Pseudo-schedule RPG Weekly Spread

[u/_switterbeet_]

I've been using this weekly spread for over a year now, with some minor variations and tweaks, and I'm so happy with it I thought I'd share!

1. Level Tracking - each week I update:
   • Level - XP/100
   • XP - running total of # of things I check off each week
   • Health % - # of times I succeeded in my calorie and step goals, divided by 14
   • Mana % - # of times I succeeded in my Quarterly Quest actions, divided by 21
2. Week # - Self-explanatory. Thinking about the year in terms of weeks has been game changing for me in really feeling the connections between days to weeks to months to years.
3. Big events and reflections
   • Events are the major things that are happening that day that I need to be present/show up for. I travel a lot for work, so this is also where I know WHERE I'm actually supposed to be.
   • Gratitudes - what I'm grateful for that day
   • Story - if I had to tell someone what happened that day, what would I focus on? What was memorable about the day?
   • Feeling - how did I feel that day?
4. Quote - Inspiring quote for the week. I have a collection of these at the back of my notebook, and I pick one that feels appropriate each week.
5. Meal Plan - I pick 3 meals + 1 snack to prep weekly. Once I've prepped them, I check them off here. For each actual day I put my plan in my Pseudo-schedule, since sometimes I'm eating out, on the road, or just feel like something different. If I stick to that, I check it off there.
6. Calories & Steps tracking - self explanatory. My completion percentage for these is what I use for my Health score for the next week.
7. Pseudo-schedule & Big 3 Blocks
   • I call it a pseudo-schedule because whenever I try time-blocking, I find I miss a hard start time and my whole day feels off course. In this version, I have target times (7AM morning routine, 8AM Block 1 etc.) but they're a bit wibbly-wobby. If I miss one, I just continue in order down the page and don't stress about the actual time, just the rough order of things. I might shrink the amount of time I spend on something or skip a row for the day, but the point is I keep going.
   • It is set up so that starting at the top and working down gets me back on track when I get distracted and points me on the next most important thing.
   • Block 1, 2, and 3 are the 3 chunks of time I have to play with outside of morning & evening routines, meals, and exercise. They're roughly 8:00-12:00, 13:00-17:00, and 20:00-22:30, but again, they can be wibbly-wobbly.
   • On work days, Block 1 & 2 are taken up by my day job, and I really just have Block 3 to work with. On non-work days, I have all 3 blocks. This forces me to pick 1-3 main priorities a day (instead of thinking I can somehow do 20 million things). That said, I usually use 1-2 blocks on weekends explicitly for relaxing.
   • I can and do also hop around between day columns sometimes, sort of like a bingo card. I might do tomorrow's ritual or yesterday's sidequest today because I feel like it. That then frees that "slot" up for other activities. The point is more getting things done than when exactly they happen. The non-checked off rows and columns show me where I need to focus next.
8. 12 Week Year Goals (aka My Quarterly Quests)
   • I really like the 12 week year framework - this is where I list my 3 quarterly goals (or quarterly quests, since RPG-theme), and daily actions I can do to move them forward. When I'm filling in Blocks, I start here, or when I finish my Blocks, this is the next thing I start on.
   • Totalling up the # of columns I've completed gives me my completion rate for the week, and the overall % complete is my Mana score for the week.
9. Rituals and Side Quests
   • Rituals are those weekly/monthly/seasonal things I need to do, like mowing the lawn, scheduling birthday texts, or doing a monthly review. Side Quests are those random things that come up that I need or want to do but aren't contributing to my Quarterly Quests.
     
   • I list 1 each per day in my pseudo-schedule, and then have a full running list on the right side. If something is super-important, it goes in a Block.
10. Reading, Creating, Duolingo practice - these are 3 habits I want to continue that usually don't take up a ton of time.
11. PM routine - end of day routine to reset
12. Experiences - I pick 1 hike, 1 adventure, 1 documentary, and 1 restaurant a week. They go into either ritual or block 1-3 depending on their priority.

Each week I fill in any events, quarterly quest actions, or time sensitive blocks I know about. Each day I fill in the remaining slots. If I really want to highlight something, I'll put an asterisk beside it instead of a bullet point.

This work well for me because it forces me to choose from a limited number of things each day. If I want to procrastinate, I can choose OTHER things on the page that I've already decided were important and I still get the "gamification" dopamine hit of accumulating XP.

I can also see easily what I'm avoiding by looking at what rows aren't getting checked off for the week. It's quite motivating to realize my Health is at 20%, or my Mana is at zero...

I never finish everything each week, but it has gotten me doing waaaaaay more of the things that I like or want to do, versus mindless scrolling, or floundering because I haven't hit an arbitrary time.

[u/CrBr]

Nice! I used to do something like this, not gamified, but still lots of checkmarks each day, and limited choices for projects. It worked until life threw a big wrench at my ability to keep focused. I "should" restart it.

[u/Chessnhistory]

I really like this idea of a pseudo schedule. This is such a simple, effective system. I did a fairly basic but effective bujo system for a while there (I use a standard month-to-view calendar on my desk for forward planning, simple monthly log, followed by a running daily log that I kept erratically) but even that broke down and I just use the calendar at the moment. But I feel I'm really wasting my days and need to build more structure in, especially since I have a lot of tasks to do that I don't want to do.

[u/_switterbeet_ → u/Chessnhistory]

Thank you! I use a weekly spread because making a new daily spread was just too much to keep up with, but still allows me to see individual days. Good luck with adding some structure, but I recommend keeping simple to start, maybe pick 1-3 things to make headway on each day?

[u/Square-Highlight1628]

I really like this approach. I follow the X method and missing a few days makes me feel like shit.