Calculate How Much Time You Need

You need an accurate assessment of how long each task takes to complete before you can schedule it. Most people think they know how much time they need to finish certain tasks, but usually they underestimate.

The only way to get an accurate time is to actually complete each task and note exactly how long it took. This should be done for activities you do on a regular basis, such as writing a blog post, scheduling an email sequence, etc.

Fortunately, you should already have most, if not all, of this data from the time audit you completed in a previous module.

Once you have a good sense of how much time each task on your to-do list will take, you can plan your schedule more accurately. Having this knowledge will help you avoid putting too much on your plate, which will allow you to feel less stressed.

Know Your Most Productive Times of Day

Are you a morning person, or a night owl? Does your energy come in bursts, or do you work consistently throughout the day? The study of chronobiology reveals that we each have a different internal clock when it comes to our ability to concentrate and complete different kinds of tasks.

Morning people have the most energy early in the day and their energy levels drop in the early afternoon. Midday people have the most energy in the early afternoon. Night owls are groggy in the morning and have energy in the late afternoon or early evening.

Answer the following questions in the context of your working day to identify when you have the most clarity and focus, when you feel your attention lagging, and when you really just need a break. Give a general idea of the time period involved – e.g., start of the day, end of the morning, or after lunch. If you can be even more specific, then do so.

Don’t agonize over the answers; your first response is probably the correct one:

• When are you at your most productive?
• When is your intellectual energy at its height?
• When do you do your most creative thinking?
• When can you best concentrate on detailed tasks?
• When are you at your best in communicating with others?
• At what point in the day do you have the least energy?
• When do you feel like you just coast along?

Now decide when your best time of day is and apply this information to your daily planning:

• When possible, schedule meetings and calls with customers and prospects when your energy levels are highest
• Do routine tasks when your energy levels are at their lowest
• Do creative tasks when you know there’s no chance of interruption
• Do tasks that require attention to detail where you won’t be distracted by background noise

Finish Quick-To-Do Outstanding Tasks

All unfinished tasks take up mental energy. A part of your brain is still working away trying to complete the task, whether you are conscious of it or not.

You can’t afford this when you need all your brain power to be your most productive self. These tasks could be on your home or family lists that you’ve been putting off while trying to focus on your business. When you’re working on a project, you want to concentrate and not be distracted with thoughts of, “Did I get that done?” or “Do I need to that?” or “Do I need to check up on this?” 

Have another look at your lists. There might be quick tasks you can take action on immediately and cross off, e.g. a phone call you need to make, an email you need to send, an appointment you have to schedule, etc. These will generally be tasks you can complete in under 15 minutes.

Once you finish these tasks, you’ll feel satisfied and happier about what you still have left to do. And when you have free time, you can actually relax and enjoy it instead of dwelling on what still needs to get done.

Schedule time to deal with the tasks you have identified. Generally, a block of a couple of hours as a one-off will be enough. In the future, try to deal with these types of tasks right away so they never get on your to-do list in the first place.

Plan for Results

Too many business people try to multi-task and then get frustrated when it doesn’t work. If you jump from one task to another too quickly, you lose concentration and time, as it takes a little while for the brain to refocus and get going on a new task.

You’re more productive when you focus on one thing at a time, so forget trying to juggle five things at once. Instead, start planning. Your monthly, weekly, and daily plans will get you organized and working systematically.

Planning is the means by which you turn intentions into results. Decide what needs to happen and when in order to achieve your goals.

You want to be reasonably organized but not so rigid that you don’t have time to respond to unplanned events. It’s important to recognize that crises will occur sometimes and you won’t always be able to control them. The key is maintaining control over your existing priorities while responding to any unexpected event that needs urgent attention.

Set Up Your Schedule

When you’re starting to plan your schedule, there are a few steps you need to take first. Once your schedule is set up, it will only need updating as you go along.

Here’s a way to plan:

1. Choose a planner that works for you to record your progress and keep you productive. There are many scheduling tools available, like digital apps and online planners. Or, you may choose to have an old-fashioned wall chart that’s in front of your computer. You might prefer using a desk diary or calendar, or a weekly agenda. Whatever works best for you is the right choice. There are some suggestions at the end of this section to get you started.
2. Identify recurring tasks. These will be somewhere on your master list. They’re the tasks you have to do every month, week, and day. For example:

• You need to complete your accounts before the end of the month for your accountant
• You have to write five blog posts each week
• You need to read and answer your customer emails each day

3. Break your schedule into chunks. You’ve already calculated how long it takes you to complete your regular tasks, so use that information to help you.

Divide your schedule into chunks to get the best out of yourself. Your mind works best for shorter periods like 45 or 60 minutes. So rather than block out a whole morning for marketing, set yourself the goal of posting your social media content for the week in, for example,  a 60 minute chunk.

When you get to that chunk of your day, set a timer for 60 minutes to keep your time boundary and stop when the time runs out. At the end of 60 minutes, take a 5 minute break to maintain your productivity on the next task. Get up and walk around, make a coffee, have a snack, or do something else that allows you to relax for a few minutes. If this sounds too rigid, you can experiment with it. You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish when you set yourself a one-hour deadline.

Use the timer on your phone or an online tool like FocusBooster (PC) or Tomato One (Mac).

4. Block out specific times for specific actions. Figure out the best time of day for you to do certain tasks based on the exercise you completed earlier. If you have the most energy in the morning, block out 10.00-12.00 for calls to customers. If your ‘down time’ is around 2pm, then use that time to answer your emails.

For example, you want to blog regularly which means writing and posting 3 blog posts per week. You’ll also use your blog posts as the basis for social media posts. You know it takes you 20 minutes to write a 500-word blog post, as you worked that out earlier. To turn that content into social posts takes another 10 minutes each. Therefore, the chunk of time you need is 3 x 30 minutes per week = 90 minutes. You know you work better in the morning and in short bursts so you decide to block out 2 x 45 minute sessions in your schedule on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

5. Enter your blocks into your planner. You now have a skeleton plan to work around.

You can find calendar tools in project management software like Asana and Basecamp, so you may have an online planner available with a package you already have. There’s also a calendar tool in Google and many other digital apps such as HubSpot, MyOffice, TimeTap, and so on.  If you work with other people, it’s useful to have a tool you can share.

If you’d rather stick to a simple Word version you can customize and update on your computer, something like this can work for you:

Write Tomorrow’s To-Do List

You’ll want to pay special attention to your daily to-do list. The things you do on a day-to-day basis are the actions that will help you achieve your goals.  I write out my to do list the evening before and if something doesn’t’ get done it will be moved to the next day.

Plan what you need to do tomorrow in advance, either the night before, or on the way to your office in the morning. Some people book time for themselves each day for 10 –15 minutes of uninterrupted time to plan their priorities for the next day.

Don’t be overly ambitious with your daily planning. Schedule no more than 3 high priority tasks in a day. Use the Urgent/Important Matrix to help you prioritize.

You could ask yourself, “What three things do I need to do today to move my business forward?” If you achieve those three, then the rest of the day can be your own.

Your daily to-do list can be as simple as this:

If you prefer, you can find apps and online to-do lists such as Remember The Milk, Todoist, or Microsoft To-Do.