Using a Simple Schedule Management Plan to Stay Organized
No matter how you look at it, finding more time very day just isn’t possible.
Time isn’t something that you can manufacture more of, make last longer than the week before or purchase. This is why Schedule Management is the key to Managing Your Time and Staying Organized. There is no one “cure all” way to stay organized, but planning, organizing and scheduling your day in advance will help keep you focused and you’ll start reaching daily, weekly and monthly goals and stay organized.
This month, Linda Clevenger, owner and organizer of Organization Direct in Fredricksburg, Virginia shares three examples of how she has helped her clients develop good, productive and personalized system to stay organized:
- Identify your daily tasks that are required in order for you to function. Being aware of daily tasks and what actually needs to find a home within your schedule will help you determine when and where to fit these tasks into your schedule. This, we feel, is important because it helps avoid the need to feel like you need to multi-task. (Which is totally counter-productive by the way). Staying focused on one task at a time allows you to concentrate and ultimately, you will spend less time getting things done.
- Identify what appointments and “extras” are scheduled every week. This would include things such as short-term changes in your schedule, i.e. the development of a new product, your children’s soccer practice schedule or a class that you just signed up for. These things are important – absolutely! However, they won’t be in your schedule forever. They are short-term projects and/or goals that will not be on your schedule next season. You will need to have them in your schedule management system for a short period of time…not a lifetime!
- Use schedule management tools to help you “fit” everything into your schedule. Identify what and how to manage your schedule by assigning an importance level to each item on your list. You’ve heard it in the past, many other professionals have talked about assigning a number to everything that is on your list. That never worked for me. What does work, however, is to identify which things on your list have to be handled every day. These are things that: if not handled, scheduled or met will have a negative effect on your day, life, family and life or business.
Managing your schedule isn’t easy. Sometimes it takes an outsider – accountability partner, mentor, coach – whatever resonates with you. What I will say is, you are not alone. Schedule management is something that more and more people are realizing is the answer to staying organized on a daily basis. Give it a try!
Linda Clevenger, Organization Direct
“Clutter and a lack of organization is not simply a matter of too much stuff and no place to put it. It is a matter of mindset, systems, and developing a thought process that allows you to avoid chaos and overwhelm. When you can think clearly, you are able to move forward to reach goals and dreams that you never thought possible. Simply put… ‘an unorganized mind does nothing – an organized mind achieves results’.”
Linda, thanks for sharing your tips & encouragement to get organized!
Kathy Jenkins is the President of Come To Order, a residential professional organizing company in Richmond, VA. As a Certified Professional Organizer®, Certified Family Manager® Coach, Love & Logic Parenting® Facilitator/Coach and Student Organizer, Kathy especially enjoys working with kids and their families to help them learn good organizational skills that will benefit them for a lifetime. To learn more about Love & Logic Parenting, follow Kathy on Facebook.
