**How to Organize Your Life with a Calendar โ€” Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/organize-life-calendar/ Learn how to organize your life effectively using a calendar to boost motivation, reduce chaos, and focus on what matters most. ## Key Takeaways - Proper calendar use reduces chaos and increases motivation. - Identify and categorize life areas to allocate time effectively. - Use color-coded calendars for visual clarity and organization. - Schedule fixed events first, then flexible blocks for priorities. - Focus on macro-level blocks and consistent morning routines. ## What the video covers - The video explains how off days often happen when a calendar is not properly used, leading to chaos and lack of motivation. - Using a calendar intentionally helps create smoother, more motivated days with a sense of control over life. - Start by identifying major life areas or goals to focus your time on, such as work, relationships, personal health, and hobbies. - Create separate calendars or color-coded categories for each major area to visually allocate time effectively. - Use a calendar app of your choice, such as Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Notion, based on personal preference. - Block out non-negotiable timed events like meetings or appointments first, then schedule flexible time blocks for important activities. - Prefer macro-level time blocks (e.g., deep work, gym, morning routine) rather than overly detailed task scheduling. - Repeat recurring events on specific days to build consistency and better time management habits. - Morning hours are often more productive and consistent for important work and habits compared to afternoons or evenings. - The goal is to spend time intentionally on what matters most, not just to have an aesthetically pleasing calendar. ## Chapters 1. 00:00 Introduction: The Impact of Using a Calendar 2. 00:58 Identifying Major Life Areas and Goals 3. 02:06 Examples of Life Areas to Focus On 4. 03:21 Creating Calendars for Events and Meetings 5. 04:35 Customizing Calendars and Color Coding 6. 05:38 Using Macro-Level Time Blocks 7. 06:54 Scheduling Recurring Events and Meetings 8. 07:58 Allocating Time Blocks Throughout the Week 9. 10:29 Focusing on Timed, Recurring Non-Negotiable Activities 10. 12:58 Reflecting on Life Goals and Priorities Answers ## Questions about this video What is the main benefit of using a calendar according to the video? Using a calendar helps reduce chaotic and unmotivated days by providing structure, increasing motivation, and giving a sense of control over your life. How should I categorize my calendar for better organization? You should create separate calendars or color-coded categories for major life areas such as work, relationships, personal health, and hobbies to visually allocate your time effectively. Should I schedule every small task on my calendar? No, the video recommends scheduling macro-level blocks like deep work or gym time rather than every small task, to keep the calendar manageable and focused on important activities. ## Full Transcript โ€” Download SRT & Markdown 00:00 Speaker A You ever have one of those days where you wake up and before you know it, the day is just kind of over? Like, you know you did something, but also, what did you actually do? For a while, I thought these off days kind of just happen, but then I started to notice a pattern. The days I didn't properly use my calendar were chaotic, unmotivated, and full of self-doubt. The days I did were way smoother, more motivated, and I actually felt in control of my life. So, 00:11 Speaker A off days kind of just happen but then I started to notice a pattern the days I didn't properly use my calendar chaotic unmotivated full of self-doubt the days I did way smoother more motivated and I actually felt in control of my life so 00:24 Speaker A in this video, I'll go through step by step the simple way that I use my calendar to organize my life so that I can spend my time intentionally on the things that matter to me most. And at the 00:34 Speaker A end I'll go through some common mistakes or pitfalls that I've seen a lot of people fall into myself included right before we dive into that click subscribe right now if you want to see more videos like this one so the first and probably 00:45 Speaker A end, I'll go through some common mistakes or pitfalls that I've seen a lot of people fall into, myself included. Right before we dive into that, click subscribe right now if you want to see more videos like this one. So the first and probably 00:58 Speaker A each of these areas could be associated with a goal or just a major section of your life and this is a very individual thing that's unique to your own life situation so I can't really recommend to you what the best thing to spend your 01:10 Speaker A most important step before we get into actually organizing our calendar itself is to, at a high level, figure out what we want to actually spend our time doing. We need to establish the major areas of our life that we want to focus our time on. 01:27 Speaker A family friends partner kids anything like that that personal thing so anything you do for the benefit of yourself mainly so that would be like Fitness related taking care of your health any sort of self-development habits so once we have a rough idea of 01:42 Speaker A Each of these areas could be associated with a goal or just a major section of your life, and this is a very individual thing that's unique to your own life situation. So I can't really recommend to you what the best thing to spend your 01:55 Speaker A Apple calendar since this is what I normally use but definitely don't feel like you have to use Apple calendar whatever I'm using they're all the same you can use Google Calendar notion calendar anything it'll all do the same 02:06 Speaker A time on is. That's something you kind of have to figure out yourself to a certain extent. But some examples would be something work-related, whether that's school, job, business, YouTube, side hustle, something related to relationship, so involving other people, whether that's 02:16 Speaker A see that Apple by default does that a little bit they have a home and a work calendar and the these are different colors what I like to do is get a little more specific than that so for the home 02:28 Speaker A family, friends, partner, kids, anything like that. That personal thing, so anything you do for the benefit of yourself mainly, so that would be like fitness-related, taking care of your health, any sort of self-development, habits. So once we have a rough idea of 02:49 Speaker A relationships this is any sort of event that involves other people we can make one these are all just kind of examples but let's say in my case at least YouTube is another big part of my life outside of my personal 03:07 Speaker A the main areas of our life or the different goals that we want to dedicate our time towards, we can move on to the next step, which is to start setting up our calendar on our computer. For the purposes of this demo, I'll be using 03:21 Speaker A do also is make one calendar for events and meetings and this is basically anything that's like a timed event that isn't really flexible there's it's not something that I could easily move around usually this will involve other people or some sort of scheduled thing 03:42 Speaker A Apple Calendar since this is what I normally use, but definitely don't feel like you have to use Apple Calendar. Whatever I'm using, they're all the same. You can use Google Calendar, Notion Calendar, anything. It'll all do the same 03:55 Speaker A and create different events we'll be able to get a visual pict picture of how we're allocating our time throughout the week because it'll be colorcoded corresponding to the different areas of our life but again with these categories it's very much a individual thing that 04:12 Speaker A stuff that we're going to talk about in this video. But from here, what I like to do is create different sub-calendars for each of the main areas or goals that we established in the first step. So you can 04:26 Speaker A focused on in this chapter of your life and you feel like that needs to be its own separate calendar so you can really make sure that you're dedicating ample amount of time to it or for me in my 04:35 Speaker A see that Apple by default does that a little bit. They have a home and a work calendar, and these are different colors. What I like to do is get a little more specific than that. So for the home 04:50 Speaker A here all right so now we can move on to actually creating some blocks on our calendar to determine how we're going to allocate our time throughout the week now personally I don't like to go too crazy with this and make like a million 05:02 Speaker A calendar, I'll rename this to personal. So this will be anything that I'm thinking that I do for myself. Work can keep that. That'll be just related to my job. And I'll make some new calendars. I'm thinking one for 05:14 Speaker A main goal with all of this that we actually do the things that we want to do not that we have the prettiest most aesthetic looking calendar but that we actually spend our time on the things that are important to us so if we have 05:25 Speaker A relationships. This is any sort of event that involves other people. We can make one. These are all just kind of examples, but let's say in my case at least, YouTube is another big part of my life outside of my personal 05:38 Speaker A so I like to make more macro highlevel blocks whether it's deep work just the gym job shallow work record video morning routine Etc rather than having like wake up meditate go for a walk cook breakfast all like as smaller blocks if 05:57 Speaker A life, work, and relationship. So I'll make a separate calendar just for that. We can maybe make that one brown. My color scheme maybe isn't the best right now, but that's okay. It doesn't really matter. And what I like to 06:13 Speaker A this on the work calendar let's just call it job and the great thing about this is we can select repeat can do every day week month year I like to go on custom and you can select specific days of the week press okay 06:30 Speaker A do also is make one calendar for events and meetings, and this is basically anything that's like a timed event that isn't really flexible. There's it's not something that I could easily move around. Usually, this will involve other people or some sort of scheduled thing. 06:42 Speaker A or just the time that we can sort of choose how we want to spend it and when it comes to time management I would say that all hours of the day are definitely not created equal I think 1 hour in the 06:54 Speaker A So I like to have its own calendar for that and make it red so I don't miss out on any important meetings. But the reason for color coding and making these separate calendars is once we start to block out our time throughout the week 07:10 Speaker A of reasons for this the main one is that the morning time can be way more consistent so it's easier to stick to habits or actually get that important work done whereas if you saved things for the afternoon or evening you're 07:24 Speaker A and create different events, we'll be able to get a visual picture of how we're allocating our time throughout the week because it'll be color-coded corresponding to the different areas of our life. But again, with these categories, it's very much an individual thing that 07:41 Speaker A get those done the rest of the day is going to be kind of like you're coasting downhill like everything as you go throughout the day is a little bit easier so what this would look like in practice is I'd recommend trying to wake 07:54 Speaker A you sort of need to customize depending on your life needs. For example, maybe personal calendar is too vague for you, and you have different personal projects going on. Maybe improving your health and fitness is something that you're really 07:58 Speaker A I'd like to ideally wake up early but I haven't been able to make that shift so for example let's say we do a morning [Music] routine at 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 and we can repeat that let's say every 08:17 Speaker A focused on in this chapter of your life, and you feel like that needs to be its own separate calendar so you can really make sure that you're dedicating ample amount of time to it. Or for me, in my 08:33 Speaker A and we can have that one just repeat every week and maybe we can do the same thing on Sunday actually as well so Saturday Sunday we'll wake up at 700 and on the weekdays we'll wake up at 6:00 seems like a fairly realistic thing 08:51 Speaker A case, I might break up this YouTube calendar into different sort of activities like planning videos, filming videos, editing videos, just because I feel like I need to have that separation. You can really customize it however you please. There's no right or wrong answer 09:02 Speaker A really move the needle forward in my life what is the main thing I'm focusing on at the moment maybe this is building up some sort of side hustle side business maybe this is applying to new jobs maybe this is going to the gym 09:17 Speaker A here. All right, so now we can move on to actually creating some blocks on our calendar to determine how we're going to allocate our time throughout the week. Now personally, I don't like to go too crazy with this and make like a million 09:28 Speaker A to make a block for the purp of this example I'm just call it deep work and we'll put it in my YouTube calendar uh because I think I'll probably spend the mornings working on my YouTube stuff before my job because 09:45 Speaker A of these little intricate blocks every 15 minutes if I can help it. I think the fewer blocks you have, the simpler it'll be and the easier it will be to follow. And that, at the end of the day, is the 10:01 Speaker A early morning Focus session eat the Frog deep work whatever you want to call it is because even if the rest of my day doesn't really go to plan some unexpected things come up I can't stick to the other blocks more than likely 10:16 Speaker A main goal with all of this: that we actually do the things that we want to do, not that we have the prettiest, most aesthetic-looking calendar, but that we actually spend our time on the things that are important to us. So if we have 10:29 Speaker A all right let's continue with this example so maybe at 5:00 p.m. we're going to go to the gym and maybe we're just going to do three times a week for lifting weights so generally the approach I like to take when it 10:45 Speaker A too many blocks that are just too detailed, like showing every single step of every part of our daily routine, then it's going to be a lot of work to organize. If one thing goes over, it's just going to screw up the whole system. 11:00 Speaker A priority I guess you could say that way you're kind of starting the day at full speed and as your energy and motivation naturally declines throughout the day you're also kind of going down to easier tasks or easier activities all right so 11:14 Speaker A So I like to make more macro, high-level blocks, whether it's deep work, just the gym, job, shallow work, record video, morning routine, etc., rather than having like wake up, meditate, go for a walk, cook breakfast all like as smaller blocks, if 11:28 Speaker A relevant to that upcoming day onto the calendar and also at the end of the week I kind of like to do a review and kind of map things out for the upcoming week right so let's get into a few 11:41 Speaker A that makes sense. And so as we fill in our calendar, I would start by creating events for the timed, recurring, sort of non-negotiable activities. So this might be, for example, a job, that's a common one that most people have, and we can put 11:54 Speaker A useless if you are spending your time on the things that are aren't going to actually bring joy and happiness to your life or move your life in the direction that you want to take it and so it's really important to kind of take some 12:11 Speaker A this on the work calendar. Let's just call it job. And the great thing about this is we can select repeat, can do every day, week, month, year. I like to go on custom, and you can select specific days of the week, press okay, 12:26 Speaker A easy to do with social media and YouTube in things it's hard to kind of know what you actually want yourself if you're always kind of getting input and influence from other people whether they're in person around you friends 12:42 Speaker A and now we see that that repeats throughout the week, so we don't have to worry about it. So once you have kind of the main predetermined commitments blocked into your calendar, then we can start to mess around with our free time 12:58 Speaker A what I want out of life and what I want my future to look like and try and you know think about what I actually want at my core not what anyone else wants or what I think seems cool because someone 13:11 Speaker A or just the time that we can sort of choose how we want to spend it. And when it comes to time management, I would say that all hours of the day are definitely not created equal. I think one hour in the 13:23 Speaker A bit of a rut or or not in a great place mentally that can be definitely a good way to sort of hop out of that to just kind of do something something rather than sit in bed all day but once you get 13:32 Speaker A morning is worth maybe two at least in the afternoon or evening. And because of this, I try to prioritize using that early morning time to do the most important, highest impact activities on my life that I can. And there's a number 13:45 Speaker A productive 24/7 and optimizing every single minute of every single day obviously I don't think that this is necessary or the best thing to do definitely not for me personally I think there's a lot of value in taking time 13:59 Speaker A of reasons for this. The main one is that the morning time can be way more consistent, so it's easier to stick to habits or actually get that important work done, whereas if you saved things for the afternoon or evening, you're 14:17 Speaker A find the balance between avoiding the hustle culture and excessive productivity while also not just being lazy and not doing anything with my life cuz I think it's a very slippery slope between the and I've definitely found myself at 14:32 Speaker A going to be tired, more likely to give in to distractions, more likely for distractions to come up, spontaneous things, stuff like that. And also, starting the day with the more important tasks, which tend to be more mentally demanding and harder overall, means that once you 14:45 Speaker A that I actually need to do so I definitely try to take time off for myself or to spend time with friends and family but I like to do so in as intentional of a way as possible so ahead of time saying okay I'm going to 14:59 Speaker A get those done, the rest of the day is going to be kind of like you're coasting downhill. Like everything as you go throughout the day is a little bit easier. So what this would look like in practice is I'd recommend trying to wake 15:09 Speaker A something like that and that way I know that I've properly allocated that time to just relax and enjoy myself with friends and family and I can be fully present in those moments and sort of shut my brain off from the other 15:21 Speaker A up early if your schedule permits it. For me, I've been aiming for about 6:00 a.m. 15:33 Speaker A looking at your calendar and you're organizing the blocks and that feels all good like you have your life together but this is just all pixels on a screen none of this actually means anything unless you're actually spending your 15:48 Speaker A I'd like to ideally wake up early, but I haven't been able to make that shift. So for example, let's say we do a morning [Music] routine at 6:00 a.m. to 6:30, and we 16:00 Speaker A and executing the tasks or the activities that were going to move my life forward because you can have the greatest calendar productivity time management system in the world but if you're not actually doing the things that matter then what's the point let me 16:15 Speaker A know in the comments do you use a calendar to organize your life if so what is kind of your approach do you put specific tasks on your calendar I know that's something I've done in the past or do you kind of stick to these more 16:27 Speaker A General blocks how do you go about things I'm definitely curious to know and what calendar apps you're using not that it really matters too much they're all sort of the same but anyways yeah let's talk about it in the comments have 16:39 Speaker A a great rest of your week see you in the next video bye Topics: calendar organization time management productivity tips life organization scheduling time blocking motivation Apple Calendar Google Calendar habit building --- This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/transcript/organize-life-calendar/ โ€” the same content, without the markup. 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