<p>I've been told by some successful people that making your own realistic schedule and following that day by day is a great way of spending your time.
But I seem to perform much better and feel much less stressed if I don't do this and instead just live and do things spontaneously. This doesn't mean I do absolutely no planning, though. What I'm saying is I feel reluctant to follow a set schedule rountinely like a robot every day/week, no matter I realistically I make my schedule. I want to become a schedule/routine person, because I think that living on a schedule is more powerful than living without it, in the long run. I'm interested in knowing if any of you live on a schedule, and how that fits you.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a set schedule outside of class, aside from sports practices or music rehearsals- at least as far as an hour-by-hour system. I had more of a checklist of things I needed to do, and how long I had to do them. Then whatever I felt like doing at the time, I could. And if I slacked off, I knew how much time I had to do that.</p>
<p>Just like you, I at least find “To-do lists” useful, but I just don’t seem to do significantly better even if I combine this with my hour-by-hour schedule.</p>
<p>I live by a schedule. It is not hour-by-hour because that is a stupid way to manage your time. You can’t predict how long something will take or if there will be a delay, etc. My schedule usually consists of the details of my day starting from when I wake up to when I go to bed. It’s not super detailed, but it’ll have things like classes, meals, homework (just says hwmk, doesn’t detail the order or anything), etc. It makes my life less stressful because I’m not worried about forgetting to do something and it saves me time because I know ahead of time what I’m going to do. Also, it lessens my stress because I don’t have to contain in my head all the things I have to get done. I write them down and then clear my mind of them. When it’s time to do things, I look at the schedule.</p>
<p>I actually do keep an hour-by-hour schedule on a whiteboard. It’s more for my own peace of mind than anything else; while I go to classes according to my schedule (for obvious reasons) and eat meals at around the same time everyday, I use the schedule as an organizer of all the things I have to get done during the day.</p>
<p>And being a checklist person, I actually find it very therapeutic to write out my schedule every day (as if making a to-do list equals actual completion!).</p>
<p>I think every person is different. You have to figure out what is most efficient for you. Personally, to-do lists are more realistic for me because sometimes I’ll attempt making an hour-by-hour schedule and not follow through because of unexpected delays or not realizing how long a hw assignment will take me. I would think monthly and weekly schedules can work for everybody, though, so those are really important in order to remain organized.</p>
<p>I wanted to add, people who live on an hour-by-hour schedule are probably miserable. As I said earlier, that is a very bad way to manage time. You will just end up miserable because you will fall off of it very early in the day and then beat yourself up for doing so.</p>
<p>I personally recommend David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done.” If you don’t want to read that, there are a lot of GTD resources out there on the Internet. It’s definitely helped me get organized. When I’m really good about following GTD, I get a lot done.</p>