How to Create Schedules That Work: Reach Your Goals Without Burnout

Perfectionists are the worst planners. The plans are unrealistic and leave no room for failure.

Want to be more active? Better start training five days a week for a marathon. And be more productive? Only way is to wake up at 5 AM every day.

It’s embarrassing to admit but I’ve made those exact resolutions. Over and over again for years. The first week I’m running high on motivation. However, by the end of the month I’m dying from burnout.

“Why can’t I just get out of bed at 5 to run?! I AM WEAK!!! WHY AM I SO WEAK?!”

It blew my mind when I was asked, “Why don’t you try changing your schedule if this one never worked? What makes you think it will work this time around if nothing changed?”

Don’t keep failing in the same place

I thought the brutal schedule would equal quick results, but I had actually set myself back. It is better to keep moving forward than to hoping for a leap only to fall every time at the same spot.

Whether it was exercising more or taking additional coursework, I wanted to fast-track the progress. How my schedules used to look:

 6 AM - 8 AM   Watch lecture
 9 AM - 5 PM   Go to work
 6 PM - 7 PM   Eat and shower
 7 PM - 10 PM  Do problem sets
11 PM - 6 AM   Sleep

As you might have guessed I fell behind my schedule and tried to cram everything in without any breaks.

It made so much sense back then to think, “Hey, if I don’t take any breaks, I’d save two hours. I can use that time to catch up on all this I missed.”

This never works. Ever.

Be disciplined but compassionate

Planning a schedule is exciting! You’re working on creating better habits to accomplish goals. Being disciplined is crucial, but also remember to be kind to yourself. Remember the second part of tough love is love.

Three steps to planning a schedule

Take a large goal and break it down into smaller goals that can be completed in a month. That monthly goal then gets broken down even further into weekly goals.

Schedules are made around weekly goals and NOT the huge goal at the end.

Let’s say your goal is to learn Python and you enroll in a course to learn in your free time. Now we’re going to take a look at how to fit the coursework into your weekly schedule.

Step 1: Figuring out the number of hours available

1. Write down the start and end of your day. Be realistic. If you sleep in until 10 AM every day, don’t write down 6 AM.
2. Block out the times that you have responsibilities and won’t be able to commit any time.
3. For each day, write down the times that you are free. This doesn’t have to be perfect — make your best guess.

Below is an example of how to note times of availability:

 7 AM - 9 AM   FREE
10 AM - 6 PM   Work
 7 PM - 9 PM   Dinner & Cleanup
 9 PM - 10 PM  FREE
11 PM - 7 AM   Sleep

Step 2: Plan each learning session

I see I have three hours a day that I can spend on learning. Three hours is the maximum. As tempting as it is to add more time at the start or end of the day, stick with three hours for now. Make sure you can follow the schedule consistently before adding more.

There are two sessions in the day in which you can learn. Break each session into work and rest periods. Breaks are essential for productivity.

Each person differs in how long she can pay attention before needing a break. Whether it is 15 or 60 minutes, choose what you’re comfortable with.

In the morning I have two hours of free time. If I can focus for 30 minutes before I start getting tired I would schedule my sessions as:

7:00 - 7:30 Start lesson
7:30 - 7:45 Take a break
7:45 - 8:15 Continue lesson
8:15 - 8:30 Take a break
8:30 - 9:00 Finish lesson

Step 3: Follow the schedule for a week and then adjust for next

Now that the schedule is made, just follow it! Trust me that this is the hardest part. There will be a strong urge to add more sessions into the day, but fight it.

During the week, record whether you were accurate in your time estimates. If you thought you could do lessons for 60 minutes before a break, but turns out it was actually 45 minutes, record that. We’re focused on quality and not quantity.

Now that you have a week’s worth of records, planning for next week will be much easier. You will have a better idea of your personal golden ratio between work and break.

Planning is a skill

For my perfectionist friends, I understand you want to plan a day down to the last minute. However that doesn’t equate to productivity. Instead let’s focus on how much closer we’re getting to our goals.

Even though weekly progress feels slow, a year later you’ll look back and realize how far you’ve come.