Time Managmement - Part Four - The Master Schedule
In my last installment about time management I would like to talk briefly about creating and using a master schedule. A master schedule is very helpful in making sure that your priorities stay priorites. It helps to ensure that you make time for everything you want and/or need to accomplish on any given day and helps you stay focused.
Obviously, every day is different. Life happens. All a master schedule does is organize your day so that when all else fails you will remember to fit in the basics. It is meant to be a tool to help you, not be a burden. It is a guide only, not your master. If it becomes a burden, then it is not working and it is time for a change.
How does one go about making up a master schedule. It’s very simple. All I did was create a table in Microsoft Word (of course, you can use Microsoft Excel) and filled in the day using half-hour increments all the things I need to do, based on what is important to me.
To satify the curiosity of those who asked, here is a run down of my day (keep in mind that my faith is important to me and is reflected in my schedule - and yes, I am a morning person and that is also reflected in this):
5:00 a.m. Rise, shower, dress
5:30 Morning prayer, journaling
6:00 Morning care for son
6:30 Fix breakfast, eat, clean up
7:30 Mass and rosary
9:00 Drop son off at preschool
9:15 Client work, blogging
12:00 noon Pick son up from preschool
12:15 Make lunch, eat, clean up, midday prayer
1:00 Son down for nap, client work, blogging (if not done earlier)
3:00 Snack and free play for son, continue client work
4:30 House cleaning, prepare supper
5:30 Supper and clean up
6:30 After dinner walk, family time and prayer
7:30 Evening care for son, put him to bed
8:00 Work on a project or computer or T.V.
9:30 Night prayer and Bedtime
Needless to say, I don’t always follow this. The schedule is different on the days my son doesnt’ go to preschool and when I do my errands/shopping. There are days that I sleep in or don’t make it to mass.
Besides this master schedule, I have other schedules such as a cleaning schedule and others. As a matter of fact, I a have a whole home management binder with tabs for all sorts of home management tasks and reminders. (If you knew me, and how detail-oriented I am, you wouldn’t be surprized at all about ths. 
)
Not everyone is detailed-oriented, of course. And, if you don’t want a detailed master schedule, I would encourage you to put together a outline schedule of your day where you block out those things that are important to you.
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Comment by Benny
A Good post. It is true that we can manage our time better when we are more organized. We should allocate time for every work we do in an order, so that we can follow that schedule everyday, well almost everyday. An interesting article on time management.
Comment by Carol
Thank you, Benny.