In my recent blog post, I wrote about how scheduling tasks rather than having a to-do list can help you get things done.
But as I am a great fan of learning, I wanted to write more on the subject. I thought I would see if I could delve a little deeper.
And I found that not everyone agrees with the principle of scheduling everything.
The argument against scheduling is that there is a danger of hyper-scheduling, where every minute of your day is accounted for and there is no flexibility. However, this is a complaint about the implementation and not the principle itself.
Richard Branson also is very passionate about explaining why he uses a to-do list.
Many bloggers on this subject suggest theming days so that you focus on one area of your business at a time. I have Monday is more of an admin and scheduling in social media day. Tuesday is writing, Wednesday is flexible right now, Thursday is marketing and Friday is website.
This doesn’t mean I don’t do anything else as there is still client work to do. However, I try and fit in some tasks related to those themes so I keep on top of them. As my business develops I am sure my themes will change as the needs of my business change.
And then there is the idea of chunking your tasks so that you do all emails together, all phone-calls together etc. I have an on-going list of emails/messages I need to make and then do them all together. I can then close email in my browser and focus on the next thing I am working on.
A positive benefit to scheduling tasks, theming and chunking is reducing decision fatigue. Constantly making decisions can deplete our mental stamina so further decisions are poor or rash choices. Or we don’t make a decision at all.
If you are constantly having to decide what to work on next, you are limiting your capacity to make decisions later in the day. Scheduling, theming etc does reduce the number of decisions to be made.
Your system needs to help you focus on the most important tasks and goals. You will stop worrying about the things that aren’t getting done because you know they will get done later.
Do you still have tasks that just don’t get done after you have organised your time as best you can? Then maybe it is time to consider outsourcing some of those tasks. Contact me here to arrange a time to discuss.
