Managing Your Schedule Is a Skill – Friday Distraction
(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. For a third year, Kronos CEO Aron Ain has been recognized as one of the Top CEOs in information technology by Glassdoor.com. Many congrats to him! Enjoy the article.)
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a planner. That also means I’m a scheduler. I find that the way I get things done is by blocking off time on my calendar. I do understand this might not be for everyone. But it works for me.
Which is why I couldn’t help but laugh at this Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos. It reminded me that my way of getting things done is something I’ve learned over time. Maybe I didn’t learn it in elementary school, but you get the point. It takes time to figure out the best way to manage all of the meetings, appointments, etc.
Here are a few things to consider when it comes to managing time:
Use a system that works for you. The goal of scheduling is to provide reminders – either about places you need to be (like a work meeting) or stuff you need to do (like an expense report). As long as your system works – meaning you show up where you need to be and get things done on time – then it’s a good system. The problem occurs when people adopt scheduling systems and don’t use them.
Understand priorities. There are things on my calendar that are moveable and others that aren’t. I also try when I’m project planning to give myself plenty of wiggle room in case I have to make schedule adjustments. It doesn’t always work, but I really work hard to schedule my priorities. Of course, this also means that I need to have a clear understanding of what my priorities are.
Schedule “me” time. This is easier said than done. For example, one of my personal goals is to schedule a block of time to catch up after business trips. And the good news is I’m getting much better at it. But as part of our personal well-being, we need to carve out time on our calendars just to do something we want to do. It could be a MOOC, a massage, or the movies. And we have to learn how to not feel guilty about it.
Whether your scheduling system is a paper journal or a technology system, it needs to do the job it was intended to do. While I’ve been talking about scheduling on an individual level, the same applies to workplace scheduling.
Organizations need to use scheduling systems that work for them. The systems need to support the company’s priorities. And they need to be flexible enough to create a win for everyone.
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