A couple of months ago I wrote about creating a schedule for myself like a student’s schedule at college. The idea was to dedicate 30 minutes of time each week to one of my important but not urgent priorities and strategies for the year.
This did not work.
Here is what my pre-set schedule looked like:
Do Things Daily
The first thing I learned from this experiment is that a daily routine works really well. I didn’t miss the morning blog post. I didn’t skip the writing time or the Daily Review at the end of the day. I did, however, ignore the irregular strategy sessions.
The lesson:
If something is important, do it everyday for just a short amount of time.
The first thing I did when I sat down to work at 1:00 p.m. is write. The writing project may change, but since writing is a priority, I know not to skip it.
What about other priorities? Take networking, for example. If networking was truly something I held as a top priority, then I should set aside 20 minutes every day at a specific time a day to reach out to influencers or connect on social media.
Trust the System
The second thing I learned is to trust the system. I already have in my Morning Preview, Daily Review, and Weekly Review steps in a checklist that will help my prioritize the important yet not urgent tasks. An irregular schedule is not as effective as setting a schedule for myself one day ahead.
The lesson:
Trust your system.
Plan one day ahead, but be careful not to focus only urgent and unimportant tasks.
