Time Mngt (Step 4): Rules & Cheats
- Sabine
- Sep 15
- 10 min read
In Step 4 of the Time Management series for Studying professionals we discuss how to 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 and you find out when 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁 in order to reach your goals.
Set up your own rules
The best schedules and the most thorough plans are nothing but empty shells without sincere and motivated commitment. You can design the most awesome schedule in the history of schedules and it would have zero value if you can disregard it without a second thought.
Wait a minute…
Yes, I know.
In Step 1 I said that a schedule is a tool to serve you, not a command to entrap you. I still stand by that, but
a tool that is not used in the proper way is nothing more than a wasted resource.
In this case the most devastating waste is your time. The one thing you can never get back, no matter how rich or powerful you become.
Understanding that time is your most valuable asset and that your schedule is the shield that will protect that asset will help you to see this not as an entrapment but in fact, as a liberation.
That shield is entirely under your controle. For you get to set the rules.
But, and this is the kicker, you also have to commit to follow those rules.
Establish your power motivation
Incoming validation for coaching.
You'd be surprised how many people do not know what their true motivation for something is. They let themselves be ovewhelmed by a hundred and one reasons they 'should find important' that they've picked up somewhere. Someone told them so, they read it in some selfhelp book, it's all over internet, influencers are hyping it up, important and succesful people are constantly yapping about it, and so on and so forth.
So people end up feeling like they 'should' have those reasons as their motivation and they try very hard to make themselves believe that. Only, that never works in the long term.
It falls flat in being the powerful anchor that you need to feed your energy, commitment and resolve when tackling a long-term project like balancing an education with your work and personal life.
Do not underestimate the scope of what you're undertaking. This is extremely hard work.
But it is also doable. I believe, without a shadow of doubt, that anyone can do this, regardless of background, age, social or economic status, current level of education or any other label that people like to slap on each other.
I really, genuinely, seriously believe that.
I was labelled a "waste of the chair she's occupying in school" at age 7 by government appointed assessment experts. I was judged 'doomed to fail' by my own university's test program (Simon Test), which our psychology faculty had come up with to 'help' potential students to figure out if a university education was within their possibilities. That same test 'doomed' me to fail before I started my education, during my education and after my education while I was holding my diploma in one hand and my graduation cap in the other. So I put zero trust and value in any of these labelling systems that will box you in to a corner based on very limited and very biased and extremely demotivating prejudices.
I don't care what their science says, they are wrong.
You can do this.
So long as your motivation is solid and your will to dedicate yourself is strong enough, which ties in with your motivation.
Coaching can help you find your true motivation.
Of course, it can also reveal that your motivation to do this actually hides another goal which might reveal different options to get there than studying. That in itself is a valuable thing to know, because it will allow you to make a more informed decision.
And if you then decide to still do the studying project, that will enhance your motivation to stick to it.
So either way, getting your true motivation clear in your mind is absolutely necessary and one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself (other than the education itself of course ;) )
Once you have your motivation to study, it will become your power source throughout your educational project. Every time you doubt yourself, every time you don't feel like it, every time you want to give up, that motivation will be there to carry you through.
So, make it a good one! (cfr. Step 5)
How to set up your rules
Instead of using 'rules' I tend to use 'promises'. Promises to myself. It feels less restricting and ties in more with my personality and character. I know that I have an almost compulsive need to keep my promises. So when I consider these rules as promises that actually increases the likelyhood of me abiding by them.
As a Ghentian I enherited a healthy dose of obstinance towards imposed rules. But as a person my character compells me to respect promises I made. Even promises to myself. I know this about me, so I used it to establish a commitment that would help me reach my goals.
Whichever holds the most weight for you is the way to go. So, time for some self-honesty here. In complete privacy. No one has to know. The only thing that matters is that you end up respecting the rules you yourself set in place.
And whatever helps you do that, that is what you use.
Hierarchy of priorities
The way I would do this is by setting a hierarchy of priorities and I would adhere to this at all times. My personal hierarchy was:
1st priority = work. Under all circumstances must I perform my duties to my job at the same level of quality and commitment as I've always done.
2nd priority = studies. Whatever time I need for my studies will be given from my personal time. All other activities must submit to this project.
3rd priority = health. I would eat healthy, exercise regularly and make sure that I get enough sleep. This comes before all other social and personal activities.
What did that mean in practice?
I would schedule my days in such a way that my commitment to the quality of my work was solid. I would go to bed at 22h and get up at 4am. I would go to the gym 3 times a week and adhere to a healthy diet of protein, vegetables and fruit with low to zero fat and carbs and zero sugar and plenty of water (and coffee, I admit!). 85% of my remaining free time went to my studies and the rest to my household, social life and leisure time.
Setting your priorities is somewhat dictated also by commitments you can't change. For instance, you 'must' do your job within the agreed upon timeframe and you 'must' perform the duties within your job description as part of your contract. So it's easy to set that as a priority because quite frankly, it is one you can't really get around. That makes this also the easiest priority to set and to keep.
The other priorities are much more difficult to adhere to over a longer period of time. It's easier to slip on the priority of your study time, your personal time, your family time, your leisure time, etc…
And yet, these are as important as your work time. So this takes a certain level of discipline, which is where the importance of your motivation comes in.
Using your rules
What do you do with those rules? You use them to make decisions when you need to make adjustments to your schedule.
Very simply, the higher the priority the more resistant you should be to make changes to your schedule or the more determined you need to be to make sure that whatever it is that you're replacing you put that item somewhere else in your schedule in the same week.
The lower the priority the easier you can dismiss the items when you replace them with something else when needed.
Example:
let's say you are invited to a wedding of a very important person. And it's in the middle of your exam prep time. You know you can't afford to lose the time dedicated to studying, because you need every minute to ensure a positive result on your exam. But, you also know that there is no way you're missing this wedding. What do you do?
For me, I would go to my priority list:
Can't skip work, because I would need to take a day off and I need all my days off to study. So those are off limits. = non-negotiable.
I need those 8 hours that I would go to the wedding to study for the exams! = non-negotiable
Leisure time: I can redirect time from my leisure to my study schedule.
Gym: I can deduct 1 training session during that week.
Household: I can shop for groceries for a longer period than usual, saving time shopping. I can mealprep easy-made meals so I don't spend that much time cooking every day. In a bind I can skip some household duties for one week.
This is a very easy decision to make for me, because I have my priorities in place and my options automatically reveal themselves to me this way.
However you set up your hierarchy of priorities, keep them realistic and honest.
And they will help you greatly.
Time to Cheat
You've done all the work and are dead set in your goal. Your motivation is solid and your determination is unshakable. Great! And then comes the first hurdle that threatens to throw it all out the window. (remember the 'what if' question from Step 1)
You will inevitably come across situations where your schedule, no matter how well it is made, will not match with the sudden reality of your life. Hopefully, this will be temporary, short termed and not too drastic. But you can bet anything it will happen. So what then?
Then you cheat.
What?
Yes, cheat!
Remember, I said in Step 1 that your schedules works for you. Not the other way around.
This ties in to the MiA condition to make your schedule adaptable.
So if life throws you a curveball, you adapt and your schedule follows.
Of course, there are consequences to this.
You are an adult and you know that actions and choices always have consequences. And I know (even if you may not yet) that you can handle those. They may suck, but you can handle them. Either by yourself or with help, you can handle them.
The 📌 consequences 📌 in this case, for your educational project, usually mean one of three things. In ascending order: exchange, replace or postpone. Or a combination.
🏷️Exchange: you may need to swap things around in your operational (weekly) schedule in order to make everything work better and/or enhance your ability to keep up. This change is the least impactful one and hardly registers as a cheat, but it does (semi) permanently change your schedule which is supposed to be relatively fixed. So for some people this may feel like cheating.
📚Replace: the other elements in your life (work/personal life) suddenly change which means you need to restructure your schedule completely. This may require a re-arranging of your timeblocks (cfr. Step 3), a change in the overall amount of time you allocate to various categories (cfr. Step 3) or a different hierarchy structure in your priorities (cfr. supra). Or a combination of these.
examples of what might cause this:
a new job, an unforeseen family thing (eg. Your partner or children need temporary extra care, your moving house, you have a new puppy, …), your gym closes and you need to find an alternative, …
🔖Postpone: the situation requires you to postpone the outcome of your goal. So this may mean that you graduate later than you originally anticipated. Which is what happened to me. (cfr. Intro).
Examples of what might cause this: a sudden pandemic, you are out for a while due to a medical situation, your family has an emergency that requires all of your free time, …
Why cheat?
Rather than completely giving up on your goal, it's better to adapt so you can still achieve it.
The 'cheating' I'm talking about here is actually nothing more than being flexible and adaptable to sudden impactful life events without compromising your longterm goal.
So it's a good kind of cheating ;)
It is a balancing act between setting firm rules for yourself and treating yourself kindly and with compassion. Just like you would anyone you deeply care about.
And with that I'm going to give you two more pieces of advice
Create a personalised manual
In your Excel workbook create a tab that holds all the explanation of how your schedule works. What you've set up, the codes and abbreviations you used, how you decided to fill out your schedule and so on. Add in a code legend overview that you can easily copy/paste elsehwere if needed.
Do not underestimate how quickly you will forget these things even though you are the one creating them.
Because you are not (yet) familiar with this, you will inevitably forget what you had originally in mind. So, think about future you and be kind: explain to yourself how things work and how to use the schedule.
Your future self will love you forever!
Dare to get help
When you face something that feels too complicated or too overwhelming to handle it alone, get help. (cfr. Step 5.)
You don't need to think 'all or nothing'. You can get help for those parts of the process that you struggle with while taking care of the rest yourself.
Help, much like your schedule, is a tool you can use to increase your chances of success to reach your goal.
Ego, fear and shame are never working in your favor. Ditch them.
Define your hierarchy of priorities
Make a priority list of 2 to 3 priority levels and define them. Give each level a clear title and what that level entails (use my example as inspiration if you like or seek out other examples on Google)
Think of 2 to 3 situations that could happen to you where you might need to use your priority list to 'cheat' in such a way that you will still reach your long term goals and write down what that would mean in terms of consequences.
To get the most out of this excercise, make it really personal. Don't just copy generic things from others, but use your personal situation. The way to do this is by using the actual names of your contacts, family members, friends, colleagues. Use the names and titles of your communities, groups and jobs. Write it down like you would explain it to your closest friend who knows your personal environment.
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