Schedule it in

It’s Day Six of our Resolution Solutions, and today is about putting it all together so that your plans are properly put into action. Life gets busy, and if you want things to happen then you have to start scheduling them in.

Good intentions are great, but if you don’t set specific time aside then the usual distractions will take over. We’ve already worked out our main goals and broken those down into specific tasks and activities, now we need to mark out the time in our diaries otherwise it will all stay stuck at the ‘I wish… ‘ stage.

If there’s a specific end point, such as running a marathon, try putting the end date into the diary first and then schedule in all of the rest of the training. You might also need to build in a little extra space to allow for, say, catching the occasional cold, or being away on holiday.

If it’s an ongoing thing such as reading more books, look for natural points in your week where that could fit in easily (for example, instead of social media scrolling during a weekend lie-in, on a regular commute, or on an evening early in the week where you’re often at a loose end already). Write the times in your planner or diary, at least for the first month or so to get into the habit, and if you’re using scheduling apps or other diary software then it’s easy to set up regularly recurring events.

You can still benefit from scheduling even if your resolution is about something that you’re giving up. For example, if you’re giving up smoking you might want to set time aside to read a book about giving up, to meet up with a friend who’s giving up too for some moral support, or for alternative activities that could keep you away from temptation or keep your mind off any cravings.

Get scheduling those important activities in today, and we’ll look at how to monitor your progress and stay motivated tomorrow.