Schedule Management Methods for a 7th-Year Professional #318

A friend asked me for advice on "schedule management" this morning, so
I will summarize my current schedule management method.

● Recommended for people like this

• Those who want to switch from planner management to smartphone management

• Those who want to manage both private and work schedules in one place

• Those whose daily task management is vague and want to get it organized

• Those who might even want to write a diary

● Purpose of schedule management

There are three purposes for which I manage my schedule.

1. To accurately grasp the schedule of work (projects)

2. To grasp my free time and the overall balance

3. To be able to look back on what I did by day, week, and month, and gain insights

● Approach to schedule management

Separate things that you complete on your own
from things that involve multiple people

First, as a major premise,this time it is about managing my own schedule.
I have given up on managing schedules other than my own in one place.
This is because everyone has different preferences, so it is quite difficult to get them to unify to mine.
Therefore, I manage projects separately using Notion, Jira, spreadsheets, etc., according to the members.
First, let's think about your own schedule (the scope you can manage yourself)

● Conclusion: Think based on Google Calendar

I've tried various things, but I still think Google Calendar is the best.
The final conclusion is this:
・Basically Google Calendar, with a planner as a sub is best
・Manage by the week with Google Calendar
・Month and day views are possible, but a bit hard to see
・Use a daily planner in parallel to manage daily tasks
・Use a monthly planner in parallel to understand the balance

● Basically Google Calendar, with a planner as a sub is best

The image is Google Calendar for accurate grasping and
a planner for reflection and a sense of balance.

▼ These are the two things I look at every day

▼ Look at these two when you want to check by the month

● What to do in Google Calendar

At the very least, enter all known plans specifically with their time slots.

As a fundamental rule, try entering every single plan. Starting with just this week is fine, too.
Estimated times are perfectly acceptable.

If there is travel involved, enter the travel time first.

By including travel time, it becomes easier to grasp your actual free time. Entering travel time plus 15 minutes allows for a more relaxed commute.

For tentative plans, add "(Tentative)" and leave a note to prevent scheduling conflicts and make adjustments easier.

To avoid overlapping plans, make sure to enter tentative ones as well.
That way, when someone asks, "Are you free here?"
you can avoid conflicts or use it as a reminder to confirm the tentative plan.

If you can share with your team or partner, invite them and share parts of your calendar.

Furthermore, it is even better if you can share your calendar.
Since it makes it easier to understand each other's availability, I share my calendar with my family.
It doesn't have to be everything; just inviting them to necessary events on the calendar is fine.

Use color-coding on your calendar to see the overall balance.

Calendars can be color-coded, and doing so allows you to check the overall balance at a glance.
With a paid plan, you can even see the ratio of each color tag.
You can visualize things like "too many meetings this month" or "am I getting enough rest?"

● What to do in your planner

Write down your daily tasks in the morning.

In the morning, look at your Google Calendar and write down your tasks.
I intentionally write down things that are already on Google Calendar.
This might seem inefficient because I'm writing them twice, but writing them down myself helps me fully recognize them.
Also, I make sure my tasks end with a "verb".
If you just write "Read Document A," you might just read it and stop, but by clarifying it as "Write down questions," you create a task that leads to the next action.

Use the margins for a diary.

If you use one page per day and jot down your feelings and events of the day,
your task management turns into a diary at the end of the day.
I recommend this because you don't have to be overly enthusiastic about "writing a diary!"—you can just do it while doing other things.

I recommend the Discovery planner.

That's all!

This is roughly 70% of my process, so
if anyone wants to know more, I might update it again.

I hope this is helpful to someone!