Our days can be filled with MANY tasks, and sorting them can ease up big times.
Are you using a scheduling app to schedule everything and tasks you have to finish or old-fashioned paper and pen?
Paper and pen has a sense of accomplishment, especially when you tick off tasks that have been completed. Don't you just love that feeling?
Even though at work I am required to use Google taskboard, I secretly use a paper and pen on the side just to feel motivated with every tick!
Nope. I schedule about 80% of the day.
I have a long list of tasks that move the company forward, but have low brain/energy requirements. If I ever hit a wall during my day, I pull out this list and work on that for a while until I feel my mojo come back.
I don't think I ever scheduled more than what I needed for the day, and the next day was only planned when I was done with the first. Scheduling makes sense if you are in a repetitive activity with a few variations of unexpected or unique events.
To me, it would feel way too overwhelming to plan everything out from start to finish, you never know what's coming for you at the end. I could go as far as planning a week for a given task, but that's about it. I just tackle what feels to be the priority or the easiest ones to complete.
A paper and a pen to not forget any kind of small detail for the next task can be very helpful! I would rather keep notes, and documents, knowing it would help me out for a specific task.
Those documents are like reminders, particularly during the morning. I certainly don't want to think much about what I did yesterday, and what I should do for the day. ;D
In this matter, I am able to go from one task to another really fast. I am usually done sooner than expected, except for tasks relying on others, which are out of my control.
When you schedule, it has to be solely what you can do from A to Z, or you may get frustrated! ;D
Cheers.
@jack95 You’ve made an excellent point! Thanks for sharing this! You explained it detailed and gave me an extra thing to think about!
I think detailed scheduling works well for people that want to get a habit of what they just got learned to do.
I'm scheduling only big tasks requiring focus, like example refactoring a script.
For the short task, I'm just using ora.pm, I have boards there with tasks sorted by urgency.
No, definitely not. I plan out the big tasks that I know ahead of time need done (especially those with defined due dates) but I try to keep my planning out of the weeds and flexible to the inevitable change that so often blows our plans out of the water.
I used to schedule out EVERYTHING, but I found that as I micromanaged myself, I felt more stressed. So mainly now I schedule the most important tasks and leave space on my calendar for the smaller or less immediate tasks. That way, if things need to be moved around, my schedule won't be affected too much.
And I'm definitely a paper-and-pen type of person! Physically writing things down helps me remember it.
I've used Todo ist and Notion for planning and scheduling my day. But after following that for some days, I felt less human and more robotic.
In order to complete the tasks and beat the clock, I lost the enthusiasm to work and sometime I've burned out too.
So, from then I've stopped using calendar and to do lists.
The productivity might go down, but in the longterm I feel productivity won't affect as I feel our excitement towards work & hunger to solve problems, will make us more productive than these so called schedules
@karthik_tatikonda Yeah, I think the key point to this is to not rely on schedules. Instead, have a plan, schedule it, and at the same time, feel free to move things around.
I have found time blocking very useful. It not only helps in getting things done but also gives me a perspective on how much I can get done. I use Loopin (https://www.loopinhq.com/) for that
I have a really busy schedule. I work as a developer and I have two favorite hobbies (Going to the gym and making music) so I can't do without scheduling app. Since my dream is to make music for video games, I devote a lot of time to this hobby. In the future I would like to work as a sound designer in a company such as Valve or license music as Styngr does. I use Dayful. What apps do you use?
@racheej yeah, I've been thinking of getting one of those. Seems like it would solve many problems. Do you recommend it to schedule things or creating to do lists?
Scheduling tasks and project activities may seem an easy thing. However, not so many people can perfectly manage due dates and deadlines. Therefore it's a good idea to apply a professional PM planner and scheduler to simplify your life.
GanttPRO (https://ganttpro.com/) is a great solution that helps plan work, track tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate with stakeholders - all in one place. You get a handy Gantt chart and dozens of professional features that make your planning a pleasure.