5 Simple Ways to Stick to Your Schedule

Glasses and a calendar on a table

Do you want to better manage your busy schedule?

Are you looking for easy ways to manage your time every day so that you’re not stressed out?

You’ve carefully laid out your projects, meetings, and appointments in your planner.

Everything looks great on paper, but for some strange reason, you just can’t keep on schedule.

You regularly fall five, ten, twenty minutes behind…or more.

You’re puzzled and frustrated.

Just how can you keep things in balance?

In this post, you’ll find five tips to help you keep your balance when it comes to staying on schedule.

Keeping to your schedule is all about maintaining balance.

It’s like riding a bicycle.

You can’t haphazardly lean left or right.

You must find that “sweet spot” or balance point, so you can stay upright, pedal, and move yourself down the road.

The same goes for your calendar. It has to be kept in balance by you, to keep you moving through out the day.

Follow these tips and you’ll be one step closer towards a more organized calendar!

Live in the moment.

Do you check your smart phone during meetings, or talk on the phone while you write an email?

One of the keys to keeping a balanced schedule is to actively focus on what you are doing at any given point in time.

Remember, you scheduled items into your calendar so everything wouldn’t happen at the same time!

If you give your full, undivided attention to meetings and appointments, you’ll automatically keep your schedule in balance.

Review your schedule the evening before.

Take a look at tomorrow’s schedule at the end of the workday.

Start with your first appointment and pause for a brief moment.

You can then go onto the next schedule entry until you’ve finished.

This is a great way to gently introduce your schedule into your subconscious.

While this action may not seem like much, you are in fact giving yourself a mental “heads-up” for what’s to come the following day.

Your appointments will seem very familiar and manageable when you review your schedule again in the morning.

Practice regular check-ins with yourself.

Get in the habit of checking your schedule.

You’ll not only want to know what is on your schedule for the next hour, but for the next several hours as well.

Let the process be easy. Open your schedule and review it. You can then repeat your schedule aloud to yourself.

Your review might go something like the following, “I have my 10 AM marketing meeting in a few minutes, followed by report writing at 11 AM, and lunch with Bill at noon.”

You’ll no longer be surprised by calendar entries when you practice this habit on a regular basis.

Don’t be afraid to say “no.”

Do you have a difficult time saying no to invitations and requests?

For instance, if your day is packed, and a friend asks you to go out for a two-hour lunch, what do you do?

You know that that outing will throw your schedule out of balance.

Do you blindly accept the meeting or do you say no?

Don’t be afraid to say no.

If a meeting, event, or function, threatens to throw your schedule off, don’t be afraid to politely decline the invitation.

Remember, it’s your schedule. You get to decide what’s in it and on it.

Take action.

If you want to stay on schedule, you must pay attention to the time and act accordingly.

Do you glance at the clock and knowingly nod your head?

Unfortunately, this approach won’t get you anywhere. You must take action.

What happens if you’re a meeting presenter and the meeting needs to end promptly at 2:00 p.m.?

You should wrap up your talk, thank the participants for their time, and bring the meeting to an end.

Life is full of distractions. We must be intentional about our time and schedule. 

When we are in balance, we control our schedule. If we get out of balance, our schedule controls us.

Take control of your schedule for a balanced, more productive life.

How about you? What additional steps could you take today to keep on schedule? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

This post originally appeared on TimeManagementNinja.com.

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About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

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