The Best Tips for Planning Your Daily Schedule

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Do you struggle with how you plan your daily schedule to maximize productivity and efficiency?

Do you typically start your day with 100 tabs open, flipping back and forth between tasks trying to figure out what to work on first? 

If so, you are not alone!

As an entrepreneur, you usually have a bunch of projects, deadlines, and ideas spinning around your head at all times. This can make it difficult to focus on one thing at a time.

Planning out your days in order to boost your productivity and focus can really help with this.

Here are some of the best tips to help you plan your daily schedule that can help you end your day feeling proud of everything you’ve accomplished!

Plan Your Daily Schedule

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1. Plan out a rough overview of your week on Sundays

Before you go to sleep on Sunday night, take some time to look at your week at a glance.

Decide on the most crucial tasks you want to knock out each day. Are there any deadlines coming up?

When you know what to expect each day of the week, you will feel more prepared to plan out each day.

This can also help you fight the Sunday scaries that may creep up on you. 

2. Put any required meetings and appointments on your calendar

Flexibility is important when you plan your daily schedule, but of course, you’re going to have certain things that you just can’t move on your calendar.

Jot down any required meetings and appointments you have, so you can plan the rest of your day around them. 

Related Reads:
• How to Organize and Plan Your Month Ahead of Time
• 7 Weekly Planning Tips to Help You Become More Productive
• How to Organize Your To-Do List

3. Pencil in time for self-care BEFORE moving on to work tasks

Is self-care usually the last thing you schedule on your calendar? What if we flipped the script and penciled in self-care first?

The truth is, there is always more work to be done. Therefore, if you leave self-care for last, you will never find the time for it.

Make self-care a priority by adding it to your calendar.

For you, this may look like a lunchtime walk or morning yoga class, or just some quiet time to read in bed at night.

4. Each morning, write down your top three tasks for the day

Is your to-do list five miles long?

Does the number of tasks you have to accomplish stress you out sometimes?

The solution to this problem is choosing your top three tasks to complete each day.

These tasks may be large or they may be quick, but no matter what you will end your day knowing you did three things to move your business forward.

You should aim to get these three tasks accomplished before moving on to anything else, so this method helps you stay focused.

5. Start your day with the most difficult tasks first

Do you know which tasks are the most difficult for you?

If you don’t have one, is there a task that you just downright don’t enjoy? These should be the tasks that you start your day with.

By getting them out of the way early on, you will be freeing up your mental space for the more exciting tasks.

The difficult and unenjoyable tasks won’t be looming over your head, so you will be able to have a more positive and productive day.

6. Focus on no more than one deep work task per day

Deep work tasks are ones that require your full attention.

You will probably have no music on, notifications turned off, and your phone placed in another room.

Deep work tasks might be writing blog posts, outlining your new offer, or writing a job description for a position you are hiring for.

When you are working on a deep work task, you truly want to get in the zone for it.

Deep work tasks can take up a lot of your valuable time and energy, and you probably will want to take a break afterward.

Because of this, try to only focus on one deep work task per day. This will help you focus when you need to and minimize the risk of hitting burnout. 

7. Batch work as much as possible

When you plan your daily schedule, incorporate batch working as much as you can.

This is when you group similar tasks together.

For example, instead of writing the day’s Instagram caption at 9 am every morning, try to write all the Instagram captions for the week Monday morning at 9 am. 

Batch working eliminates the need for your brain to refocus every time you switch back and forth between tasks.

When you are planning out your daily schedule, try to group together similar tasks instead of doing them throughout the day.

8. Block off time on your calendar for specific tasks

Time blocking and batch working kind of go hand-in-hand.

The way time blocking works is you just block off certain times on your calendar for certain tasks.

For example, maybe you are filming reels from 10-11 am and then editing reels from 11 am-noon. You might be writing blog posts from 1-4 pm.

When you utilize time blocking, you will be less tempted to jump around between tasks and follow the schedule you outlined for yourself.

9. Have strict work hours in order to avoid overwhelm

Have you set work hours for yourself? The better question is, do you follow them?

Having strict work hours will not only help you avoid overwhelm and exhaustion, but it can also help you map out your days.

You can create a daily schedule for yourself using all of the tips outlined in this post, and if you don’t have room on your schedule for something, just simply move it over to the next day.

Don’t schedule anything after your set work hours end—yes, even when you are your own boss.

10. Give yourself grace if you do not accomplish everything on your to-do list

It can be stressful when you can’t check off every item you set out to do for the day or week. I know that.

If you are an achiever, you might be tempted to focus on the one task you didn’t get done instead of the 10 tasks you did check off.

Do yourself a favor and give yourself lots of grace.

Remember that you are only human; you are not a robot.

Sometimes other life things pop up or you get tired and need to rest, and that is okay!

Final Thoughts

Some days are going to be more productive than others.

Try to make things easier on yourself by following some of these tips for planning out your daily schedule.

Remember if things don’t go as planned (and let’s face it—sometimes they won’t), just give yourself the grace to try again tomorrow.

If you minimize overwhelm, you are increasing your chances of having a productive and fulfilling day.

Cheers to all the things you will accomplish!