Does the thought of your schedule overwhelm you or make you want to ignore it all together? I have worked with clients that have a hard time managing all the moving parts of their work and life. And I’ve been there myself! It’s easy to see how things quickly get to be too much with all we have going on at any given time. Here are 2 tips to apply to your schedule if you are feeling the schedule overwhelm blues:

Tip 1: Give your schedule a structure. In this Fast Company article, Andee Love suggests that you create an A/B schedule so you don’t do every type of task every day. For example, meet with clients on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and set aside Tuesdays for administrative work and Thursdays for creative/strategic planning work. There are lots of ways you could structure this approach. There are even planners that have a structure built in for you. Here’s a list of some of those types of planners.

Tip 2: Be intentional about everything you put on your schedule. I put almost everything I actually do on my schedule because I can see how I actually spend my time (and I love a good completed task list). I also use color coding for different types of tasks to make it reader-friendly. To be intentional, I ask myself the following:

• Could this be outsourced to someone/something else? If yes, then outsource it. If no, ask…
• Is this something I am doing to avoid doing something else?” If yes, then don’t do it and just suck it up and tackle the thing I am avoiding. If no, then ask…
• Is this really necessary to add to my schedule? If yes, add it. If no, then don’t do it.

These questions help keep me intentional (and honest) and keep unnecessary things off of my schedule. And that is the stuff of joy making for me!

If you are suffering from the schedule blues, try these 2 tips for the next month and see if they help you regain some control over your time (and bring you joy).

For any scheduling gurus out there, do you have any scheduling tips that work for you that might help someone else struggling with this issue?