Organizing Daily Activities for a Happy and Purposeful Day: Part 2

Welcome to Part Two of organizing your day in your space. In Part One, we laid some basic groundwork for structuring the day: identifying personal challenges, aiming for balance, identifying space-specific challenges, and establishing consistent wake and sleep times.

Organizing your activities for a happy and purposeful day

I’ve identified four broad categories into which my daily activities can be classified:

1. Required obligatory

This may sound redundant, but these are the tasks such as work or medical appointments. Paying bills and troubleshooting technical or other household problems can fall into this category, too.

Some activities here are daily. If your bladder cancer or other conditions require numerous medicines, taking them on schedule is a key activity here. Other activities are periodic as needed.

In general, our health, livelihood, and comfort depend on these happening. They are some of the most crucial activities around which our day revolves.

2. Required nourishing

These activities are no less important than “required obligatory” because they help us stay well and feel good.

They include exercise, family time, cooking nourishing food, and honoring spiritual practices. They also include socializing either online or by phone. You could schedule a video call with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Or with your regular happy hour crowd.

3. Fun and entertainment

Just like it sounds. Varies depending on your interests but for many of us, it includes movies and TV shows, music, books, and games (board or online).

This could overlap with “required nourishing.” It’s personal and flexible for you. Some people find cooking a “required nourishing” activity. Others find it a chore.

4. Relaxation and rejuvenation

This is the wind-down portion of our day. Perhaps it’s a hot bath, a meditation, a gratitude practice, or an evening walk/run. Maybe it’s reading something calming and getting away from the screens for an hour before bedtime. This category can also include mini-restorative breaks throughout the day.

For one day, jot down what you do each hour. This will give you a sense of how you spend your time. It doesn’t have to be too detailed but should reflect your actual activities. Just record – no judgments about whether something was good or bad! Then, assign those activities to each of the four categories.

Build your “trial” schedule – you can adjust it as needed

Next, try building a rough “trial” (remember this is flexible and should feel a little bit fun!) schedule for your next day or two. It’s not set in stone. You will adjust it as needed. Try to do your required obligatory activities when you are most alert.

But mix those up with some required nourishing – maybe a simple, delicious salad for lunch? – and some fun and entertainment. One of the great benefits of working from home is that it can allow us to mix up our day in a way that we just can’t in an office. Take advantage of that.

Use sensory effects to shift the mood throughout the day

Your space is your space and its décor and layout are not going to change to adapt to the different moods and activities of your day. Therefore, you need to nudge it in the right direction for any given moment.

Mood is all about sensory experiences. Think of the aroma of chocolate chip cookies wafting through the house or a lemon verbena candle burning. Colors, fabrics, aromas, light and dark, music – all of these shift the mood and can help you get through the day.

Here are some of my favorite sensory effects and ideas

One of my favorite morning moments is opening the window to let in some fresh air and opening the wood blinds to let sunlight stream through the slats. It is in those details, those seemingly tiny moments, that a mood is created.

Here are some sensory mood shifters in no particular order that can nudge your space into a certain mood: brewing coffee, opening the windows to hear the rain, lighting candles (even battery-operated ones!) around a hot bath, listening to 1920s Art Deco jazz for dinner or game time, grinding lemon rind in the garbage disposal for a lemon fresh kitchen, turning on lights or dimming them, bringing out beautiful fabric placemats and napkins for a meal, placing fresh flowers on the table, lighting a fire in the fireplace or “watching” a fireplace on a streaming service.

Hope these ideas nudge you towards a happy and purposeful space!