How to Schedule Your Time Wisely | 7 Scheduling Tips
In this post, I’ll share with you how to schedule your time wisely to boost your productivity and achieve your goals!
I’ve always been a person who thrived off of having a routine and a schedule. But, honestly, it’s taken a lot of trial and error to find a scheduling strategy that works. If you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably busy like me with lots on the go, and looking for ways to optimize your time.
You may be wondering to yourself… how can I manage to do it all? How can I set up a schedule to be the most productive and get the most out of my days? And why is it even important to set up a schedule? I will answer all these questions and share my best tips in this post.
This post is all about how to schedule your time wisely.
Benefits of Effective Scheduling
Before I get into the nitty gritty of how to schedule your time wisely, let me quickly touch on why it’s important.
- Productivity. It’s no surprise that if you use your time effectively, you’ll be able to get more done.
- Achieve your goals. It’s one thing to set a goal, but it’s another to actually put steps in motion towards those goals. I consider my schedule an opportunity to lay out my action plan to ensure I reach my goals.
- Reduce stress. When you can see your schedule mapped out, you can identify when you’ll be really busy (ex. if you have a bunch of deadlines in the same week) and work around that with other aspects of your life. It will also help prevent big deadlines from sneaking up on you!
- Take control over your time. When I’m setting up my schedule, I give myself the opportunity to prioritize what I want, which is very empowering.
Are you convinced yet? Keep reading for tips that will help you learn how to schedule your time wisely.
How to Schedule Your Time Wisely
Ok, now that we’ve covered the why, let’s get into how to actually schedule your time. Below is a snapshot of my calendar for this past week, and I’m going to break down my exact tips & strategy that go into my schedule planning!
If you’re new to my blog, here’s a quick summary of my career right now: I work a full time, 9-5 job in the public health field. I absolutely love what I do! My “side hustles” include consulting work, and I also recently started this blog too! It’s safe to say I keep myself busy, so I’ve had to get really organized with my schedule to balance my time between my full time jobs and side hustles. Developing my time management skills has been super important!
1. Use the Tool that Works For you
Everyone has different preferences, so use the scheduling tool that’s best for you – whether that’s Google Calendar, iCal, or a paper planner. I used to use paper planners, but honestly found them a bit of hassle to carry around with me. Plus, if I didn’t use my planner for a few weeks, all those pages were wasted.
If you do like paper planners, I highly recommend trying one that doesn’t have dates like this one. Or, you can make up your own layouts exactly the way you like them using a bullet journal (Read my post: 6 Bullet Journal Layouts to Organize Your Life).
Now, I use Google Calendar to schedule everything because I love having reminders, and different calendars/colours for each of my responsibilities. It helps me keep track of what’s coming, and is always with me (on my phone). You can see in my calendar snapshot above that I have a different colour for each job, which gives me a really great visual of where I’m spending my time.
2. Get Specific About Your Tasks
On my calendar, I divide up my time by category (ex. consulting, my blog, or public health job, or personal). But in the “details” section of my task, I always get super specific about what needs to get done during that time.
It’s not helpful to just say “I’m going to work on my blog for 1 hour this morning”. You need to get more specific. Are you going to post 10 pins on Pinterest? Shoot images for a blog post? Create a posting schedule for the month? The more specific, the more focused you’ll be.
3. Time Batching
A new strategy I recently implemented that has been game changing for my productivity is time batching. I used to hop between answering emails, to writing a post, to preparing an invoice, to researching for a major project. The constant switching between tasks was so inefficient!
Instead, I batch chunks of time to different tasks, and work exclusively on that task during that time. For example, I may schedule 1 hour to write a blog post. During that time, I’m not answering emails or doing anything else other than writing the blog post. This helps me stay focused on completing the task in front of me. Also, having a set period of time (whether that’s 1, 2, or 5 hours) helps me stay motivated to get it done within that time frame.
Example: On my calendar this week, I had 6:00am-7:30am blocked for “Work- Blog” on Friday. But in the details section, I wrote my tasks I needed to get done during that 1.5 hour period, which included all my Pinterest tasks fo the week – scheduling my pins for the next week on Tailwind and creating 4 new pins. I worked only on those tasks, and did not move on until they were completed!
4. Get to Know Yourself
One of the keys to an effective schedule is knowing yourself and when you work best. Are you really productive in the morning? Or do your creative juices get flowing in the evening? Schedule tasks around your own productivity and preferences. Just because you see someone on social media waking up at 5am, does not mean you have to do that to be successful! What works well for someone else may not work well for you.
I personally am not a night person, so I don’t schedule anything work-related after 8:30pm because I know it will not be quality work! I work really well in the morning, so I schedule my tasks that need my 100% focus (ex. writing a blog post) in the morning, and schedule tasks that require less mental energy (ex. admin tasks) later in the day.
5. Prioritize Your Daily Top 3
If you have multiple jobs, writing out a daily to-do list of all your tasks can be extremely overwhelming. So, I try to separate my top priorities (MUST get done) from the lower priorities (would be nice to get done, but not critical). Make sure to include your high-priority tasks in your schedule each day and do these first (do not move on to other tasks until these must-dos are complete)! This strategy will help you avoid procrastination.
For me, focusing on my “top 3” seems to be my magic number…probably because I am juggling 3 jobs, so I outline 1 key priority for each. For you, it may be best to have 2, 4, or even 5 priorities each day!
6. Never Underestimate the Power of 10 Minutes
When I get busy, sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking “oh, I only have 10 minutes….not enough time to get this done”. This is the WRONG mindset. I think you’ll surprise yourself if you set a timer for 10 minutes and do as much work as you can. 10 minutes of focused work here and there can add up to lots of work completed. On the flip side, 10 minutes of wasted time here and there can really add up. Make sure you’re being mindful about how you choose to spend your time.
7. Schedule in Breaks!
Balancing work and life can be exhausting. It can feel like there’s always something to do (because there probably is!). But you need to schedule in breaks to avoid burnout.
If you’re at the point where you feel like you need a week-long vacation to regroup, you’ve been doing too much! To avoid running yourself into the ground, schedule in time daily and weekly when you’re not doing work.
On my calendar, you’ll notice I have multiple breaks scheduled throughout the day that are “me time”, such as exercise, walk breaks, meal time, and some time to relax in the evening. These breaks help me re-charge and re-focus, and help me be more productive than if I tried to power through a 12 hour day without stopping!
Where Do I Start?
To get started with setting up your schedule for success, you need to look at what you’re doing right now, and where you’d like to be ideally. Then, set up an action plan for how you will get there. For example, are you going to start out by scheduling just your mornings, and build from there? Are you going to set up your schedule every Sunday night? Are you going to try scheduling for one week, and then review to see if it’s working for you? Outline an action plan so you can actually start implementing these tips into your life.
Ultimately, if you’re reading this blog post, you’re already ahead of most because you’re thinking about and reflecting on how to use your time wisely. Good luck, and please let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these tips!
This post was all about how to schedule your time wisely!
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