Today we’re wrapping up Scheduling Success with a three-in-one tip that will help you manage all the rest in the series. To read the posts in order, check them out here:

Part one
Part two
Part three
Parts four & five

Today’s suggestions won’t help you keep track of your schedule, but they’re just what we all need to help us stay on schedule.

Tip #6:  Eat, exercise, and sleep.

Wait a minute!

I know—you’re ready to quit reading. You’ve heard these things a million times already. Me, too.

If we’re lucky, we’ll eventually cave in, try them, and turn them into habits, because they’re among the best pieces of advice anyone could give us.

Eat a healthy diet.
Exercise several times a week or more.
Get enough sleep.

Confession time. I had never followed the above advice. But now I speak from not-so-good experience when I say these three steps really work.

Not long ago, I was hit with a health crisis. In a word, cancer. Everyone has different reactions to treatment, but for me, along with other problems and side effects, it caused massive fatigue.

This lasted for months.

I became a slug. A couch spud. A sleep-deprived, junk-food-craving zombie.

Finally, the fatigue began to let up.

My first tiny goal, to ease away from comfort food and make healthier choices, helped me start to feel better. That success encouraged me to try going back to the gym, which gave me more energy, which regulated my internal clock, which put my sleep schedule back on track.

And from there, it became not a vicious but a victorious circle! 🙂

I’d like to say I never broke that circle, but you’d know it’s not true. When we’re trying to establish new habits and routines, most of us fall down.

When chemo fatigue hits, I fall.

But this is what tells me the advice we’ve heard a million times before really works.

When the fatigue sneaks up on me, I always listen to my body (as we all should). As soon as I know it’s ready for the challenge, I return to the basics:

Eat (good food, not junk).
Exercise.
Sleep.

And every time—every time—I get into that victorious circle, I’m healthier, happier, more energetic, and able to handle most things on my schedule.

One last piece of advice we’ve also heard a million times before:

If I can do this, you can, too.

If you don’t already follow the advice above, please give it a try.

Check out the rest of the blog posts.

And let me know which of the Scheduling Success tips you plan to follow first!

Part one
Part two
Part three
Parts four & five