With this tip, you can get twice as much done in one day
The timer on my oven sometimes gives me a heart attack. I think I'm busy, have a whole workday ahead of me, and suddenly the truth triumphantly blinks something else at me. 4:00 PM? How is that possible? As if the day has evaporated, and what have I done? A lot, but in any case not what I was supposed to do.
By the way, I can't go anywhere without a list of what I need to do in a day. I scribble those cozy little circles for it, so I have something to check off. Sometimes I secretly add something retroactively, because then my mind at least knows what I have accomplished by the end of the day. Only: such a list is also hell, because it reminds you of what you haven't done. And then I happily shuffle tasks from today to tomorrow. But suddenly I came up with a solution.
At least, I, I... Now I might be giving myself too much credit, but I picked up a tip that I once received and never put into practice. I scheduled my day hour by hour. For everything a start time and end time, but also a time slot for all the unforeseen stuff.
So like this:
08:00 – 08:45 AM – to catch that bus. Your colleague with size 36 may naturally be much more active without spending hours in the gym.
08:45 – 09:00 AM – coffee
09:00 – 09:30 AM – meditation
09:30 – 10:00 AM – review mail, news, and planning
10:00 – 11:00 AM – write article for Tuesday
11:00 – 11:30 AM – online meeting editorial team
11:30 – 12:00 PM – unforeseen
12:00 – 12:30 PM – lunch
Now don't think that I stop working at half past twelve, this was just my time slot as a handy example to put something together for yourself. All questions and comments I receive in between are parked until half past eleven, to be dealt with in that half hour. And by planning my lunch, I actually had lunch. Something I normally skip sometimes, because I then scoop up a soup while on the phone.
It is handy to be a bit flexible with this hour-by-hour planning. If you're on the phone from ten to half past ten because a conversation can't wait? Then you just swap the unforeseen. Which does mean that you have to schedule another unforeseen hour in the afternoon.
Really, it's wonderful. And this way you also ensure that the online meeting has an end time, something that every meeting should have in my opinion. Just try it, it will make your day much more organized.
