I’ve got a dead-easy WorkFlowy scheduling system for those who don’t have a fixed, predictable daily routine… especially if you’re the boss of you – or you have a significant amount of time between fixed events – and you’d like to try and make it one of those carpe diem days.
This little productivity booster is a standalone dynamic… You can include it in your repertoire no matter whether you’re a date tagger or have a chronological WorkFlowy calendar in place.
Much like an actual calendar, laying out your daily schedule in WorkFlowy will make you more conscious of how your entire day could shape up. It also brings into perspective what is humanly possible.
So… you already know what you’ve got planned for today and you also know what your priorities are – because you’ve got a great task management system in place (and you’ve gone all Eisenhower-Matrix on your tasks)… but quite frequently you may lose track of time and leave some of the not-so-urgent, but nonetheless important activities undone – perhaps due to a lack of scheduling (I can’t tell you how often I’ve missed out on beach time because I kept my nose to the grindstone).
Here’s a shared WorkFlowy list with a template of the outline I’m about to walk you through.
Kanban Schedule basics
In the below GIF, you’ll see:
- The “NOW” stage holds tasks I’m focusing on right now.
- If I toggle Ctrl+O, it reveals a list of tasks I’ve already completed. I keep them hidden.
- The “NEXT” stage holds the rest of the day’s tasks. I keep it collapsed.
- Once I’m done with a block of time in the “NOW” stage, I complete it (Ctrl+Enter), expand the “NOW” stage and pull in the next block of time from the “NEXT” stage (Alt+Shift+Up).
- I then re-collapse the “NEXT” stage to keep it minimalist.
At the end/ beginning of the day
Once I’m done with my final time block/ task of the day…
- I un-hide all the completed tasks (Ctrl+O) and un-complete them (Ctrl+Enter), cut and paste them into my archive…
- Copy a list of times from my Schedule Template to the “NEXT” stage…
- Then I plot out my fixed events for the next day.
Lipstick on a pig
What is it that they say about putting lipstick on a pig? Anyways… the following is not essential, but it does help to prettify your outline.
- I use the Painter for WorkFlowy extension to get a solid background color for scheduled events and make them stand out:
- I wrote about colored tags in this post. You can also install this Stylish style.
Practical tips
- You don’t have to plan your whole day from the get go. You can plan a couple of blocks of time and “fill in the blanks” later.
- I often pull 2 new blocks (hours) of time into my “NOW” stage.
- When needed, I use a dotted/ dashed line to demarcate tasks before and after the half hour:
Too much work, you think?
The show and tell is a lot more tedious than the actual doing.
I’ve been using this system for the last 3 months… and it is bananas how it’s helped me to step up my game. By stepping up my game, I mean that it’s helped me to have a smarter and more balanced day.
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . .”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
Get EXCLUSIVE bite-sized WorkFlowy updates: tips, tricks & news about FREE online workshops with Frank Degenaar. Sign up here.