There is a way of working in between too much rigidity and too much flexibility and distraction.There are ways to help you make the schedule your own in such a way that even with distractions and everything else that happens along the way,  you won’t abandon it.

I have found the first and most important step to help yourself stay on track is to align yourself with the reason why you want to stick to your schedule. There is a purpose to all of this! Elements that make up this purpose may include caring about your academic performance (your schedule will help you focus, and go deep intellectually), your productivity (your schedule will help you get the most out of your day by using your mental energy well), work-life balance (oh yeah, you get to relax too!), motivation and mood (your schedule will help you keep going, reward you with small accomplishments, and make sure you don’t over or under-do) or feeling more in control of your workday (no more aimless, endless days). Perhaps it is simply ‘because it works’.

The only answer to steer clear of would be because you think you ‘should’ follow the schedule or because it’s ‘good for you’. It’s too moralistic, too judgmental. We’re trying to get away from the ‘shoulds’. Find out what your real, profound and more positive reasons are, and let them carry you. It helps to actively connect and align with those reasons of performance, or productivity, or self-care or high energy or whatever it is for you at the beginning of the day. It will be far easier to resist distraction and temptation.

The second step is to prepare for distractions. Personally, it helped me tremendously to use Freedom to switch off my access to the Internet for set periods of time, whenever I was working on finishing a chapter. When my work was relatively easy, I didn’t really need Freedom, but when it got hard, oh yes. The harder the thinking I had to do, the more I was drawn to any online distraction. Freedom helped me keep focused on my work. I also set clear boundaries: my mornings were strictly for work, and I would not be answering the phone or be available to chat. Whenever someone called I would either not pick up the phone (I am from the landline generation, very 90s), or I would tell him or her I would call back later. Being hard-core about my mornings made the rest of the day much easier. If there were distractions in the afternoon I couldn’t or didn’t want to say no to, I didn’t feel bad, because I knew I had already gotten my most important work done in the morning. Any real progress in the afternoon was a bonus. Find out which hours of the day you could devote to work no-exceptions-allowed, and how you could deal with distractions during those hours. 

The third step is to know your weak spots. Do you have any? When I was working on my PhD my two weak spots were: not knowing when to stop, and my energy levels. I found myself skipping breaks and working late and becoming increasingly exhausted. What I did to overcome these issues was to work with a timer, reminding me to take a break every 45 minutes, and a calendar message that popped up every day at 3 p.m. to remind me my workday was over. I feel a little stupid admitting I needed these tools, but there you have it: I used these tools and they worked for me. As for my energy levels: it was important for me to make exercise accessible, as I didn’t have the energy to go to the gym at the end of a workday. So, what I did is turn the music up and jump and jog around for 20 minutes (I used a heart rate monitor to make sure I was exercising in the zone). Exercise done. It was also important to be compassionate and take extra days off when I needed them. Really difficult mentally, but essential. These are just a few simple examples of what worked for me. What are your weak spots? And how could you work with/ around them?

The final step is to decide to stop messing around. It was a profound decision for me, and one I am happy I made (don’t think I would have finished my PhD otherwise). That doesn’t mean I was rigid and strict about my schedule. There were days and weeks in which I didn’t stick to my schedule and when exercise, breaks, stopping on time and meditation slipped. Some days something else, such as going for a coffee with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages was more important than sticking to my schedule. But it was (almost) always a conscious decision. And no matter what: I knew I was on track. I had a system in place that worked for me, and I could say no to people and distractions if I wanted to. I was in charge of my day, and it felt good.

One note of caution when implementing these steps: go gently. Don’t make this about ‘forcing’ yourself to stick to your schedule. Rather allow your schedule to create the structure for your ideal workday. A workday that you look forward to, because it allows you to get a whole lot of work done, while keeping you in a good place mentally and emotionally. Discipline is good and useful, but being overly strict with yourself isn’t. If you don’t yet enjoy the structure of your day play around with it until you find a way that works for you!