Being an entrepreneur, a self-starter, and a self-employed worker is most often gruesome grinding through to-do lists that keep growing by the minute. Keeping the overview of daily tasks can become tedious work. Yet, it is essential to be self-organised to not miss the truly important things for your business.
How well you progress is often decided by the preparations the day before. This is especially true for teamwork, as we figured last week. If you plan the coming working day in advance, you are better prepared.
I distilled some tips that are helpful to plan a workday and how to create a workable structure that you can repeat day after day. This means you will create a to do list, and the items are always bound to dates, with deadlines and having blocks of time when you aim to finish them.
Here is how I integrate them in my work-day
ca 06:00 (am)
hello world, getting up and time for a coffee.
06:30 (am)
Attach with work
Hold a daily stand-up meeting with yourself.
If you follow my blog, you know by now that I love stand-up meetings.
A stand-up meeting is a quick coordination check-in in the morning, at 15 minutes max. Some prefer it in the afternoon - I like to do them in the morning for various reasons, usually in front of the Team Kanban Board. However, the same idea can be used if you are working on your own.
In the meeting, answer the following questions:
How are you?
What are you working on today?
What worked well, did not work yesterday?
Do you need help?
Especially when everyone is working from home, such a short exchange can improve teamwork.
Use the results from the stand-up meeting to revise your to-do list. You revise it immediately after the meeting.
If it is Monday morning, consider to roughly schedule the workweek after your own stand up.
Take about half an hour on to roughly plan the week, check for urgent mails that may have come in over the weekend. This is when you schedule the big tasks you know will come and have to be done on time, like content creation, newsletter writing, pitching, writing bills and such.
I also set deadline blockers for these important tasks, so I always have a bit of leeway in for unforeseen events. This short planning burst will give you a first impression of what you have to do this week.
After you are done, focus time starts with the most crucial task.
16:30 (4.30pm)
Check tomorrow's schedule in the afternoon.
About two hours before closing time, take a look at tomorrow's calendar. Check whether there is a necessary appointment that you still need to prepare and forgot. If you have the time, you can do this before the end of the day. Otherwise, plan the preparation for the beginning of the next day.
Also, now is the time to remember or invite team members if they are necessary for a meeting, if you did not already do it.
17:30 (5.30pm)
Take care of emails that need to be finished.
Shortly before the end of the working day, you will have another look at your mail program. If you find any emails that you have already started, write them down. This means that you do not have to carry these short tasks with you into the next day.
If they are difficult or will take considerable amounts of time to write, consider planning them for the next morning. Writing with a clear mind and having a bit of distance is usually the best way not to act irrationally or make many mistakes.
The last 15 minutes of the work day
Update your to-do list
As the last task of the working day, double-check your to-do list. Check off completed tasks and ask yourself the following questions about the open tasks:
Are there any tasks that need to be done in a specific order?
What do you absolutely have to do tomorrow? Prioritise these tasks higher.
What can you postpone to another day? Prioritise such work more deeply.
Are there any tasks that need to be completed at a specific time of the day? Do you need to prepare for a meeting? Plan the time in your calendar now to keep your head free.
ca 20:00 (8pm)
Detach from work
If you used this schedule, you now have worked around 11-12 hours, which is a lot.
If you aim to have 6-7hrs of sleep, you have about three or four hours a day for yourself, family etc (half an hour being also used in the morning to get up, another half an hour to go to bed).
Thus, do sports now if you have not incorporated activities in your daily plan. Take time to calm down and take care of your mental health, so that you can keep this up for long enough without burning yourself out.
You wrote all important things down to your to do list, so your head should be free now. If not, consider to start a diary to let go of emotional distress after you finished the todo list. Whatever it is, detach now from work.
You will find yourself sleeping a lot better if you know you have an overview over the chaos.
Of course, the times are examples only. While I change the times, the events stay the same, find a rhythm that works for you and follow it through.
I often do the sports in the afternoon or early in the morning, to get some sun and to have a break from sitting still. I also tend to keep dinner shorter than lunch. Nevertheless, it is always at least two hours in the evening that I take to detach.
What is your schedule?
Let me know.