Bernskiold Media

Use Calendars to Schedule

I used to have my days very relaxed during the time that I would get the opportunity to work full day at freelance projects. The day would be going as it went and usually had no type of schedule at all. At the beginning of this year, I talked here on the site a bit about finding a new workflow type (and batch processing) and with that, how to re-think how my working days look. Now when I’ve had more time to work through this and been in it for a while, let me share how I am now using my calendar to schedule my working days.

Plan Important Day Events

For all the days that I have school, I have my entire schedule in iCal (my calendar application of choice) and synced to my iPhone. Even though classes are far more strict in school, I try to replicate a bit of the mindset into my workday.

The first thing I plan out in my schedule is of course at what time I need to be up and working. It depends on the amount of work I need to do. Sometimes I work longer into the night (because of timezones and contact with the US that way) or I get up earlier in the morning.

When I’ve decided that, I set up a lunch hour. What time I’m supposed to get some lunch. I also make sure to eat it away from the computer to make sure it really gets to be a break from work.

If you have other things as appointments, these might control the work day and lunch time and should definitely go right in at the start, taking into account the time required to get there.

Do or Don’t Plan Time For Projects

What I typically don’t do is plan in certain times in the day that I am going to be working on a certain project. This is mainly because my mind shifts a lot and at that specified time, I may not be able to work at that certain project, but another one. What I’ll do however is plan in the time that I’m going to record, if that is on the to-do list.

With all the other projects, I just use the time not planned for anything else to work on these in the order that I chose then and there. For the project stuff, I also use a to-do list more than my calendar for the reasons I mentioned previously; I pretty much cannot commit to that certain time.