What does a real life daily plan look like?
Well, here’s mine, from a couple months ago, chosen at random:
Why do I share this? Well, I think there are a variety of little lessons that can come from picking it over closely.
Plan the stupid stuff
If you read through, you’ll see that breakfast and dinner are in the plan. They help me orient and order my mind. I would probably include lunch but it tends to just happen as a break from work, based on how I feel. I do sometimes include it when I know that it’s place in my day matters a bit more.
Some other stupid stuff in the plan: showering, brushing my teeth, taking vitamins, putting the kids to bed. All of this would happen with or without including it here.
Or would it? Some of those are habits that I had to build (taking vitamins).
And even if it would happen anyway, including it here means I’m being realistic about what my day will look like. If I am going to put the kids to bed, and it tends to take half an hour, then adding it here means I’m approaching my day honestly.
And again, it helps me to order my mind, which is more important than having some perfect plan.
Check stuff off
Listen, I’ve been critical of todo lists, because they’re usually used incorrectly. But checking stuff off is awesome. It makes you feel good, it builds momentum, it makes scanning your plan easier.
Mind the gaps
I use simple gaps to group stuff that makes sense together. My work stuff is together. My morning routine is together. My side projects (Cue and Navarre) are together. Again, this is about ordering my mind.
Hierarchies can help, but use sparingly
I’ve got three sections that are indented. Again, this is about bringing order into my life. I don’t know how much this really adds over using gaps. It can be useful for hiding information, if your tools lets you collapse items grouped this way.
But since this day, I’ve stopped indenting almost completely. Especially for work tasks. They’re still grouped with gaps, no need to make it more complicated than that.
You won’t do it all
Some stuff here isn’t checked off. Either I didn’t do it, or I forgot to check it off.
Either way is ok. I’m not a slave to the tool I use, or to the plan I create.
Most days I check off less than this.
And this plan is something I’ve largely forgotten – we’re only talking about it here as an example. Once a day has past, leave it in the past. Yes, learn from it and adapt as you plan the next day. But don’t obsess over what didn’t get done. And don’t obsess with making sure everything that got done is checked off.
Repeat yourself
Many parts of this daily plan are the same as other day’s plans. My morning routine stuff, the meals, taking vitamins, even going to bed. I write those each day when I make my plan.
The repetition is good.
Not because you want to live the same boring day over and over.
But because a life that is full and interesting is grounded in some routines. Habits. Rituals. Whatever you want to call them. They give structure to your life.
That structure is engrained in your mind as you repeat yourself while planning.
With a twist
This is not obvious from a single day’s plans, but the repetition happens with a twist. Most of the time it is small: maybe I’ll eat breakfast before writing in my journal instead of after. Sometimes it is big, as when I start a new project.
Regular variation is important to keep your life, well, alive. All structure is dead and stagnant. All twist is just chaotic disorder.
Life lives in between, on a very thin line.
Daily planning lets you constantly self correct, so that you can stay as close to that line as possible – not to live a dull, overplanned, routinized life.
To live a vibrant, exciting one, where you are constantly encountering the chaos of living and turning it into a living, breathing order.