---
title: 'how i schedule my hectic work days as a content creator'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DhGI3La4NcY'
video_id: 'DhGI3La4NcY'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 680
---

# how i schedule my hectic work days as a content creator

> Source: [how i schedule my hectic work days as a content creator](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DhGI3La4NcY)

## Summary

The video presents a time-blocking system for scheduling work days, inspired by Cal Newport's 'Deep Work'. The creator demonstrates how to structure a day using a physical planner, emphasizing deep work, healthy habits, and a shutdown routine to improve productivity and work-life balance.

### Key Points

- **Problem: Unorganized days lead to anxiety** [00:07] — Without organization, days become an anxious puddle of endless tasks, leading to phone overuse and anxiety about what to do.
- **Solution: Time blocking system** [00:27] — A simple time blocking system dramatically improved productivity and peace of mind, inspired by the book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport.
- **Materials: Full Focus Planner or blank journal** [00:55] — Uses the Full Focus Planner, but a blank journal or Google Calendar works too. Prefers physical writing for grounding.
- **System overview: Block hours of the day** [01:41] — List hours on the left, block in tasks. Start with calendar deadlines to fill in the 'Daily Big Three' – the three most important tasks.
- **Daily Big Three** [02:23] — Identify the three most important tasks for the day. Example: edit YouTube video, next step for hat drop, exercise.
- **Schedule appointments first** [03:51] — Block appointments first (e.g., gym 8-9 AM). This helps trick the brain into treating it as mandatory.
- **Morning routine block** [04:53] — Draw a box at 7 AM for morning routine (make bed, meditate, coffee, breakfast, review schedule) to reduce anxiety and phone scrolling.
- **Deep work principles** [05:28] — From 'Deep Work': about 4 hours of intense focus per day, max 90-minute chunks, peak focus in the morning. Schedule deep work after gym.
- **Schedule social media time** [06:18] — Block time for social media to prevent constant temptation. Use a blue pen to indicate phone-allowed blocks.
- **Three sections on the other page** [07:28] — Tomorrow list (urgent for next day), Later list (non-urgent), and Ideas list (random thoughts). Writing them down reduces anxiety.
- **Visualize the day and include breaks** [08:47] — Schedule lunch, breaks (e.g., 30 min TikTok), and flexible time for unexpected tasks. Fill time like puzzle pieces.
- **Shutdown routine** [10:19] — Last 30 minutes: schedule next day using tomorrow list and calendar. Close notebook and laptop to achieve work-life balance.

### Conclusion

Time blocking with a physical planner, inspired by 'Deep Work', helps manage tasks, reduce anxiety, and achieve work-life balance. The shutdown routine ensures a clean end to the workday.

## Transcript

what [ __ ] time is it i'm probably
oh thank god
yo what's going on guys so in this video
i'm gonna share with you how i actually
schedule and plan out my work days i'm a
content creator i'm a youtuber i run a
clothing brand if i don't organize my
days myself they turn into an anxious
puddle of endless tasks and i just
i end up spending way too much time on
my phone i spend time feeling anxious
about what i should be doing this simple
system of time blocking my work days has
dramatically improved my productivity
and my peace of mind so a lot of the
things i'm going to share with you are
heavily heavily inspired by this book
called a deep work by cal newport i
highly recommend this book if you
struggle with going on your phone too
much when you should be working if you
struggle with unplugging from work at
the end of the day if you struggle with
work-life balance if you feel like
you're not getting enough done this book
is absolutely phenomenal so materials
i'm personally using the full focus
planner which actually kind of sets up
this system for you a little bit already
which is helpful but i did it just in a
blank journal for a long long time so
you know you don't have to ball out on
the full focus planner but if you are
interested i will leave a link at the
top of the description and you know you
could also use something like google
calendar personally i like to physically
write this sort of thing down i feel
like it grounds it in my head more i
don't know i i like physical things i
like looking at holding my schedule i
even like crossing it out when i need to
change things it just feels good for me
and let's just get right into it and i'm
gonna walk you through how i will
schedule my monday i'm gonna flip here
to a new page the days end up getting
out of line so i'll literally just to
save paper cross out the day and write
what day it actually is so essentially
what this system is is you have your
hours of the day listed on the left hand
side and you literally just want to
block in your entire schedule with the
things that you have to do now starting
on a blank page like this it can
actually feel pretty overwhelming to get
started and i do want to say like this
is not the only tool that i use another
extremely important one is my calendar
over here and my calendar is actually
what i need to look at to really get
started and scheduling the nitty-gritty
of my day because every time i have a an
important deadline like when i need to
post a youtube video or if a sponsorship
is due or any appointments they'll be on
my calendar already and that's gonna
help me fill in my daily big three which
is the three most important things that
you wanna do that day i know off the top
of my head that i wanna get started
editing one of my youtube videos so i'm
gonna write that here in number one
second most important task for me to
complete on monday is i'm working on a
hat drop for my clothing brand and i
want to take the next step of that
process what i'm going to write here is
next step aeroduck drop
sometimes you don't always have like
three seriously important work things to
do it can also just be personal things
an errand you need to get done an
appointment you need to remember a
meeting anything really you know just
your three most important things you
want to do that day so my third is going
to be just that i want to do some sort
of exercise in the morning let's do i
think i want to hit the gym
sometimes as i'm creating this schedule
i start to get a little bit overwhelmed
like oh i don't know exactly what i'm
going to want to do when i wake up on
monday like am i going to want to hit
the gym am i going to want to skate
just take a deep breath just write
something down i've got my big three
then you've got your other tasks
anything else that you know you want to
accomplish that day i actually have
something scheduled on my content
calendar right up there to post some
instagram stories so i'm gonna write
that right here
and that's about all i can think of that
i need to really get done on monday
actually i think i should probably plan
out my next main channel video so i'm
gonna write that as another task here
cool so now we have a framework of
important tasks that we need to do
throughout our day and now it's much
easier to actually start scheduling
times for these things if you have any
like appointments put that in the time
blocking system first no appointments
today but i will kind of put an
appointment in which is that morning gym
session i'm gonna try to do 8 a.m to 9
00 am and you literally just draw a box
and you write in what you have to do
something i really really appreciate
about this scheduling system is that it
can really help you get on top of
healthy habits and routines if you're
not scheduling your days it's so easy to
just decide that you're too overwhelmed
and you don't have time to go to the gym
but if you just literally draw that box
and write the word gym inside of it you
are tricking your brain into thinking
it's something that you have to do and
then you just work your schedule around
it you fit everything in like puzzle
pieces this system kind of makes you
realize that you have more time than you
think which is cool you know we only get
so many hours in our lives you might as
well make the most of them and another
thing i like to do on that note is i
like to draw a little hour box every
morning at seven and i draw this little
am bubble am refers to my morning
routine so i've got this super simple
morning routine i've got it tabbed right
here make my bed meditate for 10 minutes
make coffee eat breakfast review
schedule simple personally if i wake up
and i don't know what i'm supposed to be
doing i feel really anxious and i'm much
more likely to go on my phone and just
scroll on social media so i love this it
holds me accountable to healthy routines
and makes me realize i have more time
than i think
okay and so here's something that i
learned from deep work a couple of
things actually one we have about four
hours of intense focus on deep work
tasks every single day and if you break
that up into chunks you can really only
focus intensely for 90 minutes at a time
and your peak focus is in the morning so
right after i go to the gym i'm gonna
bang out one of my most important tasks
which is to work on editing the danny
vlog so i'm gonna schedule that in for
90 minutes and you can even just draw
the number one if you don't want to
write out the whole thing again what
i'll actually do during this time block
is set a 90 minute timer put my phone up
so i could see the timer i will not
touch my phone i'll focus on editing for
that entire block of time and just
having the box here kind of helps my
brain really dive into that task and get
that 90 minutes of deep work in okay so
next up i'm gonna schedule some time to
work on social media so as a youtuber
and content creator and even for my
clothing brand pretty much everything i
do does tie into social media so
nowadays i actually schedule in social
media time and this is [ __ ] important
because if i don't schedule in social
media time i'll always have it in the
back of my head that all maybe i should
be posting on instagram should i be
responding to comments you schedule that
in and just dive into your phone during
those scheduled hours it makes it less
likely that you're going to be tempted
to pull out your phone and do social
media or check your email while you're
supposed to be doing another test i'm
literally going to box in an hour here
to do ig stories email and i'll just
write etc because maybe i'll maybe some
other social media task will pop in my
head and you'll notice that i just use
this blue pen i've kind of picked a
color if there's no blue strip in the
box i really try to keep my phone thrown
on the other side of the room because
it's just going to distract me and as
you're writing out this schedule you
kind of just want to like literally
visualize what it's going to feel like
i'm going to be hungry
so i'm going to schedule in an hour for
lunch before we go on to actually
schedule the rest of the day i want to
talk about what i write on the other
side of the page so i have three main
sections and these are super important
for keeping anxiety at bay if you're
like me as you're doing your tasks maybe
you've been editing for 30 minutes
something will just pop in your head and
you'll be like oh [ __ ] like i need to do
that by tomorrow i have three sections
here i write a tomorrow list here is
where i'll write anything that pops in
my head that i have to do tomorrow so if
i'm editing and i'm like oh [ __ ] i told
my friend i'd drive him to the airport
tomorrow random example but i'll just
put it there and then the act of writing
it down takes the anxiety and feelings
of being overwhelmed away when you make
your schedule for the following day
first thing you're gonna do is consult
your tomorrow list i also have a section
for
later so these are things that pop in my
head that are not urgent but they still
pop in my head and i probably want to do
them this week or next week whatever
i'll put them in the later section and
then just for any other thought or idea
that pops in my head i'll just have a
running idea list so anything that pops
in my head that's not necessarily a task
that needs to be done tomorrow or later
maybe it's a mindset literally anything
i just put it right here so this you
know this kind of creates this like and
it closes the loops in your head that
make you overwhelmed that distract you
from the important things that you need
to do just kind of visualizing what i'm
going to feel like doing after lunch i
think i probably want to work on
aeroscape code because it's relatively
chill and i'm going to schedule an hour
and a half it's got to be enough to get
that all done and this i'm just going to
draw in my aeroscape logo and then again
visualizing my day i think i'm going to
want to take a break let's just take a
[ __ ] break for 30 minutes and i'm
going to let myself and scroll on tick
tock so i'm just gonna draw a little
blue line there so i know that i am free
to go on my phone during that break and
that's gonna be nice and refreshing you
know so if you buy the idea that you
only have four hours of intense focus on
work tasks per day i already have a
clean 90 minutes editing and 90 minutes
focusing on arrow skaco so i've only got
an hour left and with that hour i'm
gonna plan out my main channel video and
you know i've got little symbols i write
out to make it more fun okay and that
brings us to 3 30. we've got an hour and
a half left in the workday if i stick to
this schedule i'll be done with all the
important things that i have to do so
let's do an hour where i don't know
exactly what i'm doing let's say over
here i write some ideas of what i could
do during that time i could freaking do
some yoga hit some freaking yogis i
could do social media stuff that
actually reminds me i've got these
letters here that i do need to bring to
the mailbox so i'm actually going to
write that in and i'll just pop it over
here so you can see how this system
starts to work your brain starts to go
through the things you need to do and
you literally fill in your time like a
puzzle to get it all done and what's
cool about this is by 4 30 you'll think
about that day that's the load of stuff
that i just did and i packed in a
workout at the gym that's amazing and
every day this is important for the last
30 minutes you want to do your shut down
routine this is another thing i learned
in deep work this is mainly going to
involve scheduling your next day so
we're gonna do the process that i just
did on this video and you're gonna
schedule your next day you're gonna look
at your tomorrow list you're gonna look
at your calendar you see how this all
just flows into each other it closes the
loops and then you can freely close your
notebook close your laptop and then go
live your freaking personal life this is
a phenomenal way to achieve a real
healthy work-life balance and it applies
to weekends too after a full week of
using this system
you're getting lit that weekend
just you know try things make this
system your own i really believe in this
really beautiful system that i highly
recommend you check out if i inspired
you if i spurred any thoughts leave a
like leave a comment let me know what
you think i appreciate the support and
i'm gonna get on with my day wish you
guys the best let me know if you have
any questions and i'll catch you next
time peace