Obtain a calendar or planner.
Make sure the calendar has appropriate space for you to list your tasks. Some calendars offer weekly, daily, or hourly planners. A notebook can also be used. Choose whatever best suits your wants and needs.[1] Whatever you choose, commit to your choice. Do not try to have one planner for work, one for school, etc. Everything should be in one place.
There are also many digital calendars for your phone or laptop that can synch to all of your electronic devices so that you always have ready access to your calendar wherever you are. There are also a number of apps that can help you schedule your day with reminders and timers.
You might want to choose a digital or paper calendar that has some extra space, so you can add notes to your schedule. This can help you keep track of not only what you've done, but how you did it and/or how it made you feel. For example, maybe below the section "Go to the gym" on your calendar, you want to not only check it off but also note that you "Ran an extra mile today and felt great!" Adding notes can help you keep better track of your behavior.
If you are making the switch from a paper to digital calendar, you may find things a bit hectic for a day or two as you get used to the new system. Keep both with you for the first few days and check to make sure nothing has been left out or double-booked.
Organize your tasks.
Electronic calendars allow you to color coordinate different tasks. For example, you can color work-related things red, school-related things blue, housework green, vacations orange, and exercise pink. You can also do this easily if you're using a paper calendar or notebook; simply use colored pens or pencils or highlighters. Once you've differentiated the different types of tasks you need to schedule, you can work to prioritize them.
Organizing and color-coding your tasks will also help you visualize and understand where a lot of your time is going. You might see, for example, that there is a ton of red (work) and green (housework) on your schedule, but very little pink (exercise). Noticing the dearth of exercise might help you get motivated to try to schedule more time for it.
Prioritize your tasks.
It's important you determine which tasks are most important and should be done first and which can wait. Let's use an example to understand prioritization. Let's say you have two tests, a lab report, an essay, and presentation all in the same week. Yikes!
- Ask yourself some questions in order to figure out what should be done first and for how long: Which task is due first? Which tasks will take the longest time to complete? Which tasks are most important, relative to their value? For example, how much are the tests, lab report, essay, and presentation worth in terms of your final grade? Which task will be the most challenging?
- Ultimately, you will need to decide whether the deadline, length of time needed or relative value of your scheduled tasks is your priority. You know yourself and your abilities best. Choose a priority system that fits you.
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