Your Work Schedule
This is an open week where I get to write on any subject. I decided to use an article I wrote for my upcoming newsletter T&R News & Views.
Here it is:
One of the big enemies of authors is time. If we're not careful we let it get away from us. All of a sudden we find ourselves backed up and over-burdened.
The obvious answer to this problem is Time Management or simply Scheduling your time. The typical solution is a recommendation to impose upon yourself a tight schedule with every working hour mapped out in advance for every day.
But is this the best solution?
I would be foolish to say it doesn't work. The success of that method is attested to by hundreds and thousands of people. But I believe there is a better solution.
I have found such tight scheduling to be frustrating. In the daily world that I live in life gets in the way. For that reason I practice what I call Flexible Scheduling. Something you may be practicing unknowingly.
How does Flexible Scheduling differ from Traditional Scheduling?
Well, as mentioned above, Traditional Scheduling tends to be tight and, I might add, unforgiving. Flexible Scheduling makes use of priorities.For example, let's say that I am scheduled to work on the newsletter from 2:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday. But suddenly another priority intrudes.
This priority may be a customer needing help on his/her order. Customer relations is number one at T&R, so I would turn my attention to the customer. That's probably true with either system.
But what if the intrusion was by an inspiring thought for one of my novels?
In the old system I might write down a brief note about the thought and continue with the newsletter. But under the Flexible system I might pause and weigh the value of the new insight. It's altogether possible that I will set the newsletter temporarily aside and work on the novel. In other words, priority takes precedence over schedule.
That intrusion could also be an event, place or person. The key is to determine what is more important to you! Sometimes I can set priorities in advance; other times I must do so as the occasion demands. This may sound pretty basic (and it is), but the truth is we can let our schedules rule our lives.
The examples I just gave are pretty simple. But sometimes the conflicts are far more serious. Our job is to determine what is most important, preferably in advance. But we must always remain alert to the sudden need to change.
If we have a flexible schedule and a flexible mind frame, we can remove a lot of stress from our lives. And that is a good thing!
Here it is:
One of the big enemies of authors is time. If we're not careful we let it get away from us. All of a sudden we find ourselves backed up and over-burdened.
The obvious answer to this problem is Time Management or simply Scheduling your time. The typical solution is a recommendation to impose upon yourself a tight schedule with every working hour mapped out in advance for every day.
But is this the best solution?
I would be foolish to say it doesn't work. The success of that method is attested to by hundreds and thousands of people. But I believe there is a better solution.
I have found such tight scheduling to be frustrating. In the daily world that I live in life gets in the way. For that reason I practice what I call Flexible Scheduling. Something you may be practicing unknowingly.
How does Flexible Scheduling differ from Traditional Scheduling?
Well, as mentioned above, Traditional Scheduling tends to be tight and, I might add, unforgiving. Flexible Scheduling makes use of priorities.For example, let's say that I am scheduled to work on the newsletter from 2:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday. But suddenly another priority intrudes.
This priority may be a customer needing help on his/her order. Customer relations is number one at T&R, so I would turn my attention to the customer. That's probably true with either system.
But what if the intrusion was by an inspiring thought for one of my novels?
In the old system I might write down a brief note about the thought and continue with the newsletter. But under the Flexible system I might pause and weigh the value of the new insight. It's altogether possible that I will set the newsletter temporarily aside and work on the novel. In other words, priority takes precedence over schedule.
That intrusion could also be an event, place or person. The key is to determine what is more important to you! Sometimes I can set priorities in advance; other times I must do so as the occasion demands. This may sound pretty basic (and it is), but the truth is we can let our schedules rule our lives.
The examples I just gave are pretty simple. But sometimes the conflicts are far more serious. Our job is to determine what is most important, preferably in advance. But we must always remain alert to the sudden need to change.
If we have a flexible schedule and a flexible mind frame, we can remove a lot of stress from our lives. And that is a good thing!
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