Thoughtful Planning: How to Use Questions for Self-reflection to Design Your Day

By Arcadia Page

Do you sometimes feel like you're too busy for self-reflection? If so, I can relate. I always felt like I was too busy doing to think about what makes each day meaningful for me. Yet, by having that viewpoint I was missing out because self-reflection is the key to reaching goals and planning well.

 

Thoughtful Planning is full of questions for self-reflection and journaling that will help you to set meaningful goals and arrange your time around what is essential to you every day while navigating the ups and downs of daily life.

 

In this short ebook, I share my favorite reflective questions and ideas for creating goals and daily routines that encourage flexibility, clarity, and calm productivity.

 

You'll discover tips on how to:    

• Use the power of self-reflection and journaling to get more out of your planner.    
• Observe your natural work style so you can create daily routines that fit you.    
• Create goals that are reachable and match your needs.    
• Get things done while taking care of your mental and emotional health. 

 

This book is specially designed for those who are burned out, over-scheduled or are intimidated by planning. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Page
• Release date: Dec 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201209582

Arcadia Page

Arcadia Page is a writer and artist from central Florida. When she's not writing, she enjoys drawing, reading, and crafting. She shares her life with her husband, who also enjoys writing stories. 

Book preview

Introduction

IS YOUR PLANNER INSPIRING? Most people don’t think of their calendar as a place to be inspired. It’s usually full of duties, events, appointments, and things that can’t be ignored. Sometimes it feels like we are constantly cramming things into our calendars and lives.

The general view is that planning is for getting things done, not creating space for reflection and rest. However, your attitude towards your planner matters.

When you plan, do you feel like you're mindlessly listing a bunch of to-dos?

Do you feel confused when you pull out your planner? Like you have this thing, but you're not quite sure what you're doing with it?

Are you disconnected from the planning process in general, feeling that it relates little to what you care about?

I've experimented with scheduling by the hour, batching tasks, and so on. But these methods have often left me feeling dissatisfied with my day. I've often found myself trying to figure out how my day fits into the bigger picture of my life.

Turns out, feeling happy with my day has little to do with what methods I use. If I want to create plans and daily schedules that matter, I have to think deeply about what I want to do, why, and the times I have available to take action.

Journaling has been a great tool for figuring out how to allocate my time. I've used journaling to set meaningful goals, imagine my ideal day, and set boundaries for when to work and relax. Having this deeper view of planning is important when going through life changes. It's also useful when the structure of your day isn't working in general.

How do you know when the structure of your day isn't working? This can show up as feeling rushed all the time, burned out, and unmotivated. You also may feel like you never have time to rest or are falling short in the areas of your life that are important to you.

This book is all about creating days that allow you to do what matters while keeping burnout to a minimum. And keeping a journal, even irregularly, can help you to plan better. Journaling has made it possible for me to find a daily rhythm and work on my needs and goals every day.

I've already mentioned that I struggle with keeping an hourly schedule. I share more about why I'm like this in my other book, How I Learned to Plan as an INFP. But simply put, I am an explorer.

I start with one thing in mind and can end up somewhere completely different. When it comes to the Big Five Personality Traits, I score high on Openness to Experience. This is a part of how I function. It's this quality that has made it possible for me to create such a wide variety of stuff.

I have tried sticking to an hourly schedule many times, and doing so has always made me feel deeply miserable. Even with break times penciled in, being expected to do certain things at a specific time every day makes me feel like a caged animal. 

I was more of a fan of themed days of the week, but when Writing Wednesday came around, I would be more into sewing,