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Planning Tips for Beginners



There are many advantages of planning. First off, you won't feel lost and all your focus would be on one specific objective at one time. I am fairly new to planning myself and I made a lot of mistakes as a beginner, which is no surprise. Because I was a total noob. It took me a while to figure out how I can make my scheduling skills better and here are some tips so that you could save time on that:

  • Leave some time between two planned events or tasks:

Let's be real here. There is no way a person can work non-stop all day long. So keep in mind when you schedule your tasks or events, leave some space between them to rest. I like to leave an hour or at least half an hour. I do whatever I have to do at the time. I prepare for my task, read the book I am reading, prepare my tea or just plain take a nap. It makes me feel refreshed and actually want to do something. If you schedule your tasks too close, you would have no time to switch or rest and can feel burned out. So better leave some time for yourself.


  • It's okay to not be able to follow the schedule daily: 

People ask me all the time how I can follow my schedule daily. I cannot. No one can follow the schedule every day. Sometimes, things come up and the scheduled thing can get delayed or incomplete. It is alright. No one is asking you to follow it regularly. Just follow it for most of your days. When I first started, I tried following the first task I assigned myself that day. Then I tried following that along with the next scheduled tasks and within a few days, I was able to keep my full schedule. And even now, somedays I get busy somewhere else or am too tired, so I leave it. And even though I felt bad about it at the start, I know now that it is okay. Also, reward yourself on days when you keep your full schedule. You would want to do it more often.

  • It's okay to change your schedules frequently:

It is not rare that our priorities change from time to time or we want to try out something different than we had been. So it is perfectly alright to make a new schedule every now and then. Sometimes, it is necessary. As long as you stick to it and it's not draining, you are good to go. It happens to me all the time. Sometimes, I do it weekly because I do not like how much I had crammed on or new engagements need to schedule, so I think it is perfectly alright.

  • You don't have to fill in all your hours: 


It may be like the first tip but it needs to be said. Just because your calendar or weekly timeline looks too empty, you do not need to fill it entirely. If it is spacy, enjoy your free time. It may not be on your card in the future. I did this mistake all the time. I had my schedule jammed from 4:30 in the morning to 11 at night, every day of the week, and I had not one single moment of rest. It was so draining that I didn't follow it more times than I did. I changed it entirely. I now have some days busier than the rest but they are never jam-packed. I take a few hours of rest each day.

  • You can make a different schedule for each day of the week:

You really do not need to follow the same schedule for the rest of the days of your life. You can make a different schedule for every day and it is entirely alright. I like doing that. People say that we have to do something of everything every single day and it just makes it so monotonous. I did that for sometimes and it was so bland that I just couldn't go through it. What works for me is that I schedule one category every day and the tasks according to either priorities or favourites. The only thing that remains the same every day is the workout. Eg: I do my college studies on Tuesdays and all my writing on Thursdays. This way I do not have to shift my focus on entirely different tasks from one another and my weekly tasks get completed anyway.

  • Always leave one day free:

Always leave one day of your week free. It can be Sundays or Tuesdays or a random day each week. It refreshes you and prepares you for the rest of the week of business. I like to watch a series or a few movies or read a whole book or two if I can on my free day. Anything. You can make plans ahead for that day or watch motivational videos to keep you motivated during the week. Basically, you recharge and then you focus. 


  • Schedule a category of minor tasks as one and then use a to-do list:

Never schedule minor tasks in your planner. It will make your planner look too heavy for you to even start. The best thing you could do to yourself is to make a to-do list of the tasks and group similar tasks into one major task that could be scheduled. I do it all the time. 

So that was it. These were some of the tips on scheduling that I learned through trial and error. I use Google Calender to schedule and Google Tasks or Microsoft To-do to make a to-do list. I hope you found it useful, please share and comment if you did.

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