It can be very tempting to wish health could be given to us. Instead, it is something we must prioritize, plan for, and earn through our actions. Our lives can get busy and it can feel impossible to get all of our tasks done, like workouts and preparing healthy food. It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed when trying to fit everything in, and this is where spending a little bit of time intentionally scheduling and planning out our week can go a long way. Here is my five-step process on how to do just that. 

The first step is the brain dump. We hold on to tons of information in our brains and in order to see clearly, we must get it out and onto paper. In this step, write down everything you need to do that is just floating around your brain. Have to go to the dentist next week? Write it down. Need to take out the garbage today? Write everything down. 

This process allows us to clear up all of the things we’re constantly thinking about and trying to remember. Believe it or not, we think 95% of the same thoughts from day to day, so if you have a “to-do” list up in there too, you’re not allowing yourself to see your schedule clearly. Life feels overwhelming because you’re constantly thinking about everything you have to do, not just what is important right now.

Once we have everything written down, we want to start categorizing. Separate everything you wrote down into categories that make sense for you and your life. I currently have a category for each of my businesses, my soccer team, my home, personal tasks, and finances. Categorizing all of our tasks helps us see more clearly which ones take up the most time.

Now, it’s time to add our to-do’s to our calendar. Go through your categories and take everything that has a hard start and end time, like work, appointments, scheduled calls, activities for your kids, or coffee dates, and add them in your calendar. This gives you an even clearer picture of what is going on from day to day and allows you to see where you have pockets of space. I’d encourage you to even factor in commuting time into your calendar so you don’t try to over-schedule yourself. 

Once you have all of the most urgent, time-bound tasks in your calendar, this is when we want to add in our health-related tasks. If we wait until the day of, we are not very likely to accomplish what needs to get done to move toward our health goals. If we proactively add these tasks to our calendar during this process, we are much more likely to stick to our schedule, or at least be aware of the fact that we want to get our health-related tasks done and reschedule them for a different time during the week, rather than just skipping them altogether. 

After this, we can prioritize everything else and add those tasks to our schedule too. Maybe some of them are not as urgent, and we can push them out a couple of days or a week. 

Actually mapping out our week and what needs to get done helps us see what is most important, when we can make time to take care of ourselves, and makes it much easier to make decisions about what to do next. We must remember that nobody else is in control of our schedule other than us. Even if you work for someone else, have family members to take care of, have kids, or are in school, we still have control over the majority of our time. 

It’s up to us to be proactive and prioritize getting done what we say is important to us.

Xoxo

Coach Maggi