Hate The Schedule You Made For Yourself? Do These 5 Things.
Make your calendar cleaner and more peaceful in under five minutes.
I just moved to Thailand from London as an American.
I work in US Eastern time. My body is in UK time. And I live in Asia.
It’s been a weird couple of weeks.
My calendar was all over the place. I didn’t know when I would work, eat, or chill.
So I did the exercise I take our Grindstone creators through when they’re confused about their schedule.
It’s called the Dream Cal. Here it is in 5 steps.
1) Make a new calendar in Google Calendar. 📆
Or wherever you little freaks make your digital schedules.
Toggle off all your other calendars. Then click the plus sign to “Create new calendar.”
Name it whatever you like.
2) Schedule your sleep. 💤
Create a recurring event that starts at your bedtime.
(Pro Tip — You are guaranteed to get great, consistent sleep if you stick to a bedtime instead of a wake time.)
Make it nine hours to ensure you get eight hours of sleep.
Bonus points if it’s the same time every day. Wiggle room for deviants and parents.
3) Add your meals. 🍱
Gotta eat.
Whatever meals you want to cover during the day. Put them on the calendar to avoid rushing and eating pizza over the sink like a rat.
It’s easy for me since I only eat twice a day.
4) Add work blocks. ✍️
Whether you have a 9–5, you’re an entrepreneur, or you’re a crypto bro who always almost makes $75k on a trade…
You have work to do. Schedule in a typical work week (no vacations).
Separate it between maker time: writing, coding, building…and manager time: calls, sessions, meetings.
If you have a full-time job, separate time for that versus time for side projects — e.g. content creation.
5) Leave empty gaps for rest, fun, and spontaneity. 🍻
The purpose of this exercise is not to make a rigid, unmovable schedule.
It’s to point you in a more organized and peaceful direction.
Once I jot down my essentials (work and eating), the rest is for whatever pops up.
- gym
- surfing
- more work
- chilling with new friends
- chasing local street dogs and begging for their friendship so I can save them and take them back to the USA
Anything I feel like doing.
Your Dream Cal will be different from mine.
Take 5–10 minutes and map out your ideal workweek.
PS — Here’s what my current schedule looks like if you need inspiration.
During the day:
And at night:
Time zones, man.
Hope that’s useful! ✌️
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