Planning The Perfect Day
How to start using an hourly planner without feeling overwhelmed.
My mother loves B.B. King. I mean LOVES B.B. King. This is an every album, no skips type of love. Needless, to say I am quite familiar with his catalog, his music has been playing in the background my entire life; so its no surprise when I made the switch to my new planner, one of my favorite B.B. King songs popped in my head. I Like to Live the Love I Sing About (In My Songs), a mid tempo track where he sings about wanting to genuinely experience a love like the one in his songs. Which is me right now, because I would like to live the life I write about in my planner.
My new planner. My new hourly log planner.
Using an hourly log scares a lot of people, especially newbies. But it isn’t about managing every minute of your day—it’s about understanding it. When you can better see your time, you can make choices that honor your energy, your priorities, and your real life.
You don't need a complicated system, you just need a vision. Planning a "perfect day" creates that vision, then reality can be layered in. This will help ease the transition into hourly planning.
Step 1
Start with a Perfect Day Time Map. No task. No obligations. Just vibes. How you want the day to feel. Block out:
- Wake Up Times
- Morning Routines
- Work Blocks
- Breaks
- Personal Time
- Night Routines
- Wind Down Time
The time map will help to build time awareness, giving you a better idea of how you are spending your day, and how much time you devote to certain task. It will also help to determine priorities, since it will be easier to see the gaps of time that is available.
Step 2
Layer in real - life task.
- Add appointments and fixed commitments first
- Insert priority task into existing time blocks
- Adjust the "perfect" version to reflect actual life
Ideally, your time map will show where task fit, so nothing has to be forced, but life doesn't always work that way. There may need to be adjustments to the perfect day in order to add task or appointments, or to get to work on time.
Some days will look exactly as planned, and some won’t. Both are allowed.
Rethink what a "Good Day" looks like.
Starting with the vision of a perfect day gives you a healthier way to measure success. A good day isn’t one where everything gets done—it’s one where your time aligns with your priorities and your energy. The perfect day sets the framework, creating the tone and mood for how your day unfolds. Instead of tasks controlling the day, tasks become just one small part of it.
The Perfect Day is a starting point, a building block, every day will not go as planned.
But, the power of hourly planning isn’t perfection—it’s awareness. It isn't a tool to control every minute of your life, it's designed to help you see time clearly, so you can plan accordingly and start living the love you sing about.