Productivity Challenge | Arranging the Schedule (4)

Now, time is standing by our side. Let's make it serve our purposes. We will now need another friend-our calendar. We can use the calendar to avoid interruptions, remind essential appointments or reviews, and schedule time to complete our long-term plans. Let's dive in. ​

Day 1: Block for Personal Ritual (30min) ​
​The top priority of setting up cleaner is to block time for our private time. We can focus on our Most Imporant Task (MITs) during this time. You may try all of the following steps:

• ​Start the week on Sunday. Save 30min before sleep for daily planning. During this time, we review the next day's plan. On Sunday, we prepare for the upcoming week. 
• Block time for the daily ritual by blocking times for private times like breakfast (30min), lunch (1hr), dinner (1hr), exercise time (1hr), email processing (2x30min), and most importantly, a quiet study time (2x2hrs) when you can work on special projects. 
• Create an annual plan by blocking days or events in the year, which includes holidays, family holidays, doctor visits, and vacation time. All of these blocks protect our personal and family priorities. 
• You probably realize how much time has been blocked before we give our time to others. The practice is taking control of our time and first prioritizing the most critical life events. Hey, you have your own time to enjoy your days. You can find the details instructions as follows.

Day 2: Organize Your Current Calendar (30min) 
After Day 1, our daily ritual is secured. Now, you may wonder, "is it really practical?" If you have to work as I do, you know that we must accommodate our project meetings and team communications. On Day 2, we will merge our personal time with our public schedule and adjust. The steps are as follows: 

• Consolidate all meetings into one calendar. Because there is only one you, you only need one shared calendar to plan your time.
• Check all your meeting lengths to save time. If you can finish a meeting in 30 minutes, don't book it for 1 hour. 
• Block the travel time if you have to walk to different meeting rooms. 
• If you are hosting a meeting, ensure all the invitees are necessary to contribute to the call, add the meeting agenda, and add 30min after the call to create meeting minutes. 
• If you are an attendee, decline meetings if you can read the meeting minutes, listen to the recording to catch up, or delegate to others. If your calendar offers multi-calendar support, group meetings into multiple calendar layers so you can review them and plan your attendance accordingly. Note that only those meetings that you are committed to attending will stay in your primary calendar layer. 
• Turn on reminders for important meetings. ONLY important ones. If there are too many reminders, that means no reminder at all. 
• Schedule recurring meetings, including 1on1 meetings to maintain relationships and regular meetings at work (mostly project/team meetings). 
• Book a meeting for your current projects. Now, block 30 minutes two days later and every other two days to review our training progress and reply to emails to update your progress. 
• ​Adjust your ritual meetings by moving them around. Remember, don't delete them unless you have a good reason. 
  
• Leave open time for flexibility. 

Day 3: Experience a Day Following the Guidance of your Calendar (30min) 
After Day 2, your calendar should be well structured to protect your time, at least in the coming weeks. If there is anything think comes out later, simply adjust it as we did on Day 2. 

Take a day to follow the calendar to follow your rituals, attend meetings and take breaks. Some changes you will notice 

• You will check your calendar the night before to plan for the next day
• You will review the calendar more frequently during the day to guide your work. 
• You will have study time to stay focused. 
• You will feel controlling the pace during the day. 

After the day, let me know your thoughts by answering one of the multiple questions as follows:

• How much time do you block during your working hours? 
• How often do you set the planning time, and how long? Why? 
• Is there anything that doesn't work for you? ​

Feel free to send your feedback and questions.. 

​Next Step: Plan with Prioritization