Maintaining Weekly Routines

“Help! Every time I sit down to write out my weekly schedule, I add so many tasks and appointments that four people wouldn’t be able to accomplish them all, let alone one easily distracted person.”

What’s my best advice for making your weekly schedule more manageable? Stop making one. Schedules and to-do lists work best when they cover only a single day. If you try to map out every hour of every week, you’ll only wind up feeling overwhelmed.

Instead of a written weekly schedule, rely on a weekly routine. For example, do household chores on Saturday mornings, set aside Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for going to the gym, and keep Wednesday evenings open for outings with friends. Once the routine is established, you won’t have to write “personal trainer, Tuesday at 5” into a schedule. You’ll head to the gym out of habit.

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