The Schedule

I have had a certain experience on Saturdays that makes a certain point. On a Saturday morning, I would think about a list of things that I would like to accomplish that day, things that one does on a weekend, such as running errands or getting things done around the house. So at the beginning of the day, drinking my coffee and looking out the window, I would make a To Do List. If I then went about my day getting things on the To Do List done, I would still feel a bit disorganized, constantly going back to the list to think about the next thing to do, working through the priorities and the tendency to procrastinate, to put off until later the things that I really did not want to do, so that I could also enjoy my Saturday. Then I learned to add a schedule to the list.

Imagine having 8 things that you would like to get done on a given day. Take a blank sheet of paper and write the To Do List on the left side of the page, as always. Without rearranging the list, prioritize the items by numbering them 1 through 8 from most important to least important. On the right side of the page, create a schedule for the day, numbering hours from 8 am to 4 pm, or for Africans, hour 2 to hour 10. Now, think about when you should do the most important item on the list and put it on the schedule, then the second priority and so forth, thinking also about efficiency. For instance, if you need to leave the house to do a series of things, plan a route to minimize travel time. Draw lines connecting the item on the list with the time on the schedule.

I have noticed that when I organize my day that way, putting the list on the schedule, that much more gets done. What happens is that having put tasks on a schedule, it then becomes the desire and effort to STAY ON SCHEDULE, without having to re-think the list, without finishing one task and then going back to the list to decide what to do next. It was already decided when the schedule was made. One simply moves from one item on the list to the next. And the “gold” is that much more gets done as one goes through the day trying to stay on schedule! You do have to want to stay on schedule, as a matter of character. It becomes a matter of INTEGRITY, of doing what you have told yourself that you are going to do. Integrity is doing what you say you are going to do.

Special considerations: Allow enough time. Do not schedule too tightly but rather leave blank spaces, called buffers, on the schedule, because the schedule will need to be flexible, allowing for some things to take longer, for distractions and for the unexpected. The idea is not to be a slave to a schedule but rather to have a day that is as SUCCESSFUL as it can reasonably be.

Suggestions: Make your own schedule on paper, or use a Word file. Or use business software or other scheduling software, such as Google Calendar, or any other system that you can create; whatever works for you. I have a schedule as part of my electronic medical record software, the primary purpose of which is to list patient appointments, but then I use Google Calendar to schedule everything outside of patient hours. If I don’t put things on a schedule, then I don’t get as much done, and I will eventually forget something important.

Make your To Do List, and then PUT IT ON THE SCHEDULE !!!

It is what successful people do.