As we get older, we have to find the balance between maintaining the monotonous and pursuing novelty in our daily lives. Throw in other factors like ADHD, varying work schedules or just life doing its thing…it’s even more to consider! Thankfully, the purveyors of productivity and balance have come up with a small hack to help with organizing your time and tasks.

Keep reading to if “Theming” your schedule is a hack you want to try! Included are theme day ideas, structure suggestions, and mindsets you will need for theming to be helpful.

What are Theme Days?

Don’t let the flashbacks to homecoming season get to you…”Theming” your time is where you pair specific focuses to specific days, weeks or months in the year. This has also been called “batching” days where you dedicate time to tackling a specific task. Theme blocks are meant to help people stay on task and minimize decision making. Theming can be done with flexibility (to a point) and can adjust as the context of your life shifts.

20 Examples of Theme Days

The content of your themes will be dependent on what’s happening in your life. The main goal of a theme is to serve as the intention, goal, or marker of “good enough” on that specific day.

1. Boring Self Care Day
2. Do Nothing Day
3. Reset Day
4. Transition or Phase In Days
5. Admin Work Day
6. Avoid Avoiding Day
7. Cleaning Day
8. Try Something New Day
9. Task Specific Day
10. Check In Day
11. Seasonal Planning Day
12. Financial Review Day
13. Personal Maintenance Day
14. Quiet/No Screens Day
15. Connection Day
16. Bare Minimum Day
17. Clearing Day
18. Specific Area of Life Day (ex: multiple businesses, commitments, etc)
19. Reflection Day
20. Nature Day

Structuring Theme Days (Daily, Weekly, Monthly)

How you structure your themes will again be dependent on the context of your life.

Daily Structure

For days-of-the-week theme days, having a broader theme (ex: Self Care Sunday) can offer more flexibility and a rhythm to your week. It can also help with scheduling and assessing your bandwidth when other events try to make their way into the schedule. If you are classifying specific days, it is encouraged to keep the theme for a few weeks to see if the theme is in alignment at that time. Also don’t feel like everyday needs a theme! The Nine to Kind Possibility Planner‘s weekly format has an open space for each day’s theme to be listed. The Daily Notepad also has space for writing down the day’s theme!

For monthly-theme days, this is better done with specific recurring tasks (like paying monthly bills or refilling medication) rather than broad themes. Each month, the tasks can be shifted around or you can have several “anchor” days that do not change each month (ex: paydays being the 1st and 15th of the month). Breaking specific tasks with deadlines as the theme days can also add an extra layer of accountability and make room for procrastinating tendencies. The Nine to Kind Possibility Planner‘s monthly format offers space in each day to have a theme/task listed. Recurring events can also be listed on the Year at a Glance Section or in the notes sections.

Weekly Theme Structure

Weekly themes are a broader version of days-of-the-week theme days. Weekly themes could serve as a prompt to focus on a specific area of life (cleaning, appointments, etc) as the tasks evolve. Weekly themes could be a good entry point for those that might feel constrained by a daily theme. The Nine to Kind Possibility Planner‘s weekly layout has space for the weekly theme and associated tasks. The monthly section has space for the themes and future themes that might need to be scheduled.

Monthly Theme Structure

Monthly or Quarterly theme structures are best used for chronological projects or seasonal intentions. Businesses using a quarterly structure is the most recognizable, as well as the semester format for schools. The Nine to Kind Possibility Planner’s Year at a Glance can show you how the monthly themes work together along with markers of time (exams, taxes due).

Boundaries to Keep in Mind with Theme Days

Listen, we know that life gets hectic, and when we get overwhelmed, we either cling to the structure or let it fly out of the window. Keeping a set of parameters (or boundaries) support both structure and flexibility with time and task management. Here are 5 boundaries to keep when trying a theme day approach.

1. Don’t change the days-of-the-week theme days within the month. Unless it is nearly impossible to maintain, allow yourself to work through the discomforts of maintaining theme-days. If you’re used to doing all the things all the time, time to adjust is normal and part of the process.
   
2. Schedule consistent times to multitask or handle things that pop up. If your life tends to have a lot of last minute tasks or the need to touch base daily, have dedicated “open time” for loose ends. Be mindful of how many tasks you are completing in those open times. Focus on tackling time sensitive tasks during those times.
   
3. Create a “schedule” list to reduce going into the task. It is common for those with ADHD to have two modes, “do it now” or “maybe it happens later.” To help with keeping tasks in their specific times, have a master list (The Nine to Kind Possibility Planner has two note taking pages with each weekly layout) that will have all of those “oh yeah do this” thoughts that pop up.
   
4. Go with what works, not what it “should be.” For a long time, I tried to be a morning workout person, but it never stuck. I had to practice acceptance and find a workout that suited my preferences. Sometimes the forcing of an idea takes aware more energy than the actual task itself.
   
5. Honor time limitations. A recommended task management tool is to keep a time limit for how long you focus on a task. It is tempting to keep going during a flow state–but habitual all or nothing operating can negatively impact our motivation. Stay within your parameters when possible.

Where to Start

The starting point for using theme days needs to be the lowest point of entry and anything that might have a structure already in place.

Example 1

As a therapist I could use the day-of-the-week format, and have a day for admin work, sessions, networking, case coordination and continuing education. Parameters I would need to have in mind would be scheduling meetings on the designated days and not scheduling clients on admin days. I would also have to maintain a commitment to admin days instead of assuming I would “do it later.”

Example 2

Daily home tasks are a solid starting point for theme days. You can use the Boring Self Care Checklist or this blog on Sidework as a guide for structuring your week. Parameters to keep in mind would be picking a specific time to do the tasks and if the daily task is not complete to pair it with the following day.

Wrap Up

Theming your schedule can be a helpful (and possibly fun) tool for structuring your time and tasks. This concept appears to be one that will take some trial and error, along with flexibility to adjust with the seasons of life. Remember, this is also an opportunity to reclaim the time back that typically is spent multi-tasking. You just might have that time to pick up pickleball or catch up on The Bear! You got this 🙂

Nine to Kind’s planning tools are designed to help burned out overthinkers and overdoers find more balance in their lives. The Possibility Planner and Daily Notepad both accommodate theming though their layouts and open spaces for customization. Browse our shop and try the Digital Daily Notepad for less than $3!