Planning for the Best

In my last post, I talked about what I’m worried about for the coming school year. Getting all those thoughts down on paper and out of my head was very cathartic for me. But now, I want to talk about confronting those worries in a practical way—through planning.

Many people talk about “planning for the worst-case scenario”. But I think a better strategy is to actually plan for the best-case scenario, for the life that you want to live, and to try to stick to that.

First of all, if you don’t know what you want, how can you expect to obtain it? Secondly, if you do know what you want, you need to create a well-executed plan to achieve your goal.

So, to address this, I planned out my ideal week for the fall semester.

It may seem a little crazy that I literally scheduled out almost every hour of my week. But, I feel that this is the best way to make sure that I have time to do all the things I’m worried about not keeping up with. And I also deliberately scheduled in time for rest, reflection and time with friends.

If you want to do something similar, I’ve outlined the steps I’ve taken to create this schedule below:

STEP 1

Figure out what you’re worried about

If you don’t know exactly what you want to achieve, figure about what you’re worried about. Try to analyze it from all angles: school, work, family, friends, hobbies.

By looking at what worries you, you can more easily identify what’s important to you. From there, you can decide how you want to plan for the things that matter.

STEP 2

Schedule in Obligations

Once you know what matters to you, you can start creating your own schedule.

The first things to go on that schedule should be your obligations or commitments. So, work and classes that you can’t miss. For me, that’s the light blue and purple on my calendar.

STEP 3

Schedule in Necessities

Next, you should make sure you have time for necessities. These are the activities that unhealthy, workaholic types let fall by the wayside when they’re overwhelmed. Sleep. Meals. Exercise. Grocery Shopping. Cooking.

In some sense these habits are even more important than the obligations but you should schedule them second because you know best when is the best time for you to exercise, how much sleep you need etc.

STEP 4

Schedule in Rest/Reflection

Finally, I scheduled in time to spend by myself working on things that are important to me and time to spend with friends.

One of my worries was that I would not be able to keep up with my relationships with friends and family, so I thought it was important to intentionally include this time in my day.

But, I’m an introvert so I gave myself some options, blocking out the evenings either to take time for myself or to catch up with friends.

I also find it helpful to look back on each day and reflect on what was accomplished. Asking yourself, what good did I accomplish today? What worked and what didn’t?

STEP 5

Revise

Like I said at first, this schedule is the best-case scenario. I’m not sure if I will really be able to follow it as planned. But, after the first week, I will see how well it works for me and revise it from there. I may need to add in more time for sleep or rest or I may not have enough time to work on my homework and need to add more study time and take away some friend or rest time.

But, for now, I feel like this schedule captures everything I want to spend my time on and it makes me feel better that I have a plan in place.