Do you have reoccurring habits or tasks in your calendar? This is one of the most important things I do to structure my day. In fact, for my ADHD brain, having things automatically in my calendar means less micro decisions. Which really helps my executive function.
What reoccurring tasks do you have in your calendar? And if you don’t have any, what would you like to add in?
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Podcast Transcript
Hello, everybody. Let’s talk about reoccurring habits or tasks that you can have into your calendar. So, one of the most important things that I have set up in my calendar is certain reoccurring events or tasks that come up in my calendar every day. I use a tool called Sunsama, where I plan out my day and they’re mainly built into that, but it syncs with my Google calendar so I can see it in both of them. And for my ADHD brain, personally, having those things in there automatically remind me every day, works much better than me having to make all those extra micro decisions every day. It’s just too many things. And although I do have reminders at my phone, to be honest, reminders I often forget about, whereas when it’s blocked out into my calendar, it’s easier to remember. So, there are five things that I regularly have in my calendar every day, and I’m going to share with you, in case some of them might inspire you.
So, the first one is a sales checklist. So, this is a reoccurring checklist that pops up. I don’t have to do all the things on the checklist, but it just gives me some options. And it was inspired by Ruth Poundwhite’s Soulful Sale Society membership. And it’s a list of things basically that I can do every day, to do some kind of sales activity. So, I can pick one, two, three things and tick them off and then I tick off the main checklist and then Sunsama, that lets me tick it all off and it works out it’s done. And it can range from social media posts to writing a newsletter to get in touch with previous clients. So, a lot of it is things that I have in my Freelance pipeline activities, the four areas, the social media, networking referrals and pitching. So, a lot of those I tend to put in there as well. But these are kind of very specific sales tasks rather than marketing tasks.
The next thing isn’t necessarily a reoccurring appointment, but it’s something I always am in the habit of doing, which is creating buffer time in my day. So having in all of my meetings/scheduling tools. So, I use Dubsado generally for that. And every time I have a meeting booked in, it’s automatically set up so that I can’t book anything for 15 minutes before or 15 minutes after. And also, when I’m planning out my day, and I plan out my day and put it into my calendar so that it’s blocked out, I try and add buffer time in between each thing because I need that. If I keep switching between, I start to sort of almost, not disassociate, but zone out a little bit. And I need that time between each thing just to have a bit of buffer time. And also, I inevitably underestimate how long things take. So that buffer time really helps.
Number three is self-care. So have a list of all the things I need to do daily to support my mental and physical health. This is a list that I do try and tick everything off, so I’ve kept it as simple as possible. It’s things like taking my ADHD meds, reading one page of a book. I’ve kept it really simple and short, that one. Choosing three housework tasks to do that day because otherwise housework definitely gets on top of me. And there’s sort of a few other things in there as well. Mindfulness, bits and pieces. But it’s whatever works for you. But if there are certain things, you know, support your mental and your physical health, pop them into your calendar as a reoccurring thing.
The fourth thing is something that actually Sunsama nudges me to do, which is a ‘switch off deadline’. So, what time do I want to turn off my laptop at the end of the day? Now, in all honesty, I don’t always, always stick to this, but I do most of the time. And having it in my calendar as a sort of a five-minute task, switch off, review the day, because Sunsama takes me through what I could be doing that day. That really, really helps, just keeps me on track. Now for me actually, because I do the school run, I do have a natural cut off time anyway, but I would really recommend having this if you don’t have anything that naturally cuts off your day. It will make it so much better for you. And there’s always Parkinson’s law, which is the work will fill the time that you allow for it. And if you just allow the entire day without any cut off point, that’s how long the work is going to take.
So the fifth one is a flown takeoff. So Flown is a co-working, drop-in membership that I’m part of where you can drop in throughout the day and they have lots and lots of different co-working sessions. Some of them are completely silent, some of them are themed. But the take-off in the morning, and I think they do it at 8.30/ 9:30 a.m. (they might do some others as well), this is my absolute favourite. So, it’s 20 minutes and it’s meditation, then journaling, and then five minutes at the end in a group of 3 or 4 people where you all share your intentions for the day. So, 20 minutes is not a lot. And the meditation and the journaling is not a huge chunk of time either. So, I find it’s a really good way to set me up for the day and having it in my calendar just reminds me to block out that time to get into the right mindset for the day. And I also love that they have a quote at the end of each one, and it always gives me something to think about. So, one they had last week was “Don’t judge every day by the harvest you reap, but by the harvest that you plant.” And that was by Robert Louis Stevenson, who I don’t know who that is, but the quote really stuck with me. So, it always gives me something to think about. And I’m always inspired by what other people are doing as well.
So, my challenge to you is to think of other things that are things that you do really often, but you have to find the time to do them. Could you make them reoccurring tasks? Is it social media engagement? Is it pitching? Which is why I do Pitch Slap Wednesdays. Have a think and see if there’s anything that you can add into your calendar so you don’t have to think about it anymore and future you will benefit.
I’m going to put the links in the blurb about Sunsama, Dubsado and Flown. They’re all tools I use a lot, even though I have ADHD and I tend to switch up tools a lot. Those ones are all ones that I’ve stuck with for years. Dubsado I’ve definitely been with for many years now. Sunsama I’ve probably been using for three years I think. Flown 2 or 3 years. So, they are ones that I’m consistently using and I really recommend and I do have affiliate links for them, but I pay for them and I really, really appreciate them, which is why I’m sharing them with you. I hope you found that useful and I will see you in the next episode.
