Guide to managing time: Creating a consistent schedule
Welcome to Part One of our Guide to managing time (managing a 60-hour workweek) mini-series!
When you’re working overtime, you need to have some kind of solid schedule to follow in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed. These are a few things that have really helped me out:
– Track your hours. This one is very important for me since I work so many different jobs. It’s easy to get caught up in one job and completely neglect something else if you aren’t tracking it all. So I’ve begun allotting a certain amount of time each week to each of my various jobs, and every day I track the amount of time I spent on each task to make sure that by the end of the week I’ve achieved my goals and gotten all the work completed that needed to be done.
– Go by weekly rather than daily, if you can. Weekly is much simpler to track because on a day-to-day schedule, you’re likely to favour one task over another. My PR work involves a few major events, so some days I’m almost completely devoted to that major event (such as a golf tournament next week). If you’re in the creative field, you also have to take advantage of creativity when it comes to you. For example, one of my freelancing jobs is to write articles twice a month – if I’m not in the mood to do it, my work won’t be nearly as good as it will when the inspiration hits. Since I always have a couple weeks in between my deadlines, I pay close attention to when I feel in the mood to write an article – and then I do it when the time is right. Every day is different, but you should try to make every week roughly the same.
– Take advantage of early mornings, evenings and weekends. When do you work the best? When do you start to slump? This one is super important. I happen to work very well when I wake up at about 5 a.m., but I’m a wreck by 1 p.m. I usually can’t get much done in the early afternoon. I am all for the Spanish siesta! For the past year I’ve only had two afternoons each week (besides weekends) in which I haven’t been working, so I usually take those early afternoons to do nothing and just relax. Now that I’ll be working from home full-time, I’m looking forward to starting my workday at 6 or 7 a.m., taking a 2 – 3 hour break in the early afternoon, and then working into the evening if necessary. I can work pretty well later into the night as long as I get that rest period in the early afternoon, and I don’t mind working early in the morning/later into the evening if necessary because that’s what works for my body. Figure out what works for you and take advantage of it! If your work is going to be crap anyway in the early afternoon, why not take that as an extended break, or do some puttering around the house?
What do you do to maintain a consistent schedule?
Stay tuned for Part Two: Working with others.
Great tips! I usually try and finish my tasks in the morning or at the earliest, as my energy comes down right after lunch, lols. And it gives me proper motivation to see all my tasked ticked off in my list.
There’s something really satisfying about looking at your To Do list at noon and realizing that you’ve already crossed off five things 🙂
This is a great post, Sagan! I’m playing around with my work hours now, trying to find the best fit.
I think it’s so important to play around to figure out what works the best… just like any approach to nutrition and fitness, right? 😉
Great post & suggestions! I think better earlier in the day – always have so I try to do the hard thinking early! 😉 Nights I get tired due to my schedule so no heavy thinking then & also time with hubby is important!
Ha, me too! My brain kinda fizzles in the early afternoon. And time with your S.O. is always a major priority, for sure 🙂
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