Ever been lost with where you are, so you pick out a new planner and create a new plan for how you will use your time more effectively? Like creating a new block schedule or creating a new outline for how you will use your time to ensure maximum productivity? Every now and then, after a bit of a funk or unproductivity, I use an hourly planner to plan and separate my day into time slots to fit the most into and get the most out of my day.

You know, things like wake up at 6:30 am, workout from 6:30-7:30, eat breakfast at 7:30. Shower at 8:00. Have coffee and read from 8:30-8:45. Or whatever plan works for whatever it is my goal is at the time. I fill out the whole week, look it over, and decide that it’s the perfect plan! The next day comes along, and I am fresh and excited about my new uber-productive plan for life. Eagerly, I get underway, only to find that I couldn’t get into the shower at 8:00 and now it’s 8:20, so I either have a 10 minute shower to ensure nothing else falls behind or have a normal shower and get ready for the day time and skip the reading.

The problem is, not planning for the transitions.

You have to build in transition time!

Not planning for the transitions means that as soon as one part is late, then it bumps the whole day! It’s kind of like doctor appts! You’re supposed to see the doctor at say, 11am. 11:15 rolls around, the doctor finally calls you in saying, “Sorry, the last patient needed some extra time,” or that there was an emergency appt at some point in the morning. There’s no room for error or squeeze-me-in appts in a doctor’s office. It simply starts bumping everything until either lunch comes and they can reset for the afternoon or the end of the day comes, and they reset the next day. Either way, there is no room for extra or what if’s or something different in a doctor’s schedule. The same can be created if you are too detailed with your own planning, too!

The biggest pitfall to watch out for is how you are currently spending your time. I guarantee that something you are not building into your time on your planner is…screen time!

Who plans for screen time? If you’re creating a new plan for yourself, are you actually going to write a block down from 1-3pm, let’s say, for scrolling through your social media. Or, how about that bedtime routine with planning time in the last few minutes before turning off the light and going to bed at 10 pm? What about the phone time until 11pm? or even midnight??

Normally, people plan their time or their blocks based on what they want or hope their productive time will accomplish. Then push comes to shove and BOOM! You’ve just spent those chore minutes looking up the best way to clean the oven. That of course leads to a great looking stove top recipe, which obviously leads to watching a cute baby eat their meal, and that logically leads to watching funny baby fails, then hilarious adult fails, then a series of amazingly talented people win! You get up from the chair you’ve been sitting in because you have to pee, then you’ll get right to the oven – you look at the oven clock and realize that A LOT of time went by!! What happened??

This is why you need some flexibility in your planner – NO, not because you need to build in screen time, but because going from doing a workout to hoping in the shower may have some unexpected turns on the way to the shower. Maybe you need to cut up lunch options for the kids’ lunches, flip a load of laundry, or even just manage the Lego obstacle course in the hallway. Either way, building in an extra 5-10 minutes between tasks or blocks can be the difference of you actually feeling like you’re winning at life, to feeling like that swamped doctor trying to get the most out of their day!

You may end up not needing all the time you set aside for the transition – but hey, that might mean you get your stuff done a little earlier than expected! How great is that?

So next time you have some time to refresh your daily plan, don’t forget to add some time between each block of time. Give yourself time to use the bathroom, time to put the recycling away, or even time to stop and have a conversation with your kids or partner. Set yourself up for success!

Thanks for coming home!