How to Prevent Overbooking Your Schedule

How to Prevent Overbooking Your Schedule

Are you tired of having too many meetings, appointments, and commitments you won’t be able to keep in your calendar?

Do you want to prevent overbooking your schedule once and for all?

Your schedule is busy. Not just busy, but totally overstuffed.

You hit the gym first thing in the morning, followed by a full day of work jam packed with meetings, followed by a networking event.

You then have your weekly book club, drinks with a friend, and some volunteer administrative work for a local community theater. Phew!

It’s time to face facts. You have an overbooked schedule.

While it might seem like you’re being productive, an overbooked schedule can do more harm than good.

In this post, you’ll find practical tips to help you keep your schedule healthy and in check.

Not only will you learn how to reduce your chances of overbooking appointments, but you’ll reduce feelings of stress and overwhelm that come from an overbooked calendar.

Use a single calendar.

How many calendars do you use to schedule appointments and meetings? Do you use one for work, one for personal items, perhaps another for everything in between?

Overbookings can easily happen if you’re constantly referring to several calendars. There’s simply too much information spread across too many places.

Select one calendar (electronic, paper or otherwise) and enter all of your activities, appointments, meetings, and events into it.

Block out chunks of time in your schedule.

It’s common practice to block out work hours in a schedule, but what about those hours when you are off duty, running errands, and taking care of other personal items?

Prevent work from creeping into your personal time (and vice versa) by blocking out specific hours when you are available for work or play.

This way, you’ll know exactly how much time you’ve budgeted for each type of activity, and whether or not you can spare a bit more time. 

Set specific start and end times for appointments.

Overbooking can occur if one appointment or meeting runs into another. An hour-long review meeting at work can quickly turn into a two-and-a-half hour meeting if you’re not careful!

Be specific with the start and end time for all of your appointments, including those that aren’t fully confirmed. If specific times are not offered, take the initiative and ask how long something will take.

You can then add this time to your calendar. It’s far easier to adjust and modify your schedule using solid blocks of time.

Give yourself a break.

Travel break, bathroom break, computer break, walk break, or stretch break, however you say it, a break’s a break.

It’s difficult to do anything for a long period of time without taking a break. Instead of going directly from one appointment to the next, give yourself a break…literally!

How can you give yourself a break in your daily routine? How about allowing yourself enough time to collect your thoughts after a meeting? Could you grab some fresh air outdoors after a long writing session?

What about giving your eyes a break from staring at a computer screen? How about taking in a few minutes of relaxation after a long day at work or school?

How about you? What frustrates you the most when it comes to an accidentally overbooked schedule? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

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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.

2 Comments

  1. Allaya Cooks-Campbell

    This has been a consistent issue for me. I work between 3-7 jobs, depending on how you define them. An argument could be made that I work even more than that.
    I’m always busy, horribly stressed, feeling guilty and rushing somewhere. My husband keeps trying to get me to drop commitments, but most often, I end up dropping my commitments to myself– that day off I “scheduled,” that extra hour of sleep, that yoga class.

    Any tips or concrete things I could do right now to alleviate some of these concerns?
    And I would love if you could elaborate on the idea “do you feel that you have to maintain a packed schedule?” I’m pretty sure that’s me.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Hello Allaya,

      Thanks for your comment. For starters, I would suggest taking some time to sit down and evaluate your top priorities at this very moment. I know it might sound counter-intuitive to take 30 minutes or so to stop and plan, but this is super-important when it comes to managing your time. What are your top three priorities and goals for yourself right here, right now? Once you’ve got those listed out, it’s time to see what is in your schedule is directly in line with those goals and priorities. If not, you might want to reconsider those commitments.

      As far as “do you feel you have to maintain a packed schedule,” well, it really comes back to the paragraph above. Is what you are doing in line with your goals? If your schedule is hindering your efforts and making you feel overly tired, exhausted and stressed, it might be time to do some hard thinking about where you want to place your energies. I do hope you will take some time for yourself; try taking a couple of quiet moments for yourself each day to rest and recharge your batteries.

      As far as other tips, you might want to check the archives here on the site for more time management and productivity tips. If you’re still interested in more help time management help, please visit my coaching and consulting site, http://www.rashelleisip.com.

      I hope that helps!

      Best,
      Rashelle

      Reply

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