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A New Way to Schedule Your Workweek
The key to an effective weekly calendar is pessimism
As a time-management consultant, I see a lot of schedules — so I know what I’m talking about when I say that Catherine Gillespie’s schedule was a work of art.
Gillespie, a strategy consultant, tracked her time for me last year as part of a time-makeover project I recently led. She was freelancing 30–40 hours a week while homeschooling her five kids — before the pandemic. She exercised in the mornings; she got together with friends. She made it all work.
So why was she seeking advice from me? She told me that she wanted to protect time for creative writing in her full life. Her husband was happy to take the kids for a few hours on Saturdays so she could write. But when work took longer than expected, or a client asked for a new project, she’d log the extra hours during those Saturday windows. And just like that, her writing time would be gone.
Her schedule worked when everything went according to plan. But it had to go according to plan.
It’s a common dilemma. People make time for things that matter to them. Then life happens, and the time gets taken away. It’s easy to get discouraged, but that’s not the only option. You can be more optimistic about life if you become more pessimistic about time…
