Hey yall!
I get asked all the time how I manage to "do it all", and let me be honest, sometimes I don't do it all. Sometimes I forget about an assignment or a deadline, I decide to lay in bed all day, and sometimes I look at my planner and just decide I'm not going to do that thing today. I'm not perfect, nobody is. But I do still manage to get a lot done on a daily basis and I often wear many different hats to juggle all of the things I am doing. Through that I have picked up a couple techniques and strategies that are tried and true for me in managing to "do it all".
you may also like: How I Juggle School, Work, Friends, Sorority, and YouTube
Keeping an Hourly Schedule
I really do think scheduling your time In an hourly format is the best way to be productive with your time and to ensure you get everything done for that day. You don't have to physically fill every area of your hourly schedule, but start with those unmovable things such as work, classes, student orgs, meetings, etc. and then go in and fill in the blanks with other important things you need to get done followed by things you would love to get done in the free time. Don't forget to plan times for the necessities like eating! I know that may sound silly but honestly, if I don't plan to eat I get so wrapped up in my work that I just forget to until it's 8:00pm and I realized the last time I ate a granola bar at 9:00am.
It's hard to narrow down my favorite planner, because I honestly have used so many and I often use multiple at one time, but some of my favorites have been The Simplified Planner, The Day Designer, a Bullet Journal--if you're feeling creative, or honestly any hourly planner you can find at Target or Walmart will do!
Google Calendar
If you're not a paper and pen kind of person, or if your schedule is ever changing like mine, then Google Calendar is going to save your life! My early years of college I swore by a paper planner, and every now and again I still enjoy physically writing down my schedules in a planner. But every time I am brought back to Google Calendar because I can access it anywhere, I can change it much easier at any time, and I can organize and color code it easier than with a paper planner.
I recently updated my full time YouTuber/blogger schedule and I wanted to show yall how I organize it using Google Calendar.
When I create my schedule I start with my general schedule, or the things that stay constant. For me this is the orange boxes: when I wake up, get ready, make breakfast, make lunch, workout, and make dinner. Then I went in with my YouTube schedule, my purple boxes, and my blogging schedule, the pink boxes, to fill the gaps. There is also another project in my schedule that hasn't been released yet so be on the lookout for that, but rest assured, my schedule is filled.
Time Blocking
If you have never heard of time blocking, it is a technique used to better focus and be more productive and intentional with your time. It's basically putting your hourly schedule you just created into action using alarms.
Most of the time I utilize time blocking when I am doing other tasks such as scrolling through social media, procrastinating starting something on my schedule, or when I want to cut a larger event--such as editing, into smaller chunks with breaks throughout. I'll give myself 25 minutes to scroll through instagram but at the end of that 25 minutes I'm getting to work. No if, ands, or buts about it. I've wasted so many hours scrolling through TikTok or watching videos on Facebook and the next thing I know the whole day is gone! If you time block when you're doing these leisurely things, you can make sure you don't waste the day away.
Alexa Reminders & Routines & Notifications
Alexa is one of my best friends when it comes to productivity. I use her when I am time blocking by asking her to set alarms for me throughout the day. I use her to quickly make lists of groceries I need to get and blog post or youtube video ideas. But one of my favorite things about Alexa is that I can use her to set scheduled reminders for myself in advance for things like cleaning the fish tank, replacing the Brita filter, or reminding myself that it's trash day tomorrow. I can also customize scheduled routines in the app that play at certain times or with certain commands. My favorite routine I have set is my morning routine.
My alarm goes off in the morning at 8:00am, which I usually snooze at least once--oops, until 8:10am. If I decide to snooze it again or don't get up, my Alexa starts my morning routine at 8:15am by waking me up, telling me the date--because during quarantine I never know anymore, telling me the weather outside, and the most important part--telling me my schedule for the day, of course followed by playing my favorite music to get me going and in a good mood in the morning.
My Alexa app is connected to my Google Calendar so as I change things online it will update for my Alexa to read to me. I can also add things to my calendar from my Alexa by asking her to "add a meeting at 3:00pm to my calendar for Friday", which will show up in my app and on my desktop. The seamless transitions between devices really help!
The last thing I will say about my Alexa is that I can set reminders for each of my events to notify me X amount of time before they begin so I don't forget about them. I don't do this with every event, but my Alexa always reminds me of important phone calls, meetings, and even video/brand deal deadlines either minutes, hours, or days in advance.
Lists on Lists on Lists
My last productivity tip is probably one of the most satisfying for me because when I finally cross off that last item on a to-do list, I feel so accomplished and proud of myself. I use lists for just about anything. I use lists FOR my lists--crazy I know. My hourly schedule is usually a blueprint for my day or week, while my lists are like my daily schedules. I get really specific with my lists to ensure I'm getting all of the nitty gritty done. Sometimes for blog posts I need to gather or take certain photos to accompany the post, and in my schedule you can see I allocated an hour every Thursday to do that. However, that schedule doesn't get specific enough for me to know exactly what kinds of photos I need for that post. So typically after I've written a post I will make a list of all the shots I need to include in the post, so when 3:00pm on Thursday comes I'm not just looking at my hourly schedule wondering what exactly I should be taking photos of.
I hope these productivity tips help you be a little more organized and intentional with your time and busy schedules. DM me on Instagram and let me know if you try any of these tips and if they change the way you plan or get things done!
Thanks for visiting, come back soon!
xoxo LOVE YALL!
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