Organize Your Life: The Core Calendar Advantage | Volume 4

My systematic approach to daily organization through a personal “Core Calendar.” A digital tool combining routines, events, and colour coding for clarity. So I can see how much time I really have.

‘You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.’
James Clear | Atomic Habits

My Quest

To share with you, bit by bit, my system for designing my days (or designerating, as I call it, because I’m silly). This is firstly to help those who struggle with adulting on the regs, and also for myself to see where I can improve my system.

If you would prefer a shortened, easy-read summary of this article, head right to the end.

The Catch Up Session

If you’ve not read the three previous installments, fear not! Here’s the quick version.

I have three processes that work together to keep my head and life in order.

1. My Action Process
2. My Core Calendar
3. My Day Design Process

In volume one to three of this blog series, I covered the first, My Action Process. Which is how I process all my tasks to get them out of my head and in a position to be completed. This separated into three activities, which I summarise below.

Considered capturing

• Capture all your thoughts and tasks in inboxes

Assessing

• Put all of your electronic and physical inboxes in priority order. 
• Your most important inbox gets checked first
• Your Capture To Do List must be last 
• Decide how many times a day you are going to check them all (schedule this time into your calendar if it helps). 
• Assess what your ‘things to do’ are by going through each item in each inbox, one at a time, in order. 
• For each item either delete, throw, file, do (quick actions), schedule, or make an action from it (add it to your To Do / Action List).

Placing

• Decide if your task is an event, a one off, the start of a new project or part of an existing project.
• Put events in your calendar, one off tasks on a list called Single Actions, and project tasks in a corresponding Project Section/List in your Task Management system.
• Keep all projects distinct, but order them in areas of responsibility so you can find them easily.
• Mark tasks with a date you need to complete or start them by
• Add one mark to the tasks you want to get done this week and another for this month  
• Think about how long the tasks you want to get done this week will take

Making Time

My Core Calendar is a digital calendar that relieves me from the burden of remembering what’s next. Some people have a built in calendar (in their noodle), a fairly solid concept of time passing, and how long things will take. You can spot these people because they are on time for stuff, naturally, and don’t celebrate it every time due to the rarity of the event. I am not one of those people. My super power was imagining I could do my daily morning routine in 15 minutes every day without fail, then failing, daily.

I decided I needed a visual representation of my day that could flex. I wanted to see how long things take so I could more easily visualise how much time I really had.

I tried doing this in a notebook, on a physical calendar, on beautifully designed sheets with post-its everywhere (with highlighter pens stuffed in every pocket). I tried for years, decades even, but the system didn’t bend, it only broke, repeatedly. Plus, it just took so much time! So I bit the bullet, licked my time-wasting wounds and went digital (for shame).

My digital calendar contains the three things I need it to:

1. All of my routines and how long they will take in time blocks
2. Specific events that are set in time (meetings, gigs, appointments).

(And the most important thing…)

3. The blank space that shows me, realistically, the time I have for life or work tasks

People who see my calendar now can be shocked at how ‘full’ and overwhelming it looks, but my calendar is not full of tasks. It’s just full of time blocks. So it looks scary, but it isn’t really. I have simply outsourced all things related to time and memory, because my brain really struggles with those functions. It holds everything so I don’t have to, freeing up my mind to wander, create and be realistic about the time I have. It also helps me relax in the moment, because I have a clearer understanding of what my day involves.

Blocks of Time & Colour

I use colour coding in my calendar so that I can easily see different blocks and understand which type of routines they are. It also means I can easily see if I’m off balance doing too much of one thing (usually work) and not enough of another (usually caring and wellbeing). Some routines run more than once a day and contain different habits, so I also use emojis, where possible (rather than words), to show me which routine the block is for, quickly. This makes it more accessible for my dyslexic brain. I can also make sure that all of the important areas of my life are getting the time they need. Below are my routine blocks and some examples of the stuff that’s in them:

Joy | Reading (audio and paper), playing piano, singing, sketch book scribbles, writing, chatting, watching crime dramas

Caring | Looking after dogs, hands-on parenting (quality time), wifeing, family time  

System | Running my Action Process, updating my Core Calendar, designing my days, getting ready to walk out the door

Work | Book Design, Freelance Work, Promotion, Prospecting, Passive Income

Wellbeing | Eating, walking, meditating, napping, sleeping

Ritual | Affirmations, journaling, self care, morning routine, bedtime routine

Come and Go | Commuting, traveling, picking up, dropping off

Maintenance | Preparing meals, decluttering, tidying, cleaning, dishes, laundry, shopping

If a time block is an event, like going to my sister’s house for fish, chips and chats, I mark it with a calendar emoji and a word description and colour code it to the Joy time block.

📅 CHIPPY TEA WITH SURGE

I also duplicate it and add it as an All Day Event in my Google calendar, so that I have an easy overview of what is going on each day and week without having to look too closely.

Every day is different, bugger

The hard part is that sometimes I wish life was just identical week days and repeatable weekends. Just two beautifully orderly sets of routine blocks, no interruptions and a predictable life, but alas, nope. Although, that would be dull wouldn’t it? With a blended family, after school clubs and hybrid working there are no two days in my week that are the same. Although, they do repeat every week or fortnight, usually. So, I use repeating calendar ‘Events’ as my time blocks and edit and adjust them when I need to.

The evolution revolution

My routines and time blocks didn’t get loaded into Google calendar over a weekend. It’s taken a long time to evolve them. I knew it was working for me when I started managing to shower most days. The problem with suggesting A Core Calendar to people is that it’s not a ‘fun’ project, because it has no end point. It’s not something that will ever be ‘done’ because life is constantly growing and evolving, but that’s a good thing. My calendar is almost exactly how I want it, but in a year something will be different and it’ll look nothing like it does now, and that’s exciting. If a routine changes I just update my blocks. If I’m frequently missing a planned routine block because life is not playing ball, then I just make a note that I need to adjust it. It’s usually because I’ve been unrealistic with the time it will take, or I don’t have the energy for the task at that point of the day. My motivation then dips and I skip it. So, rather than beating myself up like I used to, I treat it like a problem that has a solution I haven’t figured out yet. I change things up, step back and have a little edit. Then try again. It’s not just routines though, it’s about making sure my life is full of the things that are important to me and minimising the time spent on less valuable stuff.

The Separation of Church and State

One of my biggest breakthroughs with organising time was deciding that if I repeated anything every day or week it WAS NOT a task/action and it needed to be a routine. 

I used to spend huge amounts of time re-completing chores on my to do list and it would feel good because I could tick something off that list. Then, the next day, or hour, they’d be back, and the stuff I felt too exhausted to do (but was more important) was still there on the list.

Now I have the bare minimum of Maintenance Time Blocks in my day (which for me is four chunks and adds up to 1.5 hours daily) so none of the following habits go on my task list. Ever. 

• Putting a wash on
• Folding my clothes (I cut out folding other peoples after an emergency family meeting)
• Cooking dinner
• Doing dishes
• Bin related nonsense
• Meal planning
• Grocery shopping
• Hoovering
• Dusting
• Tidying
• Cleaning
• Budgeting

I also don’t put specific tasks into my calendar with the only exception being if something falls into my lap today that has to get done today. I colour code these in red so I don’t miss them. I check my calendar like a teen checks their socials, so I know I’ll see it.

While I don’t put tasks in my calendar, I do have Task Time Blocks (of course I do) and I’ll cover these in my final installment, the Day Design Process, next time.

Want to give it a go?

If you want to have a go at making your own Core Calendar, then you have to start small and build up one routine block at a time. The target is to have all of your time that is not ‘free’ allocated for and blocked out. If you have a ‘problem’ area of your day, where time always gets away from you, I would start there. Really study what you are doing and how long it is taking by filling out a Routine Design sheet (you can download yours for FREE at the end of this article).

Routines you could start with:

• If you’re always stressed getting out the door for work . . .  develop your morning routine
• If you’re late for all your meetings/appointments . . . develop a realistic getting-ready-to-go routine
• If your inboxes are a mess . . . work on your Assess & Place routine (see Volume 2)
• If family meal time is a major pain in the butt . . . focus on your dinner time routine
• If you never seem to get to bed on time . . . develop your bedtime routine

Once you’ve got your first time block sorted you can add more in. I leave a 15 minute buffer between every 1 -2 blocks to cover ‘life’ happening. If you tightly pack your routines you’ll not have enough flexibility in the system and stress will creep in.

When you have all of your routines in you know any blank space is there for whatever you need or want to do. This is the time we play with in the Day Design Process.

Designing a Routine

Use my Routine Design sheet to help design your own routines if you need. The sheet explains it all and is easy to follow, but here’s a breakdown for now:

1. Define the problem and how much time you have
2. Brainstorm what you’d love to have in your routine if it ran perfectly (or how you’d like to feel).
3. Put each section of the routine in an order you’d like to try and how long each activity will take (making sure it adds up to the time you have available for that block)
4. Run your routine for 3 days and note how long things actually took – no judgement.
5. Referencing your initial problem, look at what worked, what didn’t work and what you could adjust, cut or add
6. Write down the adjusted routine
7. Run your routine for another 3 days 
8. Check back in with your problem, if it’s still a problem, repeat steps 5 – 8 as often as you need. If you’ve resolved the problem head to Step 9. 
9. Add the time block into your Google calendar and name it. In the description write the order your routine goes in so that you can reference it as you get it in your muscle memory.

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Summary

• A Core Calendar is a digital calendar that is filled with all of your daily routines and planned events, with blank spaces left as the time you can complete tasks in.
• Daily routines are colour coded depending on life area 
• Refer to the colours to make sure your week has a good balance of things you have to do and things you want to do
• Have routines for anything you repeat daily or weekly to keep them off your task list
• Adjust your time blocks and routines whenever you need to
• Start small and use the FREE Routine Design sheet below to start building your own Core Calendar

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Free Stuff Time!

Oh how I love a bit of free stuff! If you’re starting out on your organizing journey, and you’re a pen and paper fan, I have a simple, beautiful Routine Design sheet that you can download and print out. Join the Free Designerating Membership, where in exchange for your email address (just for me) you’ll have access to my Members’ Area (and download the printable files for free).