How should I schedule my day?

Sep 05, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – Deep in the Himalayas, I once visited a Hindu guru and asked him, “Guru, how should I schedule my day?”

He looked at me for a moment, smiled, and asked, “What is it that you want to schedule?”

“My day,” I replied. “I want to organise my time better. There is so much to do and so little time. I want to know when I should work, when I should rest, when I should pray, when I should exercise and when I should spend time with my family.”

The guru smiled. “You have come to me asking how to schedule your day,” he said, “but perhaps the better question is how to live your day.”

I waited.

“In the morning,” he said, “do not begin by giving your mind to the world. Give the first part of your day to yourself and to God.”

He explained that Hindu tradition regards the period before sunrise, Brahma Muhurta, as especially suitable for meditation, prayer and reflection. Before the demands of work, telephone calls, emails and social media begin clamouring for our attention, there should be a moment when we simply remember that we have been given another day.

“Wake with gratitude,” he said. “You have been given something that many people did not receive today—the opportunity to see another sunrise.”

Then, he said, prepare yourself physically. Bathe. Exercise. Practise yoga if you wish. Sit quietly. Pray. Read something that elevates the mind. Repeat a mantra. It matters less what form the practice takes than that you begin the day deliberately rather than allowing the day to begin by overwhelming you.

“And then?” I asked. “Work.”

I was expecting something more mystical.

The guru laughed.

“Work is not the enemy of spirituality. Your attitude toward work is what matters.”

He spoke of dharma, our duties and responsibilities and of karma yoga, the discipline taught in the Bhagavad Gita of performing one’s duty without becoming consumed by the fruits of one’s actions.

“Do your work well,” he said. “Do it honestly. Give it your best. But do not allow success to make you arrogant or failure to make you miserable. You control your effort. You do not control every result.”

I thought about how much anxiety in modern life comes from precisely the opposite attitude. We spend enormous energy trying to control outcomes over which we have little or no control.

The guru continued.

“When you eat, eat with gratitude. Do not merely put food into your body while your mind is somewhere else. Remember those who produced it. Remember that food sustains life. If you can, offer it to God before you eat.”

He was not advocating an escape from the world. Quite the opposite. He reminded me that Hinduism sees family, community and social responsibility as important parts of a meaningful life. Caring for one’s parents, raising one’s children, treating employees fairly, helping a neighbour and contributing to society are not distractions from spirituality. They can themselves become spiritual acts.

“Then comes evening,” he said.

“Why is evening important?”

“Because every day should have a time when you stop moving outward and begin looking inward.”

At sunset, he explained, traditional Hindu practice provides another opportunity for sandhya—prayer, meditation and reflection. It is a pause between the day’s activity and the night’s rest.

And before sleep, he suggested, one should conduct what amounts to a personal audit. “Ask yourself,” he said, “Was I truthful today? Did I hurt anyone unnecessarily? Was anger in control of me? Did I fulfil my responsibilities? Did I help someone? Did I waste too much time? Did I remember what is truly important?”

Then, he said, let the day go.

“Do not take today’s failures into tomorrow. And do not become intoxicated by today’s successes. Both will pass.”

As I left, I realised the guru had not really given me a timetable. He had given me a philosophy of time. We often think of a successful day as one in which we have accomplished everything on our list. Hindu wisdom suggests a good day is one in which we have performed our duties, cared for those entrusted to us, cultivated our minds, controlled our impulses, served others and remained conscious of something larger than ourselves.

There is also a deeper Hindu teaching behind this approach. Human life, according to the traditional concept of the purusharthas, has four legitimate aims goals and aims of human life, all designed to guide a balanced, meaningful, and ethical existence. These four aims are: dharma, righteous living and duty; artha, material prosperity; kama, legitimate pleasure and fulfilment; and moksha, spiritual liberation.

The wisdom lies in holding them together. We need money, but money cannot be the meaning of life. We deserve pleasure, but pleasure cannot become our master. We have responsibilities, but responsibility should not extinguish joy. And we may seek spiritual fulfilment without abandoning the world in which we live.

Perhaps, then, the perfect day is not one in which we squeeze more activities into twenty-four hours.  Perhaps it is one in which we bring more meaning to the hours we already have. Wake with gratitude. Work with purpose. Eat with awareness. Treat people with kindness. Pause to remember God. Reflect on your conduct. Do your duty without becoming enslaved by its outcome. And when the day is over, let it go. Tomorrow, if we are fortunate, we will be given another one.

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• Himalayas, Hindu guru, Peeping Tom, schedule

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