Schedule work-time on your weekly calendar
- If you want to become more focused and productive, you need to schedule your time.
- After entering your assignments and due dates on your computer/IPhone , you need to block out specific days and times during the day to work on the assigned tasks.
- When are you more productive—in the morning or afternoon?
- For the most difficult tasks, block out time when you are more productive.
- When you schedule your time, you should consider Parkinson’s law that states, work expands to fill the time available for its completion. For example, if you give yourself 2 days to complete a 2 hour project, the natural tendency is to rationalize that the project is more complex and requires the two days.
- Consequently, when you set a time deadline to complete a task, you may want to experiment by setting a shorter one to determine whether you can finish your task faster without reducing the quality of your work product.
Work time
- You should stay focused on one task for 30-40 minutes followed by a 5 minute break to rest and recharge your brain.
- Then you should continue working on the task for 30-40 minutes followed by another 5 minute break until you are finished.
Relax time
- During the week, you need to schedule some time to relax and do what you enjoy so that you will have more energy when you are working.
Outside Commitments
- You need to calendar your outside commitments.
- Do you have too many commitments outside the office?
- Do you need to cut one or more of them?
- And maybe you will decide to cut one commitment and replace it with another.
- For example, on a Saturday morning, you may decide to do something with your spouse or play with your kids or grandkids instead of golfing or shopping.
Plan for the unexpected
- You should always leave some margin on your calendars.
- Therefore, never over schedule your day by filling up every space on your weekly and monthly calendars.
- Otherwise, you will not have time to handle the little unexpected surprises.
Thinking time
- You should schedule some “thinking time” on your weekly calendars so you can take time to think about strategy and other big-picture items.
Be Flexible
- If an emergency arises or things don’t go as planned, you need to be flexible and re-arrange the time that you had previously scheduled to work on an assignment.