How to Craft an Ideal Schedule That Actually Works
There’s a unique thrill in outlining our ambitions on a blank calendar. When we’re passionate about professional growth, and care about physical and mental health, the prospect of an optimized life where we have control over our time feels deeply fulfilling. And with the rise of remote and hybrid work, for many of us, the challenge isn’t just crafting that ideal schedule — it’s making it practical.
Time-blocking on a calendar is a widely embraced method for intentional time management. According to productivity YouTuber Ali Abdaal’s “ideal week technique,” we should aim to assemble our perfect ordinary work week in a calendar app, and then try to stick to that calendar as closely as possible to ensure the most deliberate use of our time.
While this is a terrific approach I also use and recommend, when beginning a new schedule, I always find there is a huge chasm between how I plan my days and how I manage to execute those plans. For example, does the following sound familiar?
It’s Sunday evening and looking at your meticulously assembled schedule is filling you with excitement for the week ahead. Each task, from your morning meditation to your night-time reading, has its place.
But on Monday, things begin to unravel. Your morning routine is too long, so you have no time to meditate. At work, you have more on the table than you foresaw. You leave later than you have intended, so you need to rush through your gym session to make up the time. That 15-minute dinner recipe? It takes more than 30 to make. The night-time read? Too tired for that. Frustrated, you just go to bed and try to do better tomorrow.
While some of this is due to the randomness of life itself, the blank canvas of the calendar can be deceiving. It whispers, “Look at all this time! You can accomplish everything you want;” but you inevitably fall short. Therefore, I’m outlining a few techniques that make assembling an “ideal schedule” more practical and less frustrating to execute.
Tune into your body’s clock and energy levels
Our body operates on an internal clock, the so-called circadian system. This system creates our chronotype — the ideal time of day we eat, sleep, focus, and exercise best. As Andrew Huberman of the Huberman Lab podcast explains, our biology divides the day into three phases, with obvious variations between individuals which I will return to later.
Generally, our first 8–10 hours after waking up constitutes our active window. This is when adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine are highest, so we feel more energetic and driven for the hard things we need to do: studying, writing, focusing, or working out.
In the mid-afternoon, the body begins to transition into a rest phase marked by the neurotransmitter serotonin, which over the next 6–8 hours gradually prepares us for sleep. In this phase, we are more suitable for calmer activities that don’t require tremendous motivation: meditating, cooking, reading, socializing, and creative exploration. Your schedule will likely work best if you align your activities along the active and rest-phase intraday cycles.
The last 7–8 hours of the day are reserved for a restful night of sleep, which regenerates the mind and body for the next day. Getting at least 7–8 hours of quality sleep each night is arguably the most important habit on this list. Sustained productivity and drive can only be achieved with high daily energy levels, so make sure to leave an 8-hour slot for sleep.
It’s also essential to understand how exercise affects our energy levels. If you have a very intense workout scheduled, something like a long cardio, HIIT, or VO2 Max training, you might find it very difficult to have mental sharpness afterward to carry out focused work. On the other hand, slower cardio workouts can help you to sustain your energy levels and motivation.
While it might seem odd, I honestly believe that lunch can make or break a schedule. For example, if you have a big lunch or one that is loaded with carbs, you feel a huge afternoon dip in energy, which means your post-prandial schedule should either reflect your low energy (for example by setting it aside for sleep or emails), or you shouldn’t eat carbs during lunch to prevent the glucose spike and ensuing crash.
Trying to make up for the low energy with a high-carb afternoon snack can lead to more inconsistent, wave-like energy for the rest of the day, while an afternoon coffee messes up your sleep.
Finally, if you schedule productive work blocks, also set aside time for breaks. This is crucial from a neuroplasticity standpoint, which is your brain’s ability to learn new things by making and strengthening new connections.
For example, after a 90-minute concentrated study or work session, you need at least 30 minutes of rest to recharge you and let neuroplasticity do its thing. If you keep pushing ahead after a five-minute bathroom break, your ability to focus and learn will dip, and your overall effort will be unproductive and frankly, more frustrating and miserable than it needs to be. You are not a machine, so design the calendar of a human.
While taking into account all this biology might seem daunting at first, I find it empowering how many improvements we can make to our day-to-day well-being by listening to our nature instead of our modern environments.
Start slow and accumulate later
Diving head-first into a cramped schedule is a surefire recipe for burnout. Because you want your body to operate according to a new daily rhythm, it needs time to adjust to when you focus, eat, and exercise. Starting anew on Monday with a tightly packed schedule and expecting yourself to breeze through it efficiently is unrealistic.
It’s more likely you will feel more exhausted than anticipated, and even if you manage to stay very productive and alert, in a few days, you might notice the discomfort of overexertion. Your body will resist, needing a few days of downtime or reverting to unwanted old habits.
Experiencing these reactions is entirely natural, as your body is being subjected to a different mode of operation. Therefore, it’s crucial to start slow. Make the transition into your new schedule a steady one, not an abrupt 180 on your current lifestyle. Prioritize by implementing just one or two new habits each week. Leave more buffer time (explained below).
The more packed an initial schedule and the more you fail to adhere to it, the more discouraged you will get from continuing. Over time, as you get used to a few new habits and become more efficient at executing them, you can incrementally add more. It’s easier and more rewarding to add exciting new activities than to have to cut them.
Account for “buffer time”
Each day, there is a lot of “buffer time” we forget to schedule, which is the daily travel we do, as well as the time-consuming activities we want to disregard around meals, exercise, and social stuff.
That new “15-minute high-protein recipe” is more like 45 minutes when you factor in prepping (like washing vegetables, rinsing the rice, and seasoning the meat) and plating. Instead of 30 minutes, the actual meal can take an hour longer to finish if you also account for the clean-up, dishwashing, and putting away of the ingredients. I suggest you time your average meals, and just set aside those slots in your schedule.
The same goes for exercise. Hopping down to your local gym for a one-hour workout realistically demands a two-hour window in your day. Before the workout, you need to get ready: change into gym clothes, pour water, and pack your bag. You also need to travel there. When you’re finished, you need time to shower, travel home, and unpack your sweaty clothes.
Lastly, for any kind of social occasion, you will spend more time than anticipated on getting ready and traveling there. You cannot leave the previous activity block until the last minute. The, for the actual brunch, dinner, date, or movie, leave plenty of time so you can stay longer if you feel like it. Don’t take away from creating and nurturing valuable social bonds to rigidly adhere to your timetable.
Be mindful and tweak accordingly
As you navigate the journey of establishing your ideal schedule and implementing it, it’s essential to consistently monitor what works and what doesn’t. When do you feel more energized and motivated and when do you feel lazier and more sluggish? Does a specific activity in your timetable match your mental state, or does it not?
For example, if your goal is to exercise in the evening, but find yourself too drained to enjoy the session, or face too much resistance to even start, consider moving it to earlier in the day. Likewise, if your morning meditation seems to dampen the surge of energy you typically experience early in the day, reschedule it for the afternoon.
Wearables tracking sleep and activity like the Apple Watch, Whoop strap, or Oura ring offer valuable insights that can help fine-tune your schedule based on how you feel. If you haven’t slept well, or feel under the weather from a mild flu, acknowledge the additional constraints and scale back work, extend breaks, or introduce an afternoon nap.
Staying attuned to your feelings leads to a more sustainable approach, ensuring your schedule serves you rather than becoming a source of misery. It can prevent fatigue, burnout, and procrastination. Monitoring your energy levels and your reactions to certain activities at different times of the day will guide you to be your best self throughout the day.
Furthermore, remember that your routine and how you feel in it will likely fluctuate over the course of weeks and months, as well as with the changing seasons. Embrace flexibility in your planning and don’t be afraid to tweak. Assessing how your current schedule is serving you each night or at the end of a week will enable you to make the most deliberate use of your time.
Crafting an ideal schedule that works is not as easy as it seems, but if we think of it as a dynamic process that requires continuous self-awareness and adaptation, we will find the process less daunting and the results more rewarding.
If we understand our body’s rhythms, start gradually, monitor, adjust, and leave enough buffer time, we can create a routine that resonates with our needs and aspirations. The ultimate goal is to use time — our most important non-renewable resource — for things that bring true meaning into our lives.
