Activities: plan the good parts of the day too
Fill the gaps in your day with what actually happens in it: a walk, family time, reading, or just a break. A time block planner for the parts of life a calendar leaves out.
What you can do with Activities
- Seventeen activities to start with. Walk, Reading, Meditation, Family time, Parenting, Playtime, Social, Work session and more, each with its own emoji.
- Two cards beside your day. In the day planner's tray, drag a Quick block (lunch, a walk, a break, anything) or an Activity onto the day. For an activity, you pick which one as you place it.
- Or draw it straight on the day. Press on an empty slot and drag down to make a quick block exactly that long.
- Make it yours. Give an activity its own title, like "Saturday park with the kids", and a note about what you want from it.
- Move and resize. Drag a block to move it, or drag its bottom edge to change how long it runs, in 15-minute steps.
- Tick it done when it's done.
Why I wanted a time block planner for real life
A real day isn't made only of appointments, tasks and habits. Some parts are activities I choose for my family, like planning something with my child instead of leaving the day as a blank stretch between calendar events. Others are open blocks where I need space to think, travel, rest or catch up. I wanted a plan that could hold those too, so it belongs to a real person rather than an ideal calendar.
Rachit, founder of Xale
The ideas behind Activities
Give every part of the day a job, including rest
A plan that only lists obligations quietly spends the rest of the day for you.
- Worth reading: Cal Newport, "Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day". Give each block of the day a job, and when the plan breaks, simply redraw it. calnewport.com
- In this release: quick blocks for lunch, walks, breaks and the gaps in between.
Plan the good parts too
The things that matter most outside work rarely have a meeting invite.
- Worth reading: Laura Vanderkam, 168 Hours (2010). Looking at the whole week, not just the workday, shows how much room there really is for the people and things you care about.
- The usual way: a calendar that only holds appointments, with everything else left to whatever time is left over.
- In this release: Family time, Playtime, Reading and the rest, placed on the day like anything else.
Further reading
- Cal Newport, "Text File Time Blocking", on keeping a time-block plan simple enough to redo when the day changes. calnewport.com/text-file-time-blocking
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