The Art of Being Busy

My wonderful fiance, Jon, recently implemented a strategy of creating a schedule to stay on top of everything that needs to get done during the week. Normally, I considered myself a busy person, and felt like I had absolutely zero time in my current activities to schedule things like errands that popped up, or even time to really do some of the hobbies I enjoyed. I work part-time, and go to university three nights out of the week, as well as about a million things I try to volunteer for. I was too tired to really think of what I would want to do on a Friday night.

As it turned out, I ended up sitting down with myself one evening and literally opening up an Excel spreadsheet to figure out how I was using my time. I had a five hour span Monday-Friday that was dedicate to work. I had four hour time blocks dedicated to university Monday-Wednesday. And then another three hours dedicated on Sunday evening to my soccer games. This is all accounting for the time it takes me to bus back and forth. But then I was left staring at some three hour time blocks in between all of that, plus my weekend time, that was never really dedicated to a specific task. A lot of that was reserved for napping, which, admittedly was an excuse to put off more daunting tasks.

So I took the bullet and decided to cut my naps out. Instead, that time would be used for "Jillanne's creative hour" (blogging, painting, creating), homework, and cleaning the house for an hour on Thursdays, along with - yes, actually scheduled - baths. And of course, I entered a time block on my Friday nights and Saturday evenings for "mindful social interaction". "Mindful" being a key word. I had to reserve time for people in my life who I knew mattered to me, and try to make sure that whatever activity I was doing with them was somehow enhancing our relationship or benefitting both of our lifestyles.

Three things happened when I started scheduling my time:

1. I began to be productive

Somehow, by seeing "clean house" written down on a list made me actually feel guilty if I didn't clean the house during that hour of time. I started looking at all the things I had to do in my day, and stopped making excuses for being lazy. If I couldn't check something off the schedule, I felt like a loser. So it made me compete with myself to see how much I could do in my day.

2. Meal Planning

One of the major things I did with my scheduling was schedule an hour to plan meals for the week every Wednesday, grocery shop on Thursdays, and prep Monday-Wednesday's meals on Sunday afternoon. I was starting to eat out a lot before scheduling because having to go to university at night after working during the day time makes you really not want to make a meal for yourself in the short time you have in between. Sure, this meant my entire Sunday afternoon was spent slaving over a hot stove, but then I had ready-to-go meals stashed in my fridge that only required me to throw it in the oven for a half hour the day I wanted to eat it. So far, the only thing I've purchased that isn't in my fridge is a chai latte to get me through a long day, with the exception of one pizza-ordering Thursday where I worked overtime and missed my grocery shop.

3. Somehow, I have more time

Now that I've scheduled myself, I'm less busy. I seem to keep on top of things so not everything piles up for the last minute. The meal planning means I'm busy for a Sunday afternoon, but it takes a load off stress and time constraints for the other days of the week. Giving myself time to be social and creative actually makes me feel like I'm making the most of my time and not just wasting it by being lazy. And lo and behold, when I've beat the scheduled time to do something (re: I have less homework than I scheduled for), I still get a few naps in!


Scheduling doesn't work for everyone, but if you're a busy person like me, it could be worth a try! This is a new concept to me, so hopefully it will give me a good enough routine to last long-term. If anything, I still highly recommend the meal planning. Trying to fit dinner in on a busy day is stressful, and there are some great casseroles you can prepare ahead of time!