Why You Should Live Your Life in Seasons

Daily routines have become a buzzword in the personal development world. People have all kinds of wacky and unrealistic ways they preach how others should live their lives. The implication is if you can’t stick to the routine that’s so amazing that there’s something wrong with you.

Yet even for the best of us routine can get boring over time. Not everyone wants to live the same week on repeat though for many it’s not a choice. They become trapped in a groundhog day and never feel like they have the energy to escape.

This is what makes Zulie Rane’s concept of living her life in seasons so fascinating to me. Rather than focusing on a daily or weekly routine, she’s created a three-month schedule. Zulie is a writer, freelancer, and YouTuber and found herself reacting to what life threw at her and wanted to take back control.

This is her plan:

• 4 weeks focus on creative work
• 4 weeks focus on client picture
• 2 weeks focus on the bigger picture
• 2 weeks rest

There are a few key elements of her plan worth analyzing to see if it’s right for you.

This article is based on the Mindful & Driven episode with Zulie. You can listen here or find the YouTube video at the bottom of this article.

Everything at once is overwhelming

I have 300 items on my to-do list. They’re hidden in different folders but they take little bites out of my brain whenever I’m trying to decide what to do next.

The idea of being able to completely ignore sections of my list for months at a time is highly appealing. Like many of you, I’m forced to context switch between very different tasks during the course of a single day. Today I am writing this article, editing a podcast, redesigning my website, drafting pages for my book, and then writing another article.

I’ll probably get half of those tasks done and stop because my head hurts.

Zulie’s plan is much smarter. She loses less time in her mind swapping modes and has greater clarity in whatever she does. According to Gerald Weinberg, managing two simultaneous projects means a loss of 20% of productivity. 5 projects is a massive 80%.

If you can find a way to focus on one thing for a period uninterrupted, you may find your productivity skyrockets.

Rest as a priority

As someone from the UK, I’m always appalled by the stats on vacation use in the USA. 55% of workers did not use all their paid time off yet 67% report they feel burned out at least some of the time. You are more important than your job!

The self-employed can be even worse at taking time off because their identity is so wrapped up in their business. People like Grant Cardone who tell people to work 95 hours weeks are the problem.

Whatever your situation, rest should be a regular part of your schedule. Don’t wait until you’re burnt out to make time. Prevention is easier than cure.

Important and not urgent is still important

You may have heard of the Eisenhower matrix method of prioritising tasks. Each item is either urgent or non-urgent and important or non-important. We should do the important and urgent tasks straight away but it’s so easy to ignore the important tasks which aren’t urgent.

This is what Zulie found. She wanted to write a book and create online courses but the level of effort needed to get things rolling meant it was always procrastinated. By allocating two weeks in her schedule for this kind of work, she will be able to make more progress.

What in your life do you keep telling yourself you want to do but never have time for? Why don’t you schedule in time now, even if it’s only a weekend where you make it your priority? If you make time for these projects regularly throughout the year, you could finally achieve your ambition.

Variety is the spice of life

Long-term singular focus has become fetishized and it’s hard to deny the best in the world are obsessed with what they do. Yet how important is being the best? Do you really want to sacrifice everything else in life to succeed at one thing?

Zulie’s plan has the best of both worlds. By specializing for a short period of time, her productivity spikes because it’s all she is doing. However the longer she spends on one area, the more monotonous it will feel. By switching focus, she regains motivation and can start the productivity spiral again.

You can manage this in any way you like. A classic example for me is prioritizing my social life in the Christmas period then focusing on my fitness in January. Maybe summertime is for family and autumn is for work.

The key bit is making sure you don’t let one part of your life dominate for too long to the detriment of other areas that matter to you. Planning this out in advance can help but even Zulie won’t be sticking to it in a military fashion. It’s a tool to help you not run you.

I hope you found the idea of living your life in seasons interesting and can see ways you can apply it to your own life. If you’d like to hear Zulie talk about it with me in more detail, check out our conversation in the video below.