Are You Scheduling Yourself Out of Productivity?
An eye-opening perspective on how to reframe your days
In most calendars, all scheduling blocks are created equal. A meeting with a potential client is the same as time scheduled to write an article or presentation is the same as brainstorming time with your team.
The fact is, each one of these tasks needs a very different type of block. If you have read Paul Graham’s Maker vs. Manager theory, you might have thought about this, but if you’re like me, you don’t give the type of activity you’re scheduling as much weight as it should have.
The basic idea behind Graham’s theory is that people who create things (writers, developers, programmers, artists, engineers) just plain need more time to get work done. It is a rare human that can just sit down at, say, a computer and start to type out a well-crafted article. Most people need to get into a creative space that, if interrupted, requires some time to reenter.
On the other hand, people who complete less creative (but just as important) work don’t need long chunks of time to be productive. They need to check in with the people they manage, communicate information, and GTFO.
These two schedules (maker and manager) should not look the same. If they’re efficient, a maker will likely have longer chunks of time (3-5 hours) dedicated to creating something of value. The manager? Most likely, if they’re productive, you won’t see meetings longer than an hour.
Now, this all brings up an interesting point. Yes, we should schedule more time for creative tasks and less time for more managerial exploits. But at the core of that is an interesting assumption. That we decide when something should end.
Most of us don’t consider the amount of time something will take unless we have to squeeze something in afterward. But the point is - we SHOULD! Why? Because we will inevitably allow things to take WAY longer than they should if there isn’t a set amount of time it should take.
I received an invitation the other day for a grownup party that said 8 pm - 11 pm. I don’t know about you, but most invitations I receive dictate the start time of a party, but the end time is left to whenever the heck people decide to leave. Now, I get that for (some) parties, but I often see this happen for meetings and other engagements as well.
Why should you set an end time for your engagements? Great question. Let me count the ways.
“Let’s meet for coffee at 10 am.” - Nope. I mean, yes. But, my new and improved invitation looks like, “Let’s meet or coffee from 10 am to 10:45 am.” Why? For less formal meetings, a set end time keeps those chronically late people on their toes and hopefully not wasting your time. If someone shows up 20 minutes late or a 45 minute coffee date, they’ll feel significantly worse than if that time is open-ended.
“Clean the house at 3 pm on Saturday.” - You may not be like me and you may have a pristine abode, but for those who don’t? Setting an end time for more long-term tasks like house cleaning can keep you from falling down the never-ending time suck of, “Oh, wow. I didn’t realize how dirty these baseboards were. I need to clean them, too.” Four hours later, you have likely missed your work deadline.
“I have so much on my calendar today.” - Do you? I mean, do you really? Sometimes, when we have a lot of line items on our calendars, we can feel overwhelmed. But, if four of five things you have to do in a day take less than a half hour (and you know that because you scheduled end dates), then you are more likely to feel a little less stressed about all the things you have to accomplish.
So yes, decide if your tasks are maker tasks or manager tasks and schedule accordingly. But, no matter what you’re doing? I highly recommend choosing an end time. You’ll be surprised how much time you get back.
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Love,
Michelle