Question of the Day #18: Do you schedule your time?

Do you schedule your time?
How do you deal with a change in your schedule?
How does it make you feel when someone is wishy-washy with their scheduling?
Does it bother you when someone changes their plans at the last minute?
What if it happens frequently?
Babble about scheduling!

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In my world, a person scheduled out their time, often down to 15 minute intervals, and kept to the schedule. If something got off schedule, you'd choose the thing to cut out that affected the least number of people, and find a way to get back on schedule. I had things to look forward to every single day. From one minute to the next. I knew what was coming. I knew what to expect. And I was glad that others kept to their schedules as much as I kept to mine. Everything was clear and predictable. I realize now that this came from my mother. Hubby pointed out that the level of organization for her trip itineraries was more than a tad overkill. But honestly, before that moment, I thought it was perfectly normal for people to live like this.

Enter my husband. Whose family lives very much from moment to moment, going wherever the wind takes them. My husband used to be guilty of driving me crazy with his lack of scheduling. He would make a commitment then out of nowhere flake out on it. Something had come up at home or a friend had randomly stopped by his house or his mom needed him to run to the store... a million and one excuses. None of which made sense to me.

Try to reconcile that difference in a relationship. It only took a couple years, but we found a middle ground.
Honestly, I've learned to loosen up. A lot. And he's learned the value of his time, and others' time. So he likes to be on time or early for things now. And he is bothered when others are not on time or early. When plans change, we inform people as early as we possibly can and reschedule, so they can make the appropriate changes to their days as needed, and to show them that we value their time. But I don't over-plan and schedule our days together.

Sure, when it's just me and my girls, I like to have a concrete plan for our days. But I break it down into two-hour increments rather than 15 minute increments. Usually broken up by snacks or mealtime. Our week days are relatively regimented. But our weekends are free-flowing as their father prefers. I do my best to make sure the girls still eat when they should, so they don't get crabby and frustrated, but if we wake up late or go to bed early or watch hours of TV on end, it's fine.

Dang, I love scheduling. I need to go make my weekly plan for snacks/meals now. Yummy food planning.

 

I'm almost exactly the opposite. I like flexibility, and have found through experience that whenever I attempt to make detailed plans they inevitably fall apart. More details just mean more things to go wrong.

My approach now is to understand what's important. Objectives, deliverables, deadlines, stakeholders. What am I doing, why am I doing it, who am I doing it with and when am I doing it? Knowing that I need to hit the first milestone of $project by next week is useful. Knowing that I'm going to the movies with my sister on Saturday is good. Knowing where we're going for dinner before the day of isn't really critical, nor is knowing which specific hour of which specific day I'm going to work on completing the milestone I need.

This approach usually works, but it took me a long time to learn how to account for planning fallacy. I'm still not sure that I have it down; I'm still not great at estimating how long any given task will take, but I'm better at giving myself enough space in front of deadlines that I can usually fit in whatever I need to. The way I see it, there's nothing wrong with being flexible with my own time, but it's disrespectful to expect others to be flexible to accommodate me, so I try to stick to my word as often as possible.

Basically, I'm aware that I suck at planning, so I've learned to make conservative estimates and give myself the room I need to be a flake without negatively affecting people around me.

I know my way of doing things isn't something that would work for everyone. It drives Magpie crazy -- she likes to know every detail and I rarely have any to give her. But somehow things do work out.

 

I don't have to regiment my entire day. Based on the fact that many days I'm traveling, some days I'm working from home, and I have random times I may have to leave my home/hotel for my work appointments, I don't have an ironclad routine every day.

However, in a broader sense, I do schedule what days certain appointments or activities need to fall on, and I stick to it very well. I put pretty much anything of note in my calendar, and set reminders for myself constantly.

I have a very well known reputation for being on time, and expecting others to be on time if they are going to be accompanying me somewhere, or involved in an activity with me. Everyone's time is important, and I think it is a very rude to agree to a specific time, then be late. I won't do it to you unless it is an extremely rare circumstance, and I'll communicate to you in those cases. Please do the same in return.

Also, if I commit a time to you, I do my absolute best to meet that commitment. So I get frustrated when others commit to do something, then cancel or flake out for petty reasons.

All that being said, I can handle not having a schedule for something, having a day that is wide open for whatever we decide to do at the last minute, or whatever. It's just that, if there is a solid plan for timing of an event, I like it to happen as scheduled.

 

I have an incredible ability to guesstimate exactly how long a given task will take. It allows me to schedule accordingly.

I plan a lot of things. Our weekly meals, for instance, so I can cook them all on Sunday afternoon.

My work is obviously on a schedule. I plan everything on the Thursday before. Thursday is my "long" day at work. I close out the week and run copies for the week ahead. I lay everything out for the week on Friday. That means that on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, I am either 1) grading, or 2) leaving. Keeping to this schedule means I leave at the end of the contract day even on days my coworkers don't. I'm not a martyr, nor am I looking to be.

When I come home, I usually clean or put whatever it is I prepped on Sunday to cook.

Saturday is Caturday. I pet my cats. I have coffee and pet my cats. Then we usually try to make a dent on the household chores before shenanigans ensue.

Sunday is similar to Saturday but with hair washing and cooking. I cook while my husband is gone to ultimate frisbee.

My mornings are pretty scheduled, too, but I'm flexible.

 

Go with the flow, I deal with change well.
But I do try to be on time and I'm annoyed if someone is over 10-15 minutes late. (or at least call to give an ETA)

Ya can't live in San Diego for 12 years and not be able to deal with time flakes.
DC is much better for promptness.

But I will call someone on their continuing rudeness
That or lie to them to come earlier so they get there on time.