Do you want to know how to plan your life? Do you feel like your life is out of control or you just can’t get anything done? Trust me I know the feeling! I had to really change my ways in order to improve my life.
You won’t regret planning your life out, because it should lead you to a better life that you will be satisfied with.
Now the answer I’m going to give you is probably not one that you want to hear, because I didn’t want to hear it either but it really works! Ok, here it is … routines!
Yep, it’s a simple answer but I know it’s probably not the one you wanted to hear.
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Do You Want To Know How To Make a Plan To Change Your Life? Here It Is:
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1. Slowly Start Getting Into a Routine
So how do you get into a routine when you feel like your life is out of control? It starts by imagining how a perfect day would look like for you. Then you get a piece of paper and write down every step. For example, when I wake up I would make my bed, exercise, shower, etc…
I know it sounds silly but you need to write it down so that you can visualize it.
Then the next step is to take each of those tasks or actions and put it into an hourly planner. I know you are thinking you can’t do it, but you can. It doesn’t need to be perfect and you can give yourself lots of time to do each step.
I found a very helpful website that gives you free hourly printables for personal use at https://www.worksheetworks.com/miscellanea/calendars/hour.html . When you are there click the day range to single day, put in the hour range to suit your schedule say from 7am to 11 pm, the hour division is none because you want to do an hourly planner, the orientation is tall, then click create worksheet and click the arrow to download it.
This is such a great website because it also gives you all sorts of monthly and weekly planner printables plus other ones as well at https://www.worksheetworks.com/miscellanea/calendars.html . You can plan out your day, week and even your month.
Tip #1 on planning your life: wear a watch. Yes, this little step will help you keep on track. Or even better, wear a Fitbit. It usually has the time on it and it will also tell you how many physical steps you have walked for the day. I use my Fitbit just to keep me aware of my activity level. It lets me realize, hay you didn’t walk around today as much as you thought you did! LOL!
Now if you got yourself in a rut and need help figuring out how to constantly maintain a clean home the website that helped me tremendously was Flylady.net. She asks, “Have you been living in C.H.A.O.S (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)?
Then she suggests the most encouraging thing you can do each day is to shine your sink. It’s such a simple task, but it makes you feel so happy to see that nice clean sink in the morning!
I would encourage you to go to her website at Flylady.net and see what I’m talking about. When I first started visiting her website I signed up for her email list. She sends out encouragement and a task to help you maintain your home. After a while it will become natural to you. Whenever you find yourself getting into a rut, just go back to her plan. Her free advice helped me so much!
I never used to like routines. Whenever I got off work I would look at it as I’m off the clock now so I can do what I want. But after a while I found myself feeling down and I knew that I needed to change.
I guess you can say routines give your life structure. School, your work place and anywhere successful has structure.
When you think about it even your own physical home has structure! A builder has to first pour the concrete foundation and put up the steel or wooden frames and then starts building everything from that point on.
This applies to a house, apartment or wherever you live. It is built around structure. LOL! Can you see where everything in life has structure?
2. Start Making To Do Lists
I’ll give you a story of someone I know. She would always tell me that she doesn’t like to write anything down.
Then she would also tell me about how many appointments she missed.
What finally got her to change was when she missed an appointment twice and that place said that they were going to charge her for missing that appointment. She had to beg and plead to get out of it.
After that, she started to carry a monthly planner in her purse to remind her of all her appointments. She called me one day and told me how she found this beautiful planner to help her out. I was so surprised because I love talking about planners but she didn’t.
The whole point of the story is, you have to write things down because it actually does make your life easier.
What I try to do is to make a list of things that I need to do the next day. So the night before I will get a piece of paper out and just write down what I need to do tomorrow.
Tip #2 on planning your life: after a while of constantly taking out that paper you will eventually want to get yourself a day planner. You can also find them at the dollar store. Or you can buy yourself a nice fancy one. Whatever works for you. I like to use a Day Designer (affiliate link) almost every day to plan out my day. I just love the gold colour accents that they use on their planners. Plus I love the fact that there is an hourly planner on one side of the page, on the other side is a list of things to do, there is a lot of other useful items and there is also a motivational quote on the top of each page. I think that’s so unique.
In order to make my week go smoothly usually I try to make a list of all the things I need to do for the next week. This is done on the weekends.
Also, before I go grocery shopping, I see what food is on special for that week and I plan out my meals for the following week. Now meal planning is a routine that I’m still working on. I can’t say I do it faithfully but it’s something that I’m trying to iron out.
3. Try to Get Into The Habit Of Planning
Once you start doing routines, you will notice that you will want to start planning things out, so that your life runs smoothly.
What I do is I keep a wall calendar in my room so that I can see it. That works for me because if it’s digital I need to go and look at it online, but if it’s right in front of me then I’m forced to see what is coming up.
I also take this wall calendar and put dates on there in advance for the whole year like birthdays, important dates to remember, etc … So that I never miss anything.
If anything important comes up, I immediately put it on my wall calendar. I also use a day planner, but a wall calendar helps you visualize your whole month.
Like I said before on the weekends I just take a piece of paper out and write out what I need to do for the whole week. Then I take some of those tasks and put it in my day planner for each day of the week.
Throughout the week I keep referring to this weekly list so that I can check off each task as I do it.
After that you will want to start planning out your month on a piece of paper. Having a monthly list will really help you achieve your goals.
Write your goals down on a piece of paper. Then put small tasks that you can do on your monthly list. From there you can put some of those tasks on to your weekly list. This will then get transferred to a daily list.
You see how it eventually gets done? You will start accomplishing your goals through doing those small tasks.
Tip #3 on planning your life: you can find a wall calendar, a monthly planner, a weekly planner and even a day planner all at the dollar store! So it doesn’t cost a lot to plan out a wonderful life! Or you can get a 3 ring binder from the dollar store and put your printables in there.
4. Effort is The Glue That Keeps Everything Together
I can’t tell you how many times I planned everything out, made the list but didn’t put the effort in to do it! Then I start to feel down about it.
However, as Flylady says just jump back in. Life isn’t over. Just start right then and there. So if it’s 8pm and you haven’t done anything just start doing a few things when you realize it.
I love the point that Flylady makes, “Even imperfect housework will help your family out.” Anything helps even if you don’t have a family. It helps you out.
Tip #4 on planning your life: if possible get around 8 hours of sleep each day. You will be surprised to know how much sleep affects your productivity level. A lack of sleep causes you to lose your effort. So plan self-care in your planner today! For example, make a plan that you will go to bed each night at the same time. You can plan this and many other things out in your planner.
So How Do I Plan My Future Life?
In conclusion it’s through routines, making lists, planning and effort.
Aw, this sounds so boring! I know, but it actually works!
So you can actually plan a wonderful life out for yourself, just by using a pen and a little bit of effort. There you have it!
So how are you planning your life out? Any tips for me as well? Please let me know in the comments below.
