Have you ever tried to block out your perfect schedule?

⌛ Happier Hour

This week I finished a book called 📚 Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes. In one of her chapters, she walked through how to create a perfect schedule.

📝 Time Tracking

First, she has you fill out this tracker. You fill in each half hour (I know it's intense) and rate it on a happiness scale of 1-10.

📊 Top Categories

After you fill this out, you will see which activities had the highest rating. For me it was:

🌳 Walking Outside - 10/10

I walk on a trail by my house after dinner and throughout the weekend. Typically, it is pretty spontaneous and always includes my younger brother who also happens to work at Intel.

🍳 Cooking with my Brother - 9/10

My brother and I cook Hello Fresh meals 4 days a week. We really like cooking these meals so we don't plan on ending the meal plan anytime soon.

📖 Reading Alone - 8/10

Not shocked here. I love reading. I spend hours a day reading business and self-help books.

💬 Social - 8/10

Anytime I have brunch or a meetup with friends it always gets a high rating.

👟 Exercise - 8/10

This one shocked me - but I am pretty excited to exercise and feel great. Although I am not always ecstatic to get on a treadmill.

🎨 Crafting Your Schedule

Time to start crafting. Add your work first, then add in your top categories. It was a gut punch to realize just how little time I  have outside regular work hours.

✍ Guilt Free

The key is to not feel guilty as you do each activity because you have blocked time for productive work too. That way you can relax as you cook/read/play because you know you have time set aside for productive activities later.

🎨 Artist Dates

Artist dates and morning pages are both terms coined by the author Julia Cameron. She wrote an amazing book called 📚 The Artists Way which is still in my hall of fame books. An artist date is essentially a date with yourself. I tend to go to a coffee shop and journal. You aren't allowed to bring anyone (sorry!).

❌ Warning

My schedule is very intense because I run a side business. Take your weekends off if you can! Try not to compare your schedule to others. I just wanted to give you an example of what my typical week looks like.