Effective Scheduling: Planning to Make the Best Use of Your Time

Start by establishing the time you want to make available for your work.

How much time you spend at work should reflect the design of your job and your personal goals in life.

Block in the actions you absolutely must do. These will often be the things you are assessed against.

Schedule in high-priority and urgent activities, as well as essential maintenance tasks that cannot be delegated or avoided.

Try to arrange the high-priority tasks for the times of day when you feel most productive.

Schedule some extra time to cope with contingencies and emergencies.

Some interruptions will be hard to predict, but leaving some open space in your schedule gives you the flexibility you need to rearrange tasks and respond to important issues as they arise.

The space you have left in your planner is "discretionary time". Use it to deliver your priorities and achieve your goals.

• Review your prioritized To-Do List and personal goals.
• Evaluate the time you need to achieve them.
• Schedule them in.

If you have little discretionary time available, question whether all of the tasks you've entered are necessary. Some tasks can be delegated or tackled in a more time-efficient way.

If you find that your discretionary time is still limited, then you may need to renegotiate your workload or ask for help.