Having a physical planner and writing in it using only pencil helps me a lot to budget energy. I plan out all energy consuming activities ahead for each week. I plan to do 5 stressful tasks each day, but what counts as stressful changes constantly, which is why I write in pencil. If I don’t have the energy for something on one day I will erase and reschedule it and write something less demanding as a task, otherwise I always have to do what’s on the list. I am not allowed to do more than 5 stressful things even on a good day, because then I usually overwork myself, and I have to plan in recovery time after an especially demanding day. Also, I break down big tasks beforehand, so I can be as specific as possible with my task setting (Goblintools can help with that). I use a physical planner because it gets me off of my phone and because I can remember stuff better when I write it down by hand, and I use pencil so I don’t have to cross out unfinished tasks and be reminded of “failing” when looking back.
So yeah, TLDR: an analog planner with strict rules on how to budget energy and some flexibility to acommodate fluctuating energy levels
I second the physical planner. The way I use it has changed over decades to meet my needs at the time. But I really enjoy that I can look back on the record and reflect. It helps me know what’s working, what’s not, understand my current feelings sometimes – (like oh yeah, I’m exhausted because I was sick then had to travel and its only been 3 days of home). Helps me be a little kinder to myself, and sometimes im really proud of what I’ve accomplished. That pride could easily been lost in the noise of life if I didn’t have that longer term physical record.
Right now, I like a weekly agenda that gives me enough room to track a few things each day and a memo section next to it for a weekly to do list or whatever notes about what comes up. My point here is just that for anyone interested in such a habit, you dont need to allocate a lot of time to make it useful to you.
Having a physical planner and writing in it using only pencil helps me a lot to budget energy. I plan out all energy consuming activities ahead for each week. I plan to do 5 stressful tasks each day, but what counts as stressful changes constantly, which is why I write in pencil. If I don’t have the energy for something on one day I will erase and reschedule it and write something less demanding as a task, otherwise I always have to do what’s on the list. I am not allowed to do more than 5 stressful things even on a good day, because then I usually overwork myself, and I have to plan in recovery time after an especially demanding day. Also, I break down big tasks beforehand, so I can be as specific as possible with my task setting (Goblintools can help with that). I use a physical planner because it gets me off of my phone and because I can remember stuff better when I write it down by hand, and I use pencil so I don’t have to cross out unfinished tasks and be reminded of “failing” when looking back.
So yeah, TLDR: an analog planner with strict rules on how to budget energy and some flexibility to acommodate fluctuating energy levels
I second the physical planner. The way I use it has changed over decades to meet my needs at the time. But I really enjoy that I can look back on the record and reflect. It helps me know what’s working, what’s not, understand my current feelings sometimes – (like oh yeah, I’m exhausted because I was sick then had to travel and its only been 3 days of home). Helps me be a little kinder to myself, and sometimes im really proud of what I’ve accomplished. That pride could easily been lost in the noise of life if I didn’t have that longer term physical record.
Right now, I like a weekly agenda that gives me enough room to track a few things each day and a memo section next to it for a weekly to do list or whatever notes about what comes up. My point here is just that for anyone interested in such a habit, you dont need to allocate a lot of time to make it useful to you.