Planning your day is a simple technique that can have a lot of positive impact. All it involves is writing up a schedule for you to follow throughout the day or week, and there are lots of different ways you can do it.
How could it be helpful?
Staying busy with a packed schedule can help distract you from unpleasant feelings and cravings to use drugs. It can also help make sure you can still meet your responsibilities (e.g. work and family) while you are making changes to your drug use.
While going through big life changes, you’re likely to be making lots of decisions without even realising it. For example, you might find yourself needing to choose several times throughout the day whether or not to use drugs. All these decisions can build up and be exhausting. A schedule will keep you busy and help you avoid having to make even more decisions in your day.
This is something that can be helpful at any stage of your journey.
How to access?
You can do this right now by yourself or with the support of a friend or whānau (family) member. You can use a calendar on your phone, write a plan down on a piece of paper, or write it on the notes app of your phone.
Here’s a template to give you ideas and help get you started.
Real experiences
"I need to have routine in my life, and it's a daily routine. So I wake up in the morning, first thing I do is drink 500mls of water and start my system. Then I have a cold shower for five minutes and then I sit for half an hour and just be with my experience, you know, let it unfold and just be with it and see how I'm feeling, like connect them with myself. And then I've got to, you know, look after my kids, get them ready, get them to school and then I come and do work, do my music work, creative work and then I go to meetings every day to maintain things"
- Dylan
“A plan for my day helps me know what is coming up, what to expect. It helps me not be surprised by events or plans. When I plan my day, I'm not as often caught off guard and I don't feel like I'm letting people down, if I've committed to something. Especially in a moment where there are a lot of unknowns, having a bit of an idea about what to expect helps me feel calm and organized and feel like I'm doing a good job.”
- Spencer