In recent months, I’ve not only moved to a more analog existence, but I’ve experimented with a variety of planning tools. What I’ve found, more than anything else, is that I only do what I plan with few exceptions. The calendar above is on the wall in my home office, with color coding for specific items. The things on the calendar are my church giving, my running schedule, and some basic stuff that needs to be kept up with around the house.
What’s not there is the books I want to read, which was there last year. The goal last year was 24 books read and I ended at 28 as each had a predetermined end date and it was easy to adapt and adjust to how life went. This year I didn’t put it on the calendar, even after making 30 my goal, and it’s July with only 7 books finished. After taking this picture, I filled in the calendar with the books in my stack that I want to read (and the 3 I’m working on) and I’m sure it will make a difference.
The other items missing are workout days other than running and my summer goals for working on the literature review for my dissertation. I’m now creating printouts for my home workout routines that will go on the fridge, with the days for each filled in on the calendar, until I feel healthy enough to move on to weight training and start going to the gym. I also printed out some of the key articles I need to read, and I’m putting them on the calendar this week with an ambitious goal to be ready to defend my lit review in September.
The other item I’ve been using is a slight variation of Cal Newport’s time blocking. Since I’m at home for the foreseeable future (likely not in the office before September 1) I’ve added blocked out time for things before and after work hours. I even go as far as to only watch TV while eating lunch and dinner during weekdays.
I’ve got two basic morning routines for M/W/F and T/Th, and two different routines for the middle of the day for each. There’s also a slight variation on Wednesday nights for a church small group meeting, but that’s it. M/W/F is jogging/running for the time being, with a goal for a specific 5k time by the end of the year.
T/Th are workout days, just bodyweight stuff for now (bad back that I re-injured last year and spent months in physical therapy for) but I’m looking at going to the Stronglift 5×5 system before the end of the year. Weekends aren’t quite as detailed, but there’s still a Saturday workout, Saturday breakfast with guys from church, and Sunday church (when it’s allowed). Everything else is a checklist and some of it doesn’t get done.
At some point I’ll move to four days of running per week (adding Saturday), probably by the end of the year, and reduce workouts to two days (T/Th) to maintain strength for the running schedule. The long term goal is to get back to marathon running shape and then move on to ultramarathons. That won’t happen without planning and attention to detail, just like the house doesn’t get cleaned, the literature review and dissertation won’t get written, and the books won’t get read.
I have no affiliate accounts, so the three links above are just items I’m considering for next year. I prefer dry erase over paper for home calendars, especially in the office. I’ve been using Cal’s seasonal Habits & Objectives planning idea, from Digital Minimalism, covering the basic academic calendar that I’m on for both work and school. I’m looking to add the 4 month and 1 month calendar’s to the equation to drill down on the most pressing items in smaller chunks while still having the bigger overviews.
Other items include brainstorming for the blog, testing out new skills around the house and yard, and considering future work options once the PhD has been completed. While analog is still king for me, I have been using some digital tools, and currently have begun migrating things from disparate locations (Google Docs, Trello, Evernote, etc) into Notion. It might not do any one thing as well as the other tools, but it’s a phenomenal organizational tool for everything and has a ton of options for personalizing how you use it (with open API supposedly coming in the not too distant future). Other than that, I’m constantly tinkering and hopefully improving the way I do everything.
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