“I’m old school.” 

This is how I’ve always explained the fact that I only used a paper (journal) calendar. I enjoyed writing out my daily to-do’s, my goals, my workout, etc. I still do this, but more so as an exercise to think through my day mentally and have the thrill of physically checking things off a list 😉 

People have tried to convert me for years: “You’ll love the ease of it!”, “You can share your calendar so easily with family members!” they’ve told me. I nodded, but happily continued on with my paper calendar. 

But then I encountered some glitches: Horrifyingly, I lost my calendar book. It felt like I had lost an arm. My past to-do lists…notes from my appointments, from doctors, instructions from contractors in my home…yikes! I never did find it, but I eventually moved on. Then I started realizing that it was inconvenient and unproductive at times, because I wasn’t sure how to access the information easily. If, for example, the plumber told me how to change the air filters, I’d take painstaking notes in my journal to refer back to. That’s all and good, until I’m not sure if that was in 2019’s calendar book or 2020’s? I’d have to flip through and find it, but it would take 15 minutes. 

While my calendar journals were so pretty – and I do enjoy taking notes, I knew I needed a new system. And, like they say, “When you’re ready, the teacher appears.” I stumbled upon a podcast by Brooke Castillo. She was teaching her method called, “Monday Morning Hour-One.” I was mesmerized. A self-proclaimed productivity junkie, I looked up every podcast and blog post pertaining to this. I was finally ready to evolve to include a digital calendar. (Full disclosure that I still keep a physical calendar, too – but a much more limited practice of just writing down my scheduled events of the day, my top 3 things to accomplish, and my workout for that day. There’s still a high from physically checking off to-do’s that I’m not ready to abandon yet).

My digital calendar system has evolved a lot over the past couple of years, but here’s where I’ve landed:

I do this every Monday morning. It takes me about 30-40 minutes. I have a few things with me: my digital calendar is pulled up on my computer, I have my phone and a pad of paper. 

How it works:

1. Pull up your digital calendar on my computer and look over any appointments already scheduled. This gives me a quick idea of what I can fit in this week. I enter in all of the non-negotiables first. This includes dropping my daughter at school and picking her up, when I’ll workout, dinner and any doctor appointment or kids’ activities. 
2. Keep a running to-do list in the “notes” section on your phone. Look over these items and write down anything you’d like to complete this week. Write these on the piece of paper. Do NOT delete them from your phone yet. As you look at these items, jot down any obstacles – Often there are no obstacles, but other times the task may be multiple steps because other people are involved or there are multiple steps involved.  If, for example, I have “hang pix in family room” on my list, I’ll detail it as: have correct size photos, buy photo frames, locate nails and hammer. I’ll add each of these onto my calendar. 
3. Write each of these out on your piece of paper. Lists out everything you’d like to accomplish this week – both from your Notes app, and anything you can think of. Our brains are excellent processors of information, but not great at information storage. Get it all out and down on paper. Look over your week on your digital calendar and, noting how much time you have available, decide which of the items on your paper list will be completed. Cross off any item that can wait until next week. 
4. Start adding what’s left onto your calendar. Once it’s on your digital calendar, you can delete it from your “Notes” section on your phone. 
5. Commit to yourself that, other than emergencies, once you put something on your calendar, you’ll stick to it. By doing this, you will learn to trust yourself and be more consistent in completing your projects. 

Tips:

1. Don’t forget to include travel time to meetings and appointments. For example, my daughter’s school is 30 min away, so although I pick her up at 3pm, in my calendar I have marked off 2:30-3:30. 
2. Color code! This makes it easy to stay organized. For example, everything that pertains to my daughter is highlighted pink, if it’s for my son, it’s highlighted blue, everything that’s personal for me is orange and everything business is green. 
3. Factor in down-time. When I’m scheduling coaching clients, I always leave a cushion. I do the same thing with  my day. I schedule in some downtime to take a break, call a friend, drive to get a soda, etc. I find that if I’m working on a project, if I take 15 min to stand up and move around and take a break, I’m actually much more productive when I return to the work. 

Getting in the right mindset:

Now, you’ve got a nifty system in place. It’s color-coded and organized – and you feel like you can take on the world! Here’s what might happen – it did for me, anyway. You’re rolling along and then you get to something that you just. don’t. want. to. do. You come up with excuses why you should put it off, you procrastinate, you bargain with yourself (“I’ll do it tomorrow!”). 

It’s time for a “Come to Jesus” talk…What kind of excuses are you going to tell yourself about the things you decide you don’t want to do? If you push through and complete this task, will you be happy with yourself when it’s complete? In full honesty, it doesn’t always work, but it usually does. I tell myself that I want to be able to be trustworthy, and when I put this on my calendar, I trusted myself to complete it. 

When I’m feeling unmotivated, I try to remind myself who I was when I made the schedule. I was my best self, with the best of intentions. (Sort of like when my ‘best self’ does the food shopping and buys only veggies and then on a tuesday night at 10pm I want cookies – and silently hate my ‘best self”— but that’s another blog). After awhile, you’ll find that the reward of feeling productive and getting all the things done is a motivator itself in sticking to the calendar. Be sure that you’re including things on your calendar that move you towards who you want to be in the next year – or 20 years. Practice doing what you say you’re going to do. You honor your future self when you don’t give in to instant gratification all the time. Show up for yourself, just like you would show up for someone else important to you. 

If you’d like help walking through a plan – or coming up with a step-by-step plan to accomplish your goals, I’d be honored to coach you. Having me beside you provides the guidance and accountability to push you towards what you want to accomplish in your life. Much like hiring a trainer to get into shape, working with me helps you get your life into shape.