Schedule Yourself to Productivity
There are two types of schedules that you can adhere to. Time dependent, and Time Independent, either one will give you more productivity. Both should give you more time for yourself.
I dealt with two completely different head coaches in two years. They both had a different way of doing things.
The first said “The kids can’t get on the field on time so what we are going to do is wait until they are all there and then start practice. If it is 2:30 or 3:30 I don’t care we need everyone there for the entire practice. Whenever we start we will practice for 2 and a half hours on this schedule”. Then he preceded to hand us a schedule that looked like this:
20 min stretch
15 min individual specialty
10 min Offensive Individual
15 min Offensive Group
20 min Offensive Team
5 min Water
10 min Defensive Individual
15 min Defensive Group
20 min Defensive Team
5 min Water
10 min Team Special Teams
10 min Conditioning
Total time was 165 minutes or 2 hours and 45 minutes. Close enough and we got done what we needed to.
The second came into the office and the first thing he said is “The kids need to learn how to get on the field at the right time. We will start practice 10 minutes after school gets out and we will practice for two and a half hours. If they can’t make it your job will be to stay after practice and run them for as long as it takes until they learn to be there on time.” Then he proceeded to give us this schedule:
2:25 stretch
2:45 individual specialty
3:00 Offensive Individual
3:10 Offensive Group
3:30 Offensive Team
3:50 Water
3:55 Defensive Individual
4:05 Defensive Group
4:20 Defensive Team
4:45 water
4:50 Team Special Teams
5:00 Conditioning
I am not going to say what is better. What I will say is that both were exactly the same schedule just gone about in different ways. OK Personally I think that it is very important to teach the boys how to get on the field on time with consequences if they did not do so.
Time Dependent
Some of us work well within a Time Dependent schedule. By that I mean get up at 6am, get to work by 7:30, check email, and so on. We use the clock as our schedule and then we probably have a routine set up around it. This is great for people who do well within time constraints. It is also great because it forces us to take a break, or stop working.
The Time Dependent people get stuck when they schedule too much and they get behind. They then try to make it up and before long they are working all the time and their schedule is all messed up. This of course leads to stress and non-productivity.
If you use a Time Dependent schedule stick to the times. If you don’t get something done don’t over run to the next time. Stop what you are doing and go on to the next scheduled time. This will cause you to be more productive not less. This will cause you to get a little self discipline, it will help you stay focused while you work, and in the end you will be able to get more done in the time frame that you give yourself.
When you are so productive that you are getting things done before the time runs out don’t go on to the next thing early. Reward yourself with a break, a little cat nap, a cup of fine coffee, or a smoke break (I used to take smoke breaks all the time even though I never actually smoked).
Time Independent
I work much better on the Time Independent but only due to my current lifestyle. If you work in an office or job you may be forced to be Time Dependent. But, if you have your own business and you are finding that your productivity is not where you want it or that your schedule never works out for you then a Time Independent schedule may be better.
Don’t base the schedule on time, but base it on tasks. This is a little more difficult to pull off only because we generally grow up with a Time Dependent schedule. I have heard it said many times that there are three places that run on bells or whistles; Schools, Factories, and Prisons. All three can seem the same at times.
Instead schedule blocks of productivity. For example here was my schedule on Friday
1 hour max Coffee, News and Blog Reading
30 min Walk
Breakfast and Journal time
3 hours Trade Forex (until 11:00 max) and work on website flipping.
Lunch no later than 11:30 to get ready for meeting
1pm Meeting with **** (for privacy reasons)
2 hour break after meeting is over
1 ½ hours workout
2 hour writing or reading
My productivity: sold two websites, trading was down but I learned a lot on the day. Had a successful meeting, wrote for an hour, read for another hour, got outside for 45 minutes and did 45 minutes of light lifting, went out to dinner and finished the evening with watching a movie. To me it was a highly successful day and I got a lot accomplished. I made money, had time for myself, enjoyed time outdoors on a nice day, and felt satisfied and fulfilled at the end of the day.
You may also notice that I had to put times in there. It is inevitable due to coordinating with other people. Time is needed. But when you schedule in blocks instead of being Time Dependent it is very flexible. I get more time to myself to do what I want to do, which is what life really is all about.
If you get nothing else from this article I want to give you this. A schedule not only will give you more opportunities to be more productive, but a schedule should give you more time for you. If it does not give more time for you there is something wrong. Be productive, but take time for you. We love life, when we are able to live it.
