How To Make A Daily Schedule For Yourself

This post is all about how to make a daily schedule for yourself and how to plan your day to be productive

You have grand plans for this year but are having difficulty executing or you feel overwhelmed. You ask yourself, how do I take my goals and my visions and break them down into my daily to-do list, you have come to the right place. This post will be a step by step guide on how to make a daily schedule for yourself.

Before we dive in, I must say this- don’t expect to be an expert at once. It has taken me 2 years to somewhat master this and even I who is sharing still falls short, so please be gentle with yourself and forgive yourself if you ever do.

If you prefer to watch, I have created the perfect video here:

How To Make A Daily Schedule For Yourself- That Actually WORKS

When I first shared my daily schedule on Instagram, my followers were surprised that I scheduled everything. I genuinely thought it was something everyone did but I had no clue that it was a novelty for some. So I asked what exactly they struggle with and the comments came pouring in:

• My biggest challenge is execution. I plan but find it hard to execute sometimes. Another would be procrastination.
• How can I group my ideas and execute in order of priority?
• My biggest challenge is having to do a lot of things at the same time.
• The biggest challenge for me is not the planning part but the discipline of sticking to it part! Any pointers on that?

And so many other questions that were some version of these. If this is you, here are tactical ways to change that TODAY!

Why do you want it?

The first step before anything is remembering why you want it. Girl! You have to tie your tasks to something really tangible, something you want so bad that you will do anything to make it happen.

For instance, I want abs so bad and even though I don’t enjoy working out, the thought of being healthy and looking like a supermodel in the mirror keeps me motivated. Okay, maybe that’s a little shallow but seriously tie it to something.

Let me be transparent with you about one of my bigger goals. I want to retire my parents someday and that’s why I show up consistently in my business even when I do not feel like it. So what’s yours? If you want to share, leave me a comment below.

What moves the needle for you?

Okay, now that you know why you want it, you need to define what actually moves the needle for you?

Confused? Let me explain quickly. I’ll use my personal brand as an example, I could be on any platform in the world, TikTok, Facebook, etc but the places I enjoy creating content and building a community are Instagram, Youtube, and more recently this blog.

They not only create an amazing space for my community but they drive income as well. Do you see why I will not be jumping on another platform anytime soon? These are my needle movers.

You may not be a content creator like me, yours might be office-related or you might even be managing your home as a full-time mum.

Break it down to what actually moves the needle for you. You can do this exercise on sticky notes. What has worked in the past and what are things you hope will work in the future? Separate the needle movers for the future needle movers (the things you hope drive results for you) This will allow you to focus like never before.

Write out on paper:

NEEDLE MOVER<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> FUTURE OR NON NEEDLE MOVER and let’s start writing.

Time everything

Let’s get even more granular. How can you expect to schedule a task if you don’t know how long it takes? Let me give you an example. Batch cooking takes me 2-4 hours depending on what I am making and whether or not I have made the meal before. Jollof rice for instance takes me exactly 55 minutes to make, yes I timed it.

Cooking time is 35 minutes and prep time (if the stew is already boiled down) takes me 20 minutes, so If I had only 35 minutes before my workday, I will definitely not be scheduling ‘make jollof rice’. Do you understand what I am trying to say here? When you time a task, you know where that task fits into your day.

Also, there is something about timing a task that keeps you in check. I am currently on a timer to write this blog post and it is keeping me laser focused, even my husband knows not to ask me anything when I am on a timer.

Time block

Once you have an idea of how much time things take, you can schedule them on your Google calendar and work it around your lifestyle. Do you need to wake up earlier? It’s not about waking up at 5 am, it’s what you do in those hours. There’s this lady on Youtube who did shot an awesome video on calendar blocking should you ever want to get into it.

Also, don’t forget to schedule your rest, Netflix time, and other things that bring you joy.

Brain dump your to-do list

What I would love you to do now is create a long of every single thing you have to do in your life…like everything!

Create categories for work, life, your relationships, even gifts you want to give your loved ones and write every single thing down.

This helps it get out of your head and onto paper so that it no longer takes much-needed space in your brain leaving you feeling overwhelmed. It is this massive to-do list that will help you properly plan your daily to-do list. How do you like that?

Top 3 ‘money’ tasks

When you are ready to create your daily to-do list, I want you to write a shortlist of what you want to achieve that week and put a money sign or a star sign on top of the specific ones that drive your main goal forward.

The reason you want to put a money sign is that sometimes we end up putting things on our daily to-do list that don’t necessarily drive us forward towards our goals.

Take those tasks with a money sign and put only three of them on your daily to-do list for the next day.

I have been guilty of putting tasks on my list that seem more interesting instead of the ones that have a direct impact on my bottom line. Are you guilty of this too? You try it. ‘Money’ tasks first, then other tasks only after those ‘money’ tasks have been completed.

Another reason you also want to write just 3 is that that is the magic number to avoid overwhelm. If you write 6 tasks to complete every day and you end up not doing them, it creates a pattern of distrust within yourself for your to do list. 3 is a magic number, 3 is achievable, and ticking them off gives you the motivation to reach for the next and the next and the next.

Batch Baby

Batch your life to support your dream. You want to make sure you are stacking similar tasks together and getting them done in a block of time. for me that is cooking, I batch cook because it just makes me 100% more productive. It also helps me to eat healthier even though if I must confess, it can be quite boring. Find the tasks you can batch and see how much more productive you become.

Get your loved ones on board

Now please speak to your loved one or parents whoever you live with and let them know what you are trying to achieve, you will be surprised how much they will be willing to take on just to make your life easy and make your dream achievable.

Rotimi, my husband helps take my photos for example despite knowing little to nothing about photography, all because I communicated my desire to build a personal brand online.

If you delegate a task to a family member, it gives you more time to knock things off your things to do list and actually achieve your goal. You are one person. If you need help ask for help. You don’t have more hours than Beyoncé but Beyoncé has a team.

Let me check in with you, how are you feeling? Overwhelmed or do you feel like you have a plan to finally tackle your day, and how to make a daily schedule for yourself?

I’ll share one last tip with you. Don’t expect to love your to-do lists, sometimes we expect the execution of our goals to be an enjoyable process and feel disappointed when it isn’t. Remember my workout analogy earlier? Same thing, fall in love with the results you will get for yourself not the process and you just might enjoy the process.

These are my top tips for how to make a daily schedule for yourself. I hope they help you crush your big goals and I pray that all your dreams come true.

Till next time.

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