Opinion: Un-Schedule Yourself

After hanging up my clothes, pinning the decorations to my walls, and setting up my desk, the first thing I did in my dorm room was make myself a schedule. I always use a paper planner to keep track of assignments and one-off appointments, but this was supposed to be a blueprint that would last me the whole quarter. Classes in blue, orange, and teal; study blocks in matching colors; fifteen minutes a day to catch up on emails; workouts, library trips, even days to wash my hair were laid out.

And I did not follow that schedule for a single week.

If I were extraordinarily self-disciplined, this would have worked perfectly. Everything would have gotten done on time, I’d always have time for an afternoon nap, and with the number of gym trips I had planned, I would’ve ended the quarter looking like the Rock. Unfortunately, my schedule forgot to factor in everything that made me human: the need for a large iced matcha at any hour of the day, rolling out of bed late because I typed my alarm into the calculator app, my computer deciding not to work just for funsies, and, of course, the random spurts of pure exhaustion. 

Instead, fall quarter taught me to un-schedule myself. Yes, put in the bare essentials: class at 10, practice at 3, work meetings every week at 1. Other than that? I say freestyle it. There’s no telling how much energy you’ll have on a given day, or if the weather six weeks from now will stop you from being able to go on a run. Sometimes the need for caffeine is so strong, it’ll run right over the rest of your plans. When things go awry, drink the coffee, take a power nap, and regroup, whether that means getting right back on schedule or completely reworking your plans. Adjustability is powerful.