Planning Your Day

 

Has this ever happened to you?

You are extremely motivated to do something.

For the first two days, you do it very well.

Then for the next two days, you do it, but you compromise on quality.

Then you do it half-heartedly. And then decide that you'll take a break for one day and do it tomorrow.

And then it becomes something you did that one time.

Then a few weeks or months later that motivation to do that returns.

And the cycle begins again.

Likely, this has happened to you. It happens to everyone, we feel motivated to go to the gym in January for our new year’s resolution, and half of us stop showing up after two weeks. Half of the rest are gone by the time January is done and very few still show up after 3 months in April. 

It's just how we are. We get things done when we feel motivated to get them done and we let them go once that motivation is gone.

This is why we need structure. Structure and organization help you get things done even when you don't feel like doing them.

Humans did not evolve to be long term thinkers

We are biologically wired to be worried about our next meal and the problems in front of us. Our ancestors did not have the luxury of planning their life five years down the line when they were hungry today.

We are biologically hardwired to be motivated by instant results. You eat food, and you immediately feel full. You drink water, and your thirst is immediately quenched.

It takes discipline to do things that don’t give us immediate returns but need constant, long term effort (such as exercise).

When presented with a choice (and everything you do is a choice), your brain is hardwired to pick the path of least resistance, and that is why most people never amount to anything.

They make easy choice after easy choice and always opt for small, immediate returns over large, delayed returns.

Militaries around the world rely on routine and structure to keep their soldiers in top shape – ready and prepared for action.

Let's take a page from them and structure our own day as well.

Here's what you are going to do:

You're going to start with creating a rough outline of how your day already looks like.

It can be something like:

7 am: Wake up

7 am - 8 am: Freshen up and get ready for work

8 am - 8:30 am: Have some breakfast

8:30 am - 9:30 am: Commute to work

9:30 am - 6:00 pm: Work

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Commute back home

7:00 pm - 9:30 pm: Relax, eat dinner and watch TV

11 pm: Go to Bed

Once you've penned down a rough outline of your average day, modify it to what you want your day to look like, i.e., incorporate everything in this Blog to your daily routine.

If you find that you do not have the time to fit in all the activities you want to include, try to combine them with into other "blank" items, such as commutes.

For example, you can get your 30 minutes of research done on your commute.

You can also get your 15 minutes of meditation done on your commute.

If your workplace has a gym, try to complete your exercise routine at work.

Time is your most valuable resource; you can never get it back – so try to get the most out of your time each day.

As a side note, if you're an office worker, you're probably not busy for 8 hours each day.

Most office workers spend 4 hours a day on work, and they spend the rest of their work time gossiping around with their coworkers, browsing the internet, and on other meaningless activities.

Don't. Don’t waste that 4 hours or so of work time.

Instead, what you want to do is to get a lot of your personal work done in that extra time.

I've found that you can launch a decent, internet-based side business right at work, and use your spare time at the office to develop it until you get it to the point that you can quit your job.

Don't get caught doing this though.

Be smart and "play the game" (in other words, don't tell people what you're doing – your coworkers are not your friends, and many will be happy to stab you in the back if they can get something out of it), because the last thing you need is getting your bonus stubbed for being "unfocused" or worse, getting fired.

Don't be "above" using your work time for personal projects if you can get away with it - your employers aren’t your friends, and they will not hesitate to fire you if they can find someone across the world to do your job for 15% cheaper.

Also, once you create your new routine, adhere to it.

Don’t try to cop out and don’t give yourself leeway.

“It’s okay; I’ll do this later” – no.

You planned that you will do it now, so you’ll do it now.

“Later” is where your plans and dreams go to die.

Ensure that you schedule at least 8 hours to sleep. You may have some trouble sleeping for the first few days, but as your body adjusts to your new schedule, you will start feeling sleepy around the time that you have set for sleep.