Who’s in Charge of Your Schedule?
Many people have a tendency to turn their calendar and to do list into a well-intentioned, but ill-conceived plan to spend each day doing things that are not gratifying or enjoyable in the least. It’s as if an awful “should monster” lives in our heads and forces us to write down a list of things we can’t bear the idea of doing. Then, we beat ourselves up when we don’t comply.
It’s time for a major re-evaluation of your planning if you find most hours of your day you are shoulding on yourself (because that really stinks).
Here’s the way that I look at it: Your daily action plan works for you, you don’t work for it!
- Make a conscious choice of what to do next rather than choosing what is most enjoyable in the moment.
- Your daily action plan is a tool that you manage and you can be flexible with it by moving non-time-bound events around. Just remember that you’re in charge.
As you practice flexibility, your schedule can help you see more clearly what you’re trading for what. You can ask yourself questions such as:
- Is this conversation more important to me than sending out invoices?
- More important than getting to my meeting on time?
The answer may be “yes.” This may be a person who is important to you whom you haven’t seen in a long time. You may have an important issue to discuss with this person. Your daily action plan doesn’t forbid changes in the plan – but the operative word is “plan” instead of “Oh, shoot! I lost track of time.”
If you have action items on your schedule that are not time-bound (in other words not attached to a specific time), be open to moving them to somewhere else on your schedule when life gets in the way. Here’s the key, though. To keep from postponing the item indefinitely and never getting it completed, give yourself a limit of 2 times to move the item. After that, get it done at the time you planned.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:50 AM
Good suggestions, Scott. I might be the rare bird, but … Other than teleseminars, webinars, or consultations, I don’t put anything on my business calendar. I used to do that in the past and found myself feeling constantly pressured to beat the clock and disappointed over and over again when I didn’t complete a task on or by a specific date.
I should expound a bit here and note that I’m a single mom who works three part time jobs outside the home as well as manage an online business.
FLEXIBILITY is (and must!) be my middle name.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:04 AM
Thanks for your comment, Melanie. That’s a great point you make about watching what you put on your calendar so that you don’t get disappointed time and time again. I had the exact same experience you mention and now I only (with rare exceptions) put stuff on my calendar that is time-bound (meaning it actually has a time to it). Otherwise, it gets put on my action list and in the open times on my schedule I do the “top of the list” items.
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