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While it might seem unromantic to schedule time with your partner, it can be the opposite. Use a relationship calendar to make sure your significant other never falls by the wayside.<\/em><\/p>\n We live in an era when a life cluttered with meetings, deadlines, chores, children and social engagements is the norm. We\u2019re all dashing from pillar to post, trying to tick things off a seemingly endless to-do list (and maintain our sanity), before we rest, rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n Managing a relationship amid all this toing and froing can be difficult, and our partner is often one of the first things to slip down our list of priorities. There\u2019s a certain sense of irony in this: their support is important in helping us navigate our many responsibilities and commitments, but somehow everything else seems to come first.<\/p>\n Scheduling quality time with your partner, and even creating a relationship calendar, might sound decidedly unromantic and forced, but the benefits are enormous.<\/p>\n A 2016 study<\/a> found that couples who spend time together are more likely to feel happier, experience more meaning in their lives, and enjoy less stress<\/em>. They\u2019re also likely to adopt healthier behaviors<\/em> over extended periods of time and even live longer<\/em>.<\/p>\n Fortunately, establishing a relationship schedule is easier to do than you might think. And once you\u2019re in the habit, all the benefits are yours. Here are a few tips to help this process feel easy and natural.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you live together, it\u2019s all too easy to confuse time together with quality<\/em> time together. Just because you\u2019re chatting about who\u2019s doing the school run today, doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re really connecting. Conversations about what bills need to be paid don\u2019t count as emotionally productive communication. These moments are important, but they won\u2019t help you to feel stronger and better connected over the long term.<\/p>\n Examine how you currently spend your time. Deliberately tracking your time<\/a> in an app like Timing<\/a> can help you see where the hours disappear every day. This habit might help you realize just how much time you\u2019re spending working, or how much you\u2019re wasting sitting in traffic because you\u2019re not being smart about the errands you need to run. It might also help you realize just how little time you\u2019re spending with your partner, which could help to bump it up your list of priorities.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s time to start carving out some quality time together.<\/p>\n A date night is a great place to start. We know you\u2019ve heard this one before, but if you haven\u2019t made it a regular part of your life, you might not be aware of its benefits. Psychologist Dianne Grande describes<\/a> date nights as a necessity, not a luxury, and says that enjoying planned time together \u201cenhances your friendship as well as your emotional connectedness\u201d.<\/p>\n Start scheduling date nights and make them as much of a not-to-be-missed priority as you do your work meetings. Of course, your dates don\u2019t always have to be a major event or a great expense. A cell phone-free cup of coffee, an afternoon walk, or doing an activity you both enjoy, will also add to your bond.<\/p>\n If you need to remind yourself that this is time well spent, you can manually log<\/a> it as productive time in Timing.<\/p>\n This may sound a little trivial, but if life keeps getting in the way or you\u2019ve been in your relationship a long time, you might be out of the habit of telling your partner how much you appreciate them. Research shows<\/a> that expressing gratitude to your partner and letting them know how much their help and support means to you can greatly improve your relationship.<\/p>\n If you have a daily checklist, add \u201cappreciate my partner\u201d as a to-do. You can also schedule it as a recurring reminder on your calendar so that you get pinged every few days. Try and be creative about what your expressions of gratitude look like: you could leave a sticky note on the bathroom mirror, for example, or pick up their favorite treat at the grocery store.<\/p>\n This one doesn\u2019t sound like fun, but it might help you to replace time arguing about chores<\/a> with time spent doing something fun. If you\u2019re both busy with work and resentful of what you feel is an imbalance in housekeeping (it\u2019s possible that you\u2019re both feeling this), try dividing the labor equally and, ideally, doing it together.<\/p>\n Set aside some time once a week for a deep clean, put on some music, and reward yourselves with a bite to eat or a glass of wine at the end of it. You can use an app like Timing<\/a> to track your chores by logging what you\u2019ve been doing when you return to your screen. You\u2019re not only productive when you\u2019re online.<\/p>\n We\u2019re being a bit facetious here. While every relationship takes work, it shouldn\u2019t necessarily warrant KPIs, or key performance indicators. But creating time in your relationship calendar to really check in on things that are important to you is critical to addressing certain points before they become larger issues. This process isn\u2019t just about making sure that you \u201chit the numbers\u201d, but more about regularly checking in with each other to make sure that you\u2019re both happy and on track.<\/p>\n Use your monthly \u2013 or even weekly \u2013 KPI meetings to assess where you\u2019re at and where you would like to be. You might decide to talk about certain issues every time \u2013 your children, your finances and your sex life \u2013 or you might prefer to keep it a bit ad hoc. If you\u2019re not sure where to start, use these questions<\/a> to get the conversation going.<\/p>\n The irony of this suggestion isn\u2019t lost on us, but as much as we love all things digital, we know that some technology-free time is essential.<\/p>\n Your relationship schedule should account for proper down time. This means no laptops, phones or buzzing smartwatches. These devices only distract you from the moment at hand and can mean important conversations trail off in favor of incoming emails or your social media notifications.<\/p>\n One way to manage this so that it becomes a consistent habit is to create a technology-free bedroom<\/a>, which will likely not only affect the quality of your relationship but the quality of your sleep as well. You could also agree to have one meal together every day without technology. This forces you to talk to each other and connect.<\/p>\n Tracking and scheduling your relationship is an excellent way to make sure that it doesn\u2019t get lost amid your other priorities. Start by adding your relationship as a project on Timing. Remember to set it as a high-productivity task<\/a>. Then, when you return to your laptop, you can describe what you were doing while you were away from your screen.<\/p>\n Your personal life matters as much as your professional life, if not more.<\/em> While it may not seem romantic to consider it \u201cwork\u201d, taking the time to schedule and care for your relationship can help you to restore some much-needed equilibrium.<\/p>\n Want to give time tracking a go, and see how you can use it to manage your work and personal life? Download a free trial of Timing<\/a> today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time tracking is for work\u2026 right? Think again. While it might seem unromantic to schedule time with your significant other, it can actually be the opposite.<\/em><\/p>\n Do you remember the early days of your relationship, when you would move earth and heaven to make a date work? It didn\u2019t matter if you were tired from work, just back from a trip, or had something else that mysteriously \u2018just happened\u2019 to get rescheduled, if you were really excited about someone you would make time to see them. What about now? Do you still make time for your partner?<\/p>\n As February is the month of Valentine\u2019s, it\u2019s a good excuse to think about your lovelife \u2014 whether you subscribe to the idea of Valentine\u2019s Day or not. Regardless if you\u2019ve been together six months, a year, or married for ten, chances are you\u2019ve fallen into a rut or five. Particularly if you live together, chances are you\u2019re spending a lot of time in each other\u2019s company without actually being<\/em> together. Overtime, this will naturally lead to dissatisfaction in and the breakdown of your relationship.<\/p>\n Aside from not wanting to lose your loved one, why is it important to work on being happy and present in a relationship? Well, studies show that when you\u2019re in a fulfilling relationship, everything in life is better \u2014 from your performance at work<\/a> to your cardiac health<\/a>. We\u2019ve come up with five different ways you can schedule time in your relationship, for a happier relationship and happier life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"schedule time in relationship","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Relationship calendar: scheduling for your significant other","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Think time tracking is just for work? Now might be a good time to reconsider. Take care of your relationship and the rest of your life will fall into place.","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/blog\/schedule-time-for-relationship\/","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"Relationship calendar: scheduling for your significant other","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"Think time tracking is just for work? Now might be a good time to reconsider. Take care of your relationship and the rest of your life will fall into place.","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jason-goodman-0K7GgiA8lVE-unsplash-770x514.jpg","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"Relationship calendar: scheduling for your significant other","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"Think time tracking is just for work? Now might be a good time to reconsider. Take care of your relationship and the rest of your life will fall into place.","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","related_articles":"","language":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,139],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-time-management","tag-imported"],"yoast_head":"\nTrack Your Current Time Together<\/h2>\n
Set Aside Quality Time<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nAdd Appreciation Reminders to Your To-do List<\/h2>\n
Make Time to Do Chores Together<\/h3>\n
Create Monthly KPI Meetings<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nSchedule Technology-Free Alone Time<\/h3>\n