Science Says Healthy Scheduling Habits Make People Happier

it leads us to starve for more time to do everything we need to do. As a consequence, we begin to:

• Hate the things that we used to enjoy.
• Miss out on quality time with the most important people in our life.
• Reduce the number of opportunities that may come our way.
• Suffer from stress-related health issues.
• Miss out on the little things in life.
• Not be able to take a break and catch our breath.

Also, scheduling back-to-back items in your calendar doesn’t account for the unexpected. Emergencies will always pop up and if your calendar is packed too tightly, you won’t have the flexibility to handle a crisis without completely trashing your calendar for the foreseeable future.

Instead of accepting every invite or request for help, be more selective so that you’re not spreading yourself too thin. 

The easiest way to do this is by only saying “yes” to the things that excite you or that serve a purpose.

Have an idea of what you want to do outside of work.

Ask yourself: "What would I like to accomplish today that's meaningful and enjoyable for the people I care about in this block of time and me?"

Schedule free time between tasks and meetings so that you can take a break. 

It also avoids hard stops because of time restrictions. Providing yourself with a little wiggle room also prevents you from running late to meetings, like if you got stuck in traffic.

Mindfulness is all about focusing on what’s going on at this very second. 

But, this could be anything that encourages you to think in the now, such as reading, exercising, doing a simple task like organizing your workspace, or calling a friend.