Compartmentalising Your Day
Posted Sep 20, 2019 10:41 AM
Compartmentalising your day, or breaking it down into achievable chunks, can be extremely effective at increasing our productivity and efficiency. The day is made up of 24 hours, that on average are split into 8 hour groups for most people. We get 8 hours to sleep, 8 hours to work, and 8 hours to do whatever we want to do. The 8 hours of sleep are probably the most important, because they determine how the remaining 16 hours will go and how we will feel during them, but those 16 hours are vital also so let's break them down.
In your remaining 16 hours, you will probably dedicate 8 of them to work, with a bit of break halfway or spread out throughout. That's when your mind is heavily active, and your body probably isn't, so we tend to put ourselves in stances and sitting positions that aren't great for our health, which knocks on to the sleep block.
In the final 8 hours, typically a quarter to half of that goes on either preparing food and eating it, or travelling to somewhere to eat, and then eating. That leaves us with around 4 hours to relax or spend time doing other things we want to do. Let's be honest, it's never a 4 hour block, it's spread out throughout the rest of the day, meaning the other blocks eat into it, and our relaxation time doesn't feel satisfactory.
Some people set aside an hour a day for exercise, some for reading, others for playing with their kids, their pets, or socialising. What's left is usually just minutes, after the other blocks have eaten away at our free time, and they don't feel worth pursuing as we tend to dismiss them with "I may as well just go to bed". So what can we do?!
It's time to break things down into more achievable chunks.
Say there's a book you want to read, set aside 60 minutes a day to read, and maybe break those minutes up into blocks throughout the day. Wake up, read for 10 minutes. On break at work, read for 10 minutes. Commuting home, read for longer! By the time you get home, or by the time you get into bed, you've read more than you would have yesterday. It only works because you're being reminded to actively use your time during the day, so you don't waste those precious free minutes you get in between other things.
Maybe you want to learn how to cook something new? Check out the recipe in the morning, work out how much you need to spend on your break, get the stuff on your way home, and already have a set plan for dinner so things go together smoothly. You'll feel less stressed because you've had more time overall to think about things and break it down in your mind, so the many steps to the end have been stepped on throughout the day.
Give it a go tomorrow, and see what happens. You'll likely find that by compartmentalising, you will have more time to yourself and go to bed a more accomplished person!
