Once you have identified the tasks you want to accomplish, unless you have a very uncomplicated life, you will probably benefit from scheduling the tasks. Most businesspeople would find it very difficult to efficiently get everything done without thinking about when various tasks are to be worked on. Furthermore, scheduling gives us an opportunity to coordinate the varied tasks, as well as provide some feedback to see whether we tend to procrastinate.
People who have a moderately complex life can usually handle their scheduling needs with some kind of project files (or parts of time management software that will handle project task lists), monthly scheduling calendar (like almost everything else here, in either hardcopy or software), daily to-do sheets, and a miscellaneous task list. Stationery stores usually carry quite a number of these items in hardcopy. Individual tastes vary--the important thing is to get the pieces of a scheduling system that you need. It will probably take some experimenting to figure out what will work for your particular lifestyle--and even then, things will change, so you'll probably change your time management system occasionally also.
If you have identified your objectives and goals in all areas of life, broken projects down into doable tasks, noted your appointments on monthly and daily to-do calendars, and prioritized everything, you're ready to schedule things. Here's a straightforward way to do it:
- Decide for what period of time you will schedule--for a day, three days, a week, two weeks, or whatever seems appropriate. If you're doing this for the first time, try to schedule for an entire week.
- Check your daily, weekly, and/or monthly calendars to see what appointments you have during the period. Change anything necessary.
- Review your previously scheduled personal/organization daily, weekly, or monthly to-do list (if there is one), and move uncompleted items onto a 'staging area' (a blank sheet of paper, or a blank software file) without being concerned about the order of the items.
- Review your personal/organization project files and decide which tasks are next in line to be completed for the projects. Add those tasks to the 'staging area' without being concerned about the order of the items.
- Review your miscellaneous items task list and decide what, if anything, should be done during this period. Add any such tasks to the 'staging area' without being concerned about the order of the items.
- Take the 'staging area' and prioritize the items in terms of A (most important), B, and C (least important).
- Schedule, or assign to particular dates and times, only the tasks that need to be associated with particular dates/times. And for tasks that are assigned dates, don't assign particular times unless doing so is necessary or helpful for some reason. The remaining tasks on the 'staging area' are not assigned dates/times, but simply left as a list to be accomplished sometime during the scheduling period.
- Visualize your day/week/whatever, imagining how things will be accomplished (whether you do them, or someone else does). You may get some insight about how the schedule should be rearranged to be more efficient.
- Plan on the unexpected. Things will probably happen to foil your plans, especially if you schedule things tightly. Unexpected things, like winning the lottery, for example, might actually be helpful.
- On your calendar, at the end of the scheduled period, put a reminder to schedule tasks again.
Here's a summary of the steps:
- Review and evaluate last period scheduled (assuming that you did some previous scheduling). You can use methods discussed in Measuring Progress
- Decide for what period time you will schedule
- Review daily and monthly calendars for scheduled events during the period
- Review personal/organization plan and projects' timelines and tasks
- Choose items from lists (project lists, to-do lists, pending, things to read, ongoing items) and put in a 'staging area'
- Prioritize
- Schedule as necessary on monthly/daily calendars
- Plan on the unexpected, including additional things to do
- Review (have you included short, mid-range, and long-term items?) and visualize doing things for the period; can plan be improved?
- Put reminder to schedule again at end of scheduled period
How often should you schedule? It depends on your life situation. If you life is uncomplicated, and without many appointments, you might find it best to schedule once every week. A busy manager will typically need to schedule things every day. You might find it useful to schedule up till the time you leave on a trip, or up to a deadline on some project.
When should you schedule? Again, it depends. Some people like the morning if they're doing daily scheduling; others like the evening, just before ending their work. If you schedule for a week, you might like doing it on Sunday. In general, if you don't have a clear idea of your priorities, or you don't remember how what you're doing or what you're planning to do fits into a big picture, you probably need to schedule things. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, you may need to do some ITM practices to change the feeling of anxiety or pressure, and/or you may need to schedule/reschedule things. If you have a clear idea of a workable schedule, and if you're really involved in whatever you're doing, there's no need to feel overwhelmed.
Note: If you have questions or comments about these exercises, please send email to or call Steve Randall at 510-303-1035.
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