Reclaiming the Clock: Redesigning My Schedule for Physics, Writing, and Sustainable Work - Nia M Wardani | A Logbook of Life Discoveries

 

For a long time, my daily routine felt like a series of fragmented collisions. Between balancing heavy tutoring loads that stretched late into the night, managing scattered midday gaps on-site, and trying to carve out space for genuine intellectual curiosity, my energy was constantly leaking. I had been trying to survive, marking each end of the day on my note as ‘I survived today’, but I finally crashed. Today, I started feeling my heart being squeezed again, my stomach acid refluxing, and I had to cancel a late-night class while discussing the removal of the entire late-night schedule with my administrator. My husband just said, ”I told you.” Yes, he was right ("as always," said as I rolled my eyes), and tonight I need a good night's sleep rather than another tutoring session.

Then, I realised that these midday gaps in between tutoring are really distracting me. I have done the morning tutoring sessions, but my mind couldn’t rest completely because afternoon sessions are waiting, and for some days they will just be over after my normal bedtime. During these hours, I cannot do the projects I want to pursue: a deep dive into advanced physics. Nor writing blog posts like this. Even though it looks like an open gap, the gap is too short to do a deep thinking project, but too wide if I just use the time to chat with my students or colleagues. Sometimes I just sleep at my desk. But they were not a fulfilling nap. They were actually distracting me.

Today’s crash, and the non-moving progress of my physics projects that frustrated me even more, made me realise that I must do something. I must intercept myself, prevent it from falling further.

I took a hard look at my schedule. If I want to succeed without burning out, live the life I want, be the person I’m proud of, hope isn't a strategy. Structure is.

Here is how I am redesigning my weeks to reclaim my time, my energy, and my focus.

1. Cutting the Late-Night Friction

The most exhausting parts of my week were the late-night tutoring sessions stretching toward 9:30 PM. They left no room to unwind, pushing right up against evening routines and journaling. I am currently phasing these out with administration. Protecting your evenings isn't a luxury; it’s a baseline requirement if you want to wake up early with a clear, sharp mind.

2. Batching the Chaos

Lesson preparation used to bleed into my weekdays, forcing my brain to violently switch gears from teaching physics to planning new materials mid-stream.

My solution? Batching.

I’ve consolidated lesson prepping and video content creation into a dedicated block on Saturday mornings and early afternoons. Now, my weekdays are strictly for execution and teaching, while Saturday serves as a clean, focused workshop for creating digital assets.

Well, this is an experiment. While I am adding schedules to my Saturday mornings, I am hoping not to lose the weekend family time. My husband also works on Saturdays, too. We also still have the whole Sunday open.

3. Carving Out "Sacred Hours" for Advanced Physics

If you don't schedule your passions, the urgent demands of daily work will swallow them whole. I’ve carved out deliberate red blocks in my weekly calendar for "Advanced Physics Reading and Research" during my quiet morning windows ( 6:30 AM on Mondays and Thursdays) when my mind is freshest, to dive into academic journals and new theoretical ideas. Also a dedicated time block on Tuesday afternoons for "Writing Digital Modules", shifting my one-on-one tutoring method to selling a whole digital product package to the mass market. This way, I am still hoping to earn money while reducing my overall tutoring time. 

4. Respecting the Midday Gaps

On-site waiting gaps used to be a trap—too short to enter deep work, but long enough to leave me feeling stuck. I'm learning to treat these windows with intention: splitting them between hard decompression (stepping away from work completely to read or rest) and low-friction administrative batching, like checking emails and customer chats, promoting my second-hand books via WhatsApp statuses, or simply organizing my files and folders.

The Takeaway

Transitioning away from unfulfilling, high-friction work isn't about doing more; it’s about protecting the space to do what actually matters. By treating my schedule as a design problem rather than an immutable obligation, I’m finally building a runway where my love for physics and independent writing can actually breathe.

If your schedule is currently running you instead of the other way around, try looking at your week not as a list of tasks, but as an ecosystem of energy. Protect your mornings, batch your prep, and give yourself permission to drop what drains you.