Theming your days for effectiveness and relaxation

In my book The Organized Academic, I suggest a way that we might organize our schedules in a way that makes work more efficient, more effective and in my opinion more relaxing. I know at least one other extremely productive and dynamic academic who also does this, and I am increasingly finding myself drawn to do it as much as I can. The idea is to “theme” your days. What does this mean? It means that, as much as you can, you devote entire days to particular areas of your academic life or work and focus on those exclusively on those days, with the exception of email, teaching classes, or other things that you may not be able to control. 

For instance, Mondays are my “Get Things Done Day”. This is when, even if I am teaching and have meetings, I focus on the daily administrative tasks, emails and reports that are part of my job. Monday is generally a day of greater energy, but it is also time to “warm up” for the week, and you might not feel like doing heavy writing or research after a lull on the weekend. Power through your to-do list on this day, getting as much out of your inbox and off your desk as possible. This might be a good day to plan the rest of the week, as much as you are able. 

Tuesdays for me have traditionally been “Teaching Day”. Even if I am not teaching classes that day, I grade, do course prep, gather and organize whatever materials I will need for teaching that week, and meet with students. You might want to have office hours on this day, as a way of staying in touch with students and your teaching mission. In the afternoon, I might work on scholarship of teaching and learning projects, committee work around teaching and curriculum, and I might read some literature on teaching. 

When I was a dean, I tried to put as many of my meetings on Wednesday as humanly possible. This was my “People Day” and, although it sounds exhausting, it is actually enjoyable to spend time talking to colleagues all day without other tasks interfering. It also provided me with many to-dos that I would get to the next Monday, on my “Get Things Done Day”. The same thing could be done for research, writing, retreats, or any other aspect of your job that you can devote most of a day to. 

Why is this so powerful? Well, it reduces task switching and the cognitive load of changing modalities and projects all through the day. Instead of ricocheting between email, calls, meetings, course prep, reports, classes, groceries, and laundry, you put your whole attention, your deep work as Cal Newport has called it, on one area of concern. One of my colleagues who was the executive director of a major inter-university collaboration used Mondays to meet with her direct reports, Fridays to meet with those outside of the institution, Tuesdays and Thursdays for her own research and writing, and Wednesdays a massive all-day teaching day (she had a course release so could do two huge seminars on Wednesdays). This allowed her to get a lot done without losing her mind. 

The system doesn’t have to be perfect, and in fact, a little distraction from other areas and activities can be quite refreshing much of the time. However, the focus you can get from theming days in this way is a game-changer, and although you usually cannot choose when your classes meet, you probably have more control over the rest of your schedule than you realize. You will want to work with some pre-existing structure to decide what days to theme when, but remember that you will get more tired as the week progresses, so perhaps activities and tasks that take less cognitive horsepower should be saved for days when you are freer, or more refreshed, than others. 

Although this system works for academic work, it can also be used for other aspects of your busy life. I try to have all my appointments (medical, dental, etc.) on Thursdays, particularly Thursday afternoons, because I have a very heavy day on Wednesdays with my current schedule and I am tired by Thursday afternoon. Recently I had five medical appointments in one day, and although it was busy, imagine all the commuting and waiting time I saved by scheduling them in this way. 

The best thing about theming days is that it gives you a sense of control that may be a little optimistic but still leaves you feeling like you can get done what you need to get done with more focus, less distraction and more relaxation. We can all use that.