Time Management: Scheduling

You have taken time to decide on your goals and to list the tasks under the goals. Now it is time to schedule your days.

Why is a schedule important?

Without a schedule our brains will take over. Other things will pop up and it will be easy to drift off to things that don’t really need to be done. Then you do not accomplish what you need to for your goals.

Our job is to be in control of our brain and the things that distract us.

Think about how it feels when you finish the day’s list. Accomplished, relaxed, energized, satisfied… These are just a few of the feelings that come to my mind when I stick to my schedule.

So it is important to put times on your list. How long will the tasks take? At first it is a guess. With practice you will get better at knowing the times each thing takes.

When I worked in film production, we had a schedule and it was called a call sheet. The person making the call sheet had an idea of how long things would take. They consulted with other people involved to get an idea of the time they needed. It always amazed me about how much we got done each day. We stuck to the schedule as best we could. If something took longer than planned, the time had to come from somewhere else or we stayed longer to finish.

You probably have more flexibility but having times next to the tasks will give you an idea of what you can do in a day and how long it will take. How long do you want to work each day?

Remember you are the CEO of your life. You get to treat yourself the way you have always wanted to be treated.

I will never forget when I was young my Dad asked us to weed the front garden. We did it quickly. Not a really fun job so we were happy we got it done so fast. Then he came out and said since we had done it so quickly we should weed another garden. It felt like torture. There was no reward for accomplishing the scheduled task. We were punished for our speed. Don’t do that to yourself.

If you add more to the day because you ended early, how will you feel about work tomorrow? If you are like me, I learned, when working for my dad, to not work as quickly because more would be added.

I like to do something fun or spontaneous when I finish a task faster than I estimated. It seems like a celebration for getting my work done. And it is much more aligned with the way I want to live. Celebrating is encouraging.

On a film set we always say that the work fills the time. When I schedule tasks with time I have an idea of how long something should take. If I have no time estimates I can work on that task the whole day. I find that when my schedule is full I get things done quicker. When I have just a few things on the list each task takes much longer.

A schedule really gives you more flexibility. You will start to know the time things take and you can even schedule in your free time. This is how I added cycling to my week. I scheduled it. I never felt like I was playing hooky when I biked, instead it was part of my day. I also schedule my friend time too.

I found that important things need to be scheduled to make sure they happen. The best part is, you get to decide what is important in your life.

The more detailed my schedule is the more I get done. And with a schedule my brain can’t just come up with something else to do.

Scheduling your days will give you more freedom in your work, life and mind.

Time management is only one of the things I help clients with. If you are ready to figure out what is next for you in your life or career I am here to help you figure it out.