3 Smart Time Management Schedules You MUST Try!

It’s easy to blame our misfortunes on time.

You’re frustrated because you don’t have enough time to complete everything on your to-do list, so you give up and stop putting in any effort at all.

I’m in a bad mood because I’ve been waiting nearly 2 YEARS (!!!) for the next season of Bridgerton, so I have to angrily rearrange my bookshelves instead of doing my work.

But are those things really true? Or are we just using time as a scapegoat for our own issues?

I created an entire course about overcoming our worst excuses regarding time management, so you can guess my opinion. Today, I want to convince you to get a bit more strategic with your time and choose a time management schedule to help you help yourself.

Why Use a Time Management Schedule?

1. You can’t “wing it” forever if you want to be successful. Having no plan for your time will cause you to continue to fail and miss deadlines. So sloppy!
2. It’s rude to the people who depend on you. A system helps you sign those permission slips, arrive on time for date night, and pick up your friend from the hospital.
3. You’ll be less stressed and anxious. Admit it, this is most important reason!

Alright, your mission is to try one of my 3 favorite time management schedules.

Batched Schedule

A batched schedule is when all similar tasks are grouped together on specific days. You might have a Money Monday, Marketing Tuesday, World Domination Wednesday, Social Media Thursday, etc.

• Pros: You’re able to focus for a long, luxurious amount of time, and you don’t get pulled in multiple directions all day.
• Cons: If you miss a day, you miss all of that category’s related tasks until next week.

A batched schedule is also know as “Themed Days.” 

Pacing Schedule

A pacing schedule is when you hit all of your priorities every day, but only for a few minutes up to an hour. Everything gets touched and inched forward.

• Pros: This is great for making daily progress (no matter how small), and you constantly know the status of all your projects.
• Cons: You leave a lot of projects half-finished, and you don’t get a “big win” for a long time.

One popular type of pacing schedule is using the Pomodoro Technique. This is also the schedule I use for my business work, but it may or may not work for you and your needs.

Time Blocking Schedule

A time blocking schedule is a combination of batched and pacing schedules. You block off 1-3 hours per batched category of tasks throughout your day. When the block is up, you must move on to the next one.

• Pros: This is a good combo of batching and pacing. You get a long time to complete a task and everything gets attention daily.
• Cons: If there’s an emergency, then you miss that block until the next day. You might not be able to fit blocks for every category on each day.

For one year, I went to a high school that insisted on using a block schedule. You might like to spend a long time working on a passion project, but teenage me was absolutely dying of boredom in my 3-hour world government class.

Choose Your Schedule!

Now it’s your turn to try these time management schedules and figure out what works best for you according to your personality, lifestyle, projects, energy levels, and more.

Give yourself permission to experiment until you feel like your most-productive self.

This tip comes from Startup In 60, a time management course for busy women who are ready to FINALLY start their own businesses whether they have 60 days . . . 60 minutes . . . or just 60 seconds!