Building and FOLLOWING a timetable!

Time. Something that NOBODY has. Something that money cannot buy.

We all have been through the last minute assignment submission, or have found ourselves in situations where time couldn't flow faster. But all these problems could easily be avoided. We ALL know that making a timetable and following one is extremely crucial. But how to create the perfect one, and also how to consistently follow it? We're going to discuss just that in today's blog. 

The first step would always be to Create the Timetable. This step is the easiest among the others. There are two basic methods to form a timetable. Let's go through each. 

The first one is about going through your day. Deciding each action that is going to take place at a specific time, and duration.

For example, if you start your day at 8 and end at 12, you could note down all the steps from 8:00 - 8:05 - brushing teeth, to 11:45 to 12:00 getting ready for bed. Such time stamps are fixed and dedicated to only a certain task.

In my opinion, these kind of timetables only work for the ones that have to take into consideration other people's timetables, who are a part of their daily lives. The best example would be parents, who always compromise and alter their routine according to ours. 

For this procedure, I'd recommend writing down all the major activities of the day, such as - study/work time, eating time, workout time, course time etc. Then note down the time at which the work has to be done at. For example, work time: 9:00am to 5:00pm. 

Once you've got the major tasks notes down, go ahead and sort them out according to the clock. 

Voila! You're timetable is ready. 

Few things to keep in mind with such a timetable- 

Keeping set out timings to allow buffers. You don't wake up at the perfect time everyday. There are times you sleep in. Allow space for mistakes! 

Make sure all your family members are aware of this timetable. Stick it up on the refridgerator. We just want to make sure if the concerned people know what time to reach our to you, and during what time you require to be undisturbed. 

The second kind of timetable is what I like to call " Math Timetable". I call it so because this Timetable requires a few arthimetic operations. Nothing to worry about, it's just substraction. And calculators are here to help! The first step would be to know the number of hours in a day. That would be 86400 seconds divided by 60 which is 1440 which divided by 60 is 24. I'm just messing with you! We know there are 24 hours in a day! Now the next step would be to cancel or substract hours in order to end up with a zero. The first substraction step would be 8 hours- aka Sleep Time! (I hope you get 8 hours of sleep :)). For teenagers, 8 hours is absolutely perfect. For some, it's 7 or even 6. Figure that out and substract it from 24. So the day technically has 16 hours. From these 16 hours- get rid of 3 hours meal time, and 1 hour buffer. ½ an hour for daily activities like brushing, bathing, getting ready etc. That leaves you with 10½ hours. Now you could simply substract the duration of every task until there is a 0. 

This sort of timetable is for the ones who have only a few large chunks of tasks- so definitely not for most parents. If there are only five things you do in a day, this approach is your match. 

Things to keep in mind: 

This kind of timetable is actually quite flexible. So you can bend around your schedule according to what you would like to do at that moment, for a few tasks. For example, if your laundry time is 20minutes, you could just use to that time to study if you feel like it. Then you could just coverup for that afterwards. Though, I don't think it's especially helpful for the procrastinators out there. including me. 

Some general tips also include:

Rewards: When you successfully complete all your tasks in a day, reward yourself. It could be a treat- a chocolate or something. If you want to skip visiting the dentist, maybe you can perform your favourite activities for pleasure. Could be books, or a tv show or even playing with siblings and stuff. This will motivate you to actually finish the task. If there is no time to reward yourself, just have a nice good night sleep to calm your senses and take a break. 

Setting up smaller goals: It's not easy to complete 10 chapters a day, but it's totally possible. Start with one. Finish it. Take a break. Start another. Taking small steps allow you to celebrate the completion of each step as if it's an accomplishment.

Higher expectation: If you set up larger goals, then you're likely to get through most part of it, except for a few. The analogy here is to train your brain to think like you have a lot of tasks, which results into you working five times harder. But don't forget, larger goals, not unrealistic and unreasonable ones. That's just going to end up into you not completing anything.

Knowing the final goal: Finding a reason for why you're managing time? What do you want to achieve at a larger scale? Let that be a motivation. I belive in manifestation and visualising. If you see something coming, and you truly believe in it, it is likely to happen. Maybe it isn't true. Maybe it's baseless or based on psychology. But it's never wrong to belive in the positive. We attract what want. So, in conclusion- believe that you can do it. That's half the battle won! 

We always say, there will always be mistakes. There might be disappointments, but we shall know, we are capable. Time managing is difficult. But people are victims of habit. Let us invest time to build useful habits. Teenagers like us are just starting out on "life". Inculcating habits will result into an overall smooth conduct of any task. We wish you all the best.