What If Managing Your Schedule Wasn’t About Managing Your Schedule At All?

What If Managing Your Schedule Wasn’t About Managing Your Schedule At All?

When you think of schedule management, you probably think you’re balancing time. You’re juggling your assets (your people) with the responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. To an extent that’s true, but what if managing your schedule isn’t really about managing your schedule at all? What if it’s about more than that?

In essence, it is. Time management has more to do with what you schedule rather than when you schedule it.

It’s About What You Schedule

The tasks you put on your schedule directly correlate to what you will reasonably accomplish. If you’re asking for too much, you’re probably going to consistently miss goals and deadlines. If you’re asking for too little, you’re probably not going to see the results you’re capable of seeing.

By taking a closer look at what you’re scheduling, you can better manage your overall schedule. Where do you start? With these three steps.

1. Reconsider the Choices You’re Making in Your Business

Look closely at your goals. Then, look at how you’re scheduling your workday. Are you focusing the right people on the right tasks? Or are you having your team members do things that aren’t moving the needle?

Every day, you and your team make choices about what you work on and how you work. If you’re working too much in your business and less on your business, it might be time to make a smarter choice about what you’re putting on your daily schedule. Or, if you’re not putting enough resources toward one of your goals, it might be time to juggle your schedule and redirect your talent to other tasks that’ll help you achieve results.

2. Set Realistic Expectations

Before you can understand whether or not you’re scheduling too much or too little (or just the right amount) you need to take a close look at your expectations. What do you hope to achieve? Are your goals too lofty? Is your timeline too tight? Or are you not asking for enough out of your talent pool?

With your goals in mind, put forth reasonable expectations for you and your team. Leave yourself wiggle room for when things go wrong or when market demands take a sudden turn.  

3. Get Honest About Your Abilities

It’s easy to max out our days with items on the to do list in an effort to reach an end result faster. This will leave you burned out and demotivated faster than you might think.

Get honest with what your abilities. What are you reasonably able to accomplish? What should you delegate to someone else on your team or outside your business? As you answer those questions, it’ll become clearer what your abilities truly are and where you can seek more help to get you closer to your end goal.

Time Management Is About Task Management

The bottom line is this: If you’re feeling overwhelmed with managing your schedule, you might be focused on the wrong tasks. Redirect your and your talent pool’s time to the tasks that will help you achieve the most in the shortest amount of time.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007 and again in 2010, 2013 and 2014.