Ever tried color-coding your agenda? — how I plan my week

Disclaimer
I am someone who has a tendency to keep to myself and spend a lot of alone time. In the current chapter of my life, my main priorities are my job, my side projects, and making space for mindfulness practices. My point here is: one, I understand that this lifestyle is not realistic for everybody. And two, the intention of this article is not to sell you on my way of doing things. The intention is to share some advice and hope that it will inspire you.

…

Yup, I’m definitely the kind of person who manages every aspect of my life with Google Calendar, Spreadsheets and task management tools like ASANA. When people learn this about me, I usually get one of two reactions; “chill, you’re way too intense” or “What?! How do you do this?”

So I’ve decided to put pen to paper and share how I go about it, starting with how I plan my week with Google Calendar. 

Sample of my personal Google calendar

I use color-coding — that’s it!

Step 1: What are the main things you want to allocate your time to?

Right now, my time is allocated in 8 colors; mindfulness routines (pink), transition time (grey), emails and personal administrative tasks (blue), work (light green), moving my body (red), working on side projects (yellow), social activities (purple), commute (orange), errands/housekeeping (dark green), relaxing time (lavender).
Google Calendar currently has 12 different colors you can assign to what matters to YOU!

Step 2: Life happens, move the blocks!

Your calendar is flexible! So when an unexpected change of plans happens, just move the color blocks. For example, when I need to work later one day, I expand the “work” box and reduce the “working on side projects” blocks. A last-minute invitation to brunch? I add in a “social activities” block with “commute” blocks before and after the event. Feeling like crap on a Saturday morning? I remove the “working on side projects” block and spend the day reading in bed.

Step 3: Re-evaluate, constantly…

It’s totally okay for you to adjust your typical week to what works for you — even if it means changing it every week. For example, at some point in 2019 and up until the pandemic hit, I started a habit of waking up at 5 am so that I could meditate, hit the gym, read the news, plan my day before going to the office. Then during the pandemic when I was back in my hometown, I would wake up at 6 am before my mom so that I could have 1h of quiet reading time in bed followed by a morning walk. Lately, I haven’t been able to make it out of bed before 7 am. (maybe it’s aging…. ah ah)

So there you have it! This is what has been working for me. But remember, rules are meant to be broken anyway...