You wake up every morning and make a plan for the day. But as the day proceeds, you realize that you’re not able to follow your plan like you thought you could. Sounds relatable? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. A significant number of students have a problem following their routine that they make. I’m here to help you improve the way you make your plans and execute them. So, let’s get this started!
1. Write your routine on paper.
This is the most important aspect of making a useful routine. Transforming the plans made in your mind to something physical enhances its capability to influence you. You can alternatively use software like Microsoft To-Do or Notion to make your routines but preferably use pen and paper as studies have shown that writing on paper has more brain activity than when you do it on tablet or smartphone.
2. Set your expectations appropriately.
It is easy to get carried away in optimism and overestimate your capabilities. Use your critical thinking and your own observations of yourself to decide what you can do and what not. Think practically and you’ll see that you are able to finish tasks before deadline. But once you get used to a certain level of task load then you can increase your number of tasks if you are able to manage.
3. Make routine for a short time period.
Never make your timetable for the entire week at once. I would even recommend not to make routine for an entire day. There is always possibility of some unexpected event and if you have already made plans for a long time then your errands won’t go as planned. I would personally recommend that you make plans for 12 hours at a time so after the 12-hour period you can change your plans for the next slot if anything unexpected happened.
4. Make your routine visible.
Your routine should be where your eyes wander. Put it in front of your study table or home screen of your smartphone/laptop. You can easily forget about one task when you are absorbed in doing some other tasks so this will serve as reminder not only of the tasks but also their deadlines. You can have your routine anywhere but make sure that it captivates you attention from time to time.
5. Abandon an activity after its due time.
This was one of the major reasons why my routines used to become a mess after a few hours. This is why I put setting your expectations appropriately above. If you have set your deadline to be 11:00 then you must abandon that task even if it is incomplete. Do not let a single task mess up your other duties. However, if you have set your routine according to your capability then this case will be less likely to happen.
I hope that this blog helped you spot mistakes that you were making. You should not only learn from your mistakes but also from other’s mistakes. So, learn from the mistakes that I used to make and transform your life. Thank you for your time and attention and have a good day!
Sources –
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.634158/full
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