How I manage my tasks and keep a fluid schedule
Hi everyone! Thank you for reading today’s post. Today I’ll be discussing how I manage my personal tasks, family schedule, to-dos, and a fluid routine.
The biggest tool I use is something most people have already pre-installed in their phones. It’s the calendar app. The Apple calendar app is now synced with the reminders app allowing you to set daily reminders, to-dos, tasks, etc. This is my main way of holding myself accountable to a fluid schedule. Granted, it isn’t strict and some days I check it off when I hadn’t done the task, but the reminders and notifications are just enough of an annoyance that I usually will do the task. I set up the reminders so they alert me around the general time I could complete the task. Again, it isn’t a hard and fast rule. My workout reminder goes off at 7:15am, but most days I’m still in my pajamas. Or today for example, I was “supposed” to write at 10am, but I took O to a play date instead. Do I regret skipping the writing time? Absolutely not. Am I beating myself up for not hitting my word count today? Nope, I’ll try to get in some time later. I am glad I got to spend some one on one time with my oldest though.
Having the personal to-do list and schedule manager linked to my calendar app has been a huge mental health booster.
To manage my family tasks/schedule, I use a similar system. I created calendars in the calendar app and shared the calendar with my husband. Each type of event (i.e. social, school, appointments, work, etc) all have different colors. To do this, open the calendar app. On the bottom right hand side there is a calendar icon. Click it and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see a button for “Add Calendar.” For the newest update, there is an option to “Add Family Calendar.” If you already created a calendar, click the “i” icon and then click “Add Person.” Choose your person and all they have to do is open their calendar app and accept. This method has made sharing calendar events so much easier in our home. We no longer have to go over every week every single event so we can add it to our individual calendars. Now, it automatically shows up. We do still go over the calendars and our schedules for the week, but that is more for T’s ADHD brain than anything lol.
The next tool I used to create a general daily schedule was ChatGPT. I know this is a controversial topic, but using AI has been incredibly useful in helping me escape my depression funk. Having almost a personal assistant help me create a schedule and routines that work for me has been a game changer. It has also helped me with meal planning and lunch ideas which has removed a lot of the mental load. Whenever I am planning to go grocery shopping, I just look at the meal planning list and I don’t even need to make a grocery list because it can make one for me. All I do is go to the reminders app and add the items to my “Grocery” list.
We all need to work smarter, not harder. I hope these quick tips are helpful and change the scheduling game for you like it did for me. If you have any questions, need clarification, or want more tips, let me know!