One of the greatest challenges of working from home by myself is organizing my time.

The upside: my schedule is set by me. The downside: I have to figure out how to manage client work, administrative tasks, develop and maintain my side-business, and take care of the daily house-and-kids responsibilities I’m in charge of (ie. most of them). My ultimate goal is to produce quality work in all areas that is careful and considered, without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or panicked. Oh, and to make some money while I’m at it.

It’s a hell of a lofty goal. There’s always the potential for something to go wrong, and a well-planned day can easily turn into one taken hostage by something like a website glitch with a “quick solution” that takes several hours to work out (I’m looking at you, Tuesday). There are those tiring and uninspired days, filled with mugs of coffee and existential worries and time lost to the internet. And those frustrating days of doing so much yet achieving so little, where you wonder why you’re wrapping up a busy day’s work while feeling so damn unaccomplished.

HOW WE SPEND OUR DAYS

Annie Dillard wisely points out that, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.”

Her description of the value of a schedule is lovely and apt (as is the sentiment regarding how we spend our days), and I wholeheartedly agree on all points. A schedule is a beautiful thing, and I can’t imagine a working day without one.

But some people hate ‘em. They want to move through their days with freedom and whimsy, letting the chips fall where they may. They don’t want to be beholden to a calendar of any sort. Schedules feel constraining, and planners are for chumps—everything they need to know is kept in their head, and it all works out in the end. If any of you out there live unscheduled lives and are happy with how that’s working for you, please, tell me how you do it. I’ve always felt less cool for needing and wanting a schedule the way I do, but I’m well into my 40s now, and can acknowledge that that part of my personality isn’t about to change any time soon. I’m a happy scheduler: I would be lost and depressed without my planner guiding my days. My schedule is a good and stable companion, that calms my mind and helps me get things done.

A LIFEBOAT

This year my schedule is kept in a little yellow Moleskine planner. It’s a weekly notebook, with each week being a 2-page spread. I can write my daily tasks/appointments in the daily sections on the left-hand side, and keep track of bigger projects/deadlines/miscellaneous on the lined page on the right. It’s a mix of daily diary and “bullet journal” planning, with some aspirational and brain dump qualities mixed in. It’s evolved over the years and is serving me well, but I’m not opposed to changing it if it stops working for me. Mostly, my schedule keeps me feeling sane. As a person with a lousy memory and a lot of pots on the boil, it gives me a sturdy place to plant my feet every day, and a path to follow when I’m feeling lost. It really is a handy little thing, and I love that it helps me to spend my days a little more fully.

Do you keep a daily schedule? What does that look like? Do you love it, or hate it? Please share your thoughts in the comments, below.