Creating and maintaining a sensible schedule

Do you plan your days carefully, or just do work as it comes in?

Doing things as they come in is a risky approach to work. While smaller tasks may be completed quickly, big projects will keep getting pushed to one side. The same applies to ignoring larger tasks in favour of the “easy” work, or the things you want to do.

Instead of feeling the need to take action as soon as a new job comes in, add the task to your to-do list and continue with whatever you were working on previously. With emails, let them sit in your inbox for a bit - don’t jump into your email straight away.

Every day, set aside some time to review your outstanding work. This needs to be a time when you will not be interrupted. Don’t go thinking you should be “on call” 24/7 if your job doesn’t actually require it. Divert your phone to voicemail, or turn it off. Close your email and instant messengers. Then start getting organised.

Use a proper organisational tool. Todoist is a simple but effective way to manage multiple workstreams. You can use dates, priorities and sub-projects to organise the things you need to do. If you don’t want to use Todoist (and I’d recommend that you at least try it out), find another tool that’s more structured than a sheet of paper or a Word document. I’ve tried both methods. Todoist is far better than a top-to-bottom list.

Reorder your tasks so they appear in a logical sequence. Give them dates so you can tell whether you’re on schedule or not. If you get ahead of schedule, reorganise the remaining tasks so they reflect the new dates. Reorganise if you get behind, too. This really helps you to stay on top of your workload.

Don’t get over-ambitious. Write everything down, but prioritise what you know you’ll be able to do on the days when you know you’ll be able to work. Keep it realistic, be ambitious if you can, but don’t go overboard.

Keep an eye on tasks that get out of control. What’s causing the delay? How will you know when they are completed? Could you break them down to stand a better chance of completing them? Ensure you communicate with your customers about any tasks that may overrun.

Set aside time to DO THE WORK! It’s all very well doing all this planning, and some days you may be very busy, but don’t say “I’m going to do this today” and then get caught up with phone calls and emails. There’s no excuse. Customers will get tired of your excuses if you keep putting things off until “tomorrow”. Tomorrow never comes.

Review and improve. Are you any good at estimating your timescales? Are you getting things done? Monitor your progress and consider whether you could be doing better. Continuous improvement is a vital part of working.

How do you manage your working schedule?