How to Completely Declutter Your Schedule

How busy is your schedule this week? Do you have all the empty spaces filled? Do you feel like you barely have time to breathe? If so, it may be time to declutter your schedule.

We all have seasons in life that require some extra time commitments. But, the problem comes when it becomes a pattern.

The truth is that clutter in our schedules can be a lot like clutter in our home. The more our schedules overflow with stuff we don’t love or need we feel stressed, exhausted, and downright snappy with the ones we love most.

Despite this, we wear busyness as a badge of honor. I’m not saying that busyness in and of itself is wrong. Being busy may very well be a sign of a full life.

However, when you’re so busy life begins to happen to you, soon you find yourself spending all the in-between time preparing for the next event and you’re not really living anymore. Without even realizing it, there is no longer time to take a walk, read a book or leisurely enjoy a cup of coffee.

We become less and less available to the people that matter most to us. This happens because we have no boundaries, we say yes to everything.

If we want your schedule to reflect the kind of life you want, you need to plan to be intentional.

Here are seven ways to help you do just that:

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1. Question All Recurring Commitments

Before you try to declutter your schedule, take an inventory of what exactly is filling it up.

This is an important step because we all have a habit of continuing to do certain things just because it’s what we’ve always done. However, this doesn’t mean it’s still right for us.

It’s time to start seriously questioning those things on your schedule that are taking up your time. For each item on your schedule ask:

Why am I doing this?
- Is it easier than something more important?
- Or is it there because someone told you, you should do it?
Does this activity align with my priorities?
- Are you doing this because you’re supposed to, or is it taking you closer to your goals?
Is this serving me or my family?
Will this drain or energize me?
Does my calendar reflect how I want to live my life?
- Are you spending your time intentionally? Do you feel like you have plenty of time for everything you want and love to do?

When you don’t have a real reason for doing something remove it! Just be careful that if something is working well, you don’t remove it just for the purpose of clearing your schedule.

The bottom line is that if you want more time and space for what matters most, you need to be intentional with what you put into your calendar.

2. Delegate

As you went through your calendar with the above questions, I’m sure you found items that weren’t necessarily lining up with what matters most to you.

To declutter your schedule seriously consider which unimportant tasks you can delegate, automatic or drop. Delegating tasks that do not need to be performed by you will free up so much of your time.

Can you find room in the budget to hire a meal planning service (one like $5meals or e-meals)? What about grocery delivery? Even consider delegating parts of your grocery shopping.

I personally love and use Brandless to help keep our pantry essentials stocked up. This allows me to save time by only picking up fresh and refrigerated items from the grocery store or farmers’ market.

In addition, look into automation of bill payments this could free up a good percentage of your time. Even switching to paperless billing can save a lot of time.

Delegate those things not serving a purpose in bringing you closer to what matters most. You’ll be so glad you did!

3. Schedule One Free Day Each Week

We have everything under the sun on our calendars except for free time. Why is that? Well, I think it’s because we don’t see the value or importance of downtime.

The reality is that when we fill every free space on our calendar the result is overwhelming. Soon we’re simply surviving instead of thriving. This is no way to live a life you love.

To stop feeling like life is something that happens to you, be intentional about how you spend your time. This includes making sure you’ve cleared space where you have no commitments.

When you’re used to constantly being on the go learning to embrace free days on your calendar can be challenging to say the least. But we have to recognize that if we don’t schedule downtime, it won’t be long before we’re so burnt out we are no good to anyone.

If you find yourself snapping at your kids, impatient, and generally discontent with your life you may already be there. Stop letting others fill your calendar and schedule a free day this week.

4. Prioritize

Setting your priorities is probably the most single important factor to declutter your schedule. You must know what matters to you. If you don’t you’ll let other things interfere and overwhelm will take over.

Start by following step 3 above and regularly schedule some free time. Right now this should be your number one priority. Next start prioritizing the remaining items on your schedule.

Life moves fast and it’s easy to get sucked into the mundane tasks if we’re not careful with setting priorities.

This is when having a top 3 list is helpful. Here you list your top three priorities for the day. These are the things that will make you feel accomplished at the end of the day even if you got nothing else done. There’s no reason to feel overwhelmed when everything on your to-do list doesn’t get done because you’ve accomplished what matters most for the day.

5. Set Boundaries

Let’s face it, it takes no effort to allow your schedule to fill up all the white spaces on your calendar. In fact, it often happens without us even realizing that it’s happening.

This is where boundaries become super important. By having pre-set boundaries in place, you’re able to prevent your calendar from being taken over by things that really don’t matter to you.

When my kiddos were younger, every week we had “Friday Fun Night”. Fridays were always saved to do something fun as a family. Sometimes it would be as simple as ordering a pizza and movie. The point is we were firm with those boundaries and didn’t schedule non-family events on Fridays.

I know it can be hard at first, but with preset boundaries, you don’t even have to worry about how to declutter your schedule. Your boundaries stop the clutter from occurring in the first place. Our boundaries allowed us to no graciously, “thanks so much for thinking of me but Fridays are strictly family days, so I won’t be able to.

6. Consider Your Yes

One of the most effective things I’ve learned to do to manage my schedule was accepting that every time I said yes to something, it meant I was saying no to something else.

We all have 24 hours in our day, that’s it! When we say yes to all the things the end result is having time for nothing. This is because there is no way you can fit it all in and do it well.

In fact, if too many yeses mean the only real thing you accomplish is to make your days crazy. You have zero time to rest. Plus, you’re more likely to flake out on the obligations you commit to because there aren’t enough hours to complete them.

You cannot declutter your schedule if you’re not being mindful about what you say yes to. In addition, considering what you say yes to means being able to give your best and obtain better results.

Say no so you can say yes to what matters most.

7. Take Ownership

You’re an adult, no one can force you to overfill your schedule. It’s time to stop giving people permission to overwhelm your life and take ownership of your time.

Because of the pace of life today we expect a lot from ourselves. But we are not meant to do all things. We were created with strengths and limitations. Failure to recognize this only makes life harder.

Saying yes to the unnecessary depletes our energy and focus.

Take ownership of your time by considering whether the items on your schedule are truly essential? If not, own your time and say no.

One of my absolute favorite books is Essentialism by Greg McKeown, in the book he talks about being a story in someone else’s book. We allow others to write our stories and direct our life when we don’t take ownership of our time.

Today is the day to declutter your schedule by taking ownership of your time.

You can’t always be a slave to your to-do list. It’s okay to relax and clear space for those things that make you genuinely happy. What’s important to you that you’ve been neglecting? Put it into your schedule today.