a result, the other stuff will have to fall into the empty spaces.

Create the empty spaces by saying no to things that are not on your list. Instead, end commitments that don’t work towards your ideal schedule.

If you are well-rested and efficient when you do work, you will automatically create more time.

Eventually, those small doses of the stuff you want to do will get done. You will have more time, will feeling alive, energized, professional and productive.

The Best Parts of An Ideal Schedule

An ideal schedule can help you overcome time famine, or the feeling that you are starving for time. But, the best part about setting up a solid daily schedule is that the occasional bad day doesn’t derail your whole plan. Instead, the schedule creates the structure to get you back on track and living your dream.