It is 7:50am. I have been awake for over an hour and I am reluctantly walking to the gym. The only people I can see are the staff. The ones paid to be awake.
I have always admired, and secretly envied, those who seem to have their life completely together and who have unlimited amounts of motivation. Often, I wished I were a person who could plan their whole week ahead of schedule, wake up early and have a productive day. And most importantly, not worry about all the things they “should have gotten done.”
So, I decided to become one of those people.
For one week I planned my days from dawn until dusk, in the hope that I could finally experience the benefits of a productive week.
Before starting I googled several different methods and what stood out to me was ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ by Atul Gawande. The methods that Gawande talked about revolved around creating easy step-by-step lists to all the tasks you need to do. This is supposed to make your workload more manageable. As I already liked using to-do lists, I found this to be the easiest method to adopt as I could visualise what needed to be done.
Like many new lifestyle changes, it began on Monday. And it started by being woken up to the sound of my klaxon alarm at 6:30am. My body had felt heavy and my eyes resisted opening, but my motivation for the week had only just started. I ate breakfast, which I never usually do, refreshed my mind on lecture content for later that morning and got ready for my 8am session at the gym.
I must admit, sitting down for my 10:15am lecture and knowing that I had been awake for almost four hours already (and not the usual 20 minutes), I did feel an abnormal sense of achievement. Could this be my new way of living?
After my lectures I stopped coming home and just collapsing on bed, instead I would either type up course content from that day onto my laptop, practise some shorthand or work towards some assessments. I stopped feeling guilty that I had not done anything with my day and started feeling satisfied, well-rested and ready for the next day.
Over the week I developed a routine for myself and I discovered that it really helped me. If I knew what I had to do and when by, I was more motivated to get things done.
As day seven finally rolled around I looked back at my week of productivity. I had resented going to the gym but enjoyed the accomplishment after, much like waking up early and doing lots of additional work in the evening. I would definitely say it improved my mental state as I was no longer worrying about my unproductivity and actually felt as if I had achieved something each day.
However, I must admit that the novelty does wear off and I would be lying if I said that this exact routine will remain a part of my life. It was very full-on and such a drastic change from what I am used to, so whilst I will not go back to my old ways, I will find a happy medium – and perhaps I will go to the gym in the evening instead.
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