94 | Results Oriented Scheduling

With the year-end fast approaching, it's the perfect time to explore a calendaring technique that can transform your approach to time management.

In this action-packed episode, we’ll unpack the art of results oriented scheduling, a method designed to combat over-commitment and enhance productivity. This approach is not just about filling your schedule with tasks; it's about creating a clear and purposeful plan that aligns with your goals and priorities.

Whether it's maintaining your health, managing a small business, achieving a professional goal, or simply enjoying more leisure time, having a clear purpose can motivate you to stick to your schedule and achieve your desired results.

Tune in to discover how results-oriented scheduling can help you manage your time, tasks, and emotional well-being, one hour at a time.

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Transcript

Intro: Welcome to A Pleasant Solution, Embracing An Organized Life. I'm your host, certified life coach, professional organizer and home life expert, Amelia Pleasant Kennedy and I help folks permanently eliminate clutter in their homes and lives. On this podcast we'll go beyond the basics of home organization to talk about why a clutter-free mindset is essential to an aligned and sustainable lifestyle. If you're someone with a to-do list, if you're managing a household and if you're caring for others, this podcast is for you. Let's dive in.

Amelia: Welcome to Episode 94, “Results Oriented Scheduling.” Hey y’all! With the holiday season all around us and the year-end approaching, I thought I’d share a calendaring technique I use and often recommend to clients. If you’re someone who finds yourself regularly overcommitted or unsure of exactly when something will get done, being more precise with your calendaring blocks is an exercise you may want to experiment with. This episode will be short and to the point because it’s much more action-oriented than self-reflective.

Time management is task management. Time is passing every moment whether you’re engaged in a specific, targeted activity, engaged in waiting, or engaged in resting. Lots of inner drama and self-judgment can arise when you look back at your day or week and judge it as “not productive enough,” and it’s important to recognize that this universally common voice is often just plain wrong. You’re always doing what makes the most sense to your inner self at any given time, even if that’s actively avoiding a task that you don’t want to do or engaging in busy work because resting feels uncomfortable. Time management is task management which is ultimately emotional management and regulation. You’re always getting things done. The more nuanced challenge is making sure you’re tackling the “right” activities for the moment instead of letting your mood or level of motivation dictate your day.

Limiting your list of tasks to time-sensitive or priority-based activities is the first step towards thwarting this inner drama and self-judgment. Knowing what needs to be done (versus “nice-to-do’s”) is a skill in and of itself and takes trial, error, and consequences.  This is where capturing your ideas, then dividing them into categories plays an important role. The list of essential items for the day or week should be just that… an essential list of 1-3 things maximum per day. I go into this topic in much more detail in Episode 75, “Getting Things Done.”

Intentionally planning your blocks of time with generous amounts of transition and buffer time is the second step. Not blocking off time in between activities is a common misstep that leads to anxiety, frustration, and that familiar inner voice of irritation. I’ve covered this in previous episodes as well. Which leads me to today’s solution: proactively defining what you’ll get done in each specific block. It’s a way of nailing down and committing to the results you want for this specific week. It’s a way of creating a familiar sense of predictability, clarity, and purpose, and although it may feel a bit bumpy at first, it will ultimately help you feel more productive. By outlining exactly what you’ll accomplish and scheduling when you’ll accomplish it, you’ll be setting yourself up for a level of success that’s attainable. Episode 34, “The Power of Done,” goes into the tremendous rewards of leaning into what you did complete, rather than being absorbed by your brain’s tendency towards negativity bias, or what was left undone.

So, what do I mean by “results-oriented scheduling?” Just like defining the scope of an organizing project and defining your end goal with a specific project, results-oriented scheduling is defining for yourself what you’ll complete in the block of time in a measurable way. It’s calendering pre-work. For example, each week you may have four blocks of time on your schedule for exercise or movement. Standard scheduling may have you labeling that time as that, “exercise” or “gym.” This generic labeling leaves lots to interpretation. Basically, it gives your brain wiggle room. It’s a subtle way of telling yourself that this block is broad in scope. Without a clearly defined outcome, you’re less likely to commit to making it happen, may occasionally need to lean on willpower or motivation to get moving, and you’re leaving the door open to skip out altogether.

Narrow those four blocks down to be as specific and results oriented as possible. Walk four miles in 50 minutes with 5 min stretching warm up and 5 min stretching cool down is more accurate. Upper body lifting with dumbbells for 15 min plus 15 min of foam rolling on the lower body is clearer. Again, it gives your brain something tangible to anchor onto. You’ve decided in advance what task you’ll accomplish and what time you’ll accomplish it. When I’m working with clients, I often encourage them to take it one step further and tie that result to their why. Perhaps your goal is to keep dementia at bay, like me. Perhaps it’s to fit into your favorite dress. Perhaps you move on a weekly basis in order to eat as much cake as you’d like or prevent a heart attack. Your why is your own, and that why can go into the calendar block label on your schedule. For example, from noon to 12:30 on weekdays, the label reads “brisk walk for 6 loops around the block to keep IBS symptoms in check.” It’s clear. It’s purposeful. It’s results oriented.

This approach is especially meaningful during the holiday season as the calendar gets full quickly. Remember, a scheduling block can be a portion of a task too. Keep it results-focused either way. One block can be “review budget and set gift limits for the 12 people I’m buying for.” Another can be “select recipes for the 3 dishes I’m making, create a shopping list, and share it with my partner who’ll own grocery shopping.” From the Fair Play Method’s point of view, it’s a way of creating explicitly defined expectations for yourself or others. Your calendar is simply the vehicle for recording them. With this practice you’ll soon see whether you have enough time available for the tasks on your list. It’s possible that your calendar will show you that managing + limiting your task list is the best path to feeling successful, not managing your time. You can’t change the amount of time allotted, but you can change your expectations of yourself and others.

Results-oriented scheduling works. If you’re running a small business or an employee, you can define exactly what portion of a project you’ll create when. It creates a mission or purpose for each block. Over time it will help you better realistically gauge how long tasks take you and whether you over or underestimate what you can accomplish in a given set of hours. You then can acknowledge your inner self-judgment around your productivity and kindly set it to the side. Your automatic, unintentional response that says you should’ve accomplished more is off base because you have data that tells you what results you did create and exactly how long it took you to create them.

I hope this is helpful. Again, it’s a technique to move you out of overwhelm and more into a space of what’s realistically possible for any one day, one week, or one holiday season. You’re more organized than you think. You’re in control of your time, your tasks, and your wins. It’s natural to overload your calendar, yet you have the ability to step away from that habit by clarifying for yourself what specifically you’ll do when. You have the ability to add sufficient transition and buffer time in between to lower and limit your stress response. You have the ability to rewire your brain to celebrate all that you were able to accomplish – including downtime and rest. Many tasks have more steps and take more minutes than we estimate. Our society has overstretched the term productivity which is leading to the deep exhaustion most folks are feeling. Defining for yourself a handful of mini goals or results retrains and right-sizes your expectations one hour at a time. Talk to y’all soon.

Outro: Hey y'all, share the love. Remember, if you've had at least one valuable takeaway from this episode, someone else will too. I'd encourage you to share it with like-minded folks and suggest they follow the podcast too. I truly appreciate your time and I don't take it for granted.