“This”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/announcements/lifehacker-comments-faq-126744.php lifehacker article pointed me at a great article on “Open Loops”:http://hwebbjr.typepad.com/openloops/2006/05/creating_a_base.html about creating a Baseline Calendar.

!http://thescri.be/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/calendar-thumbnail.jpg (Calendar Thumbnail)! The idea of having various parts of my day and week set to a fixed schedule has been floating around my mind for years, Back when I was at school I devised a schedule for my week so that I could fit everything in - the aim was to reduce the amount of last-minute panic and rushing. Having dug up the document I can see now why it failed miserably… It was too inflexible.

Each day had a set of scheduled activities: on Mondays when I got in I would clean my uniform and on Tuesdays I’d work on paperwork for ATC. Each day was broken down further: when I got in on Mondays I’d clean polish the brass, after that I’d iron and press my kit and then hoover my room for half an hour, the hoovering would give way to shoe polishing at exactly seven o’clock etc. etc.

On the odd day where I was late in, my whole plan would go to pieces and I’d end up procrastinating and worrying that I’d not get it all done rather than getting on with it.

Another downside to my tight schedule was the absence of free time. I included in it some bits 7 pieces that didn’t really need doing _every week_, this led me to feel useless when I had a week off and did a great job of stressing me out when I had more work than my programme catered for.

One of my more successful *Hard Coded schedules* came about during my period of A-level revision, though I suppose it was more of a *daily routine* than anything else . I forced myself up in the morning and dealt with my emails for 20 minutes. After that I had a cup of tea and went for a walk in the local park to wake my brain up. I’d then revise set topics throughout the day and finished the day by writing a summary of what I’d covered. I’d then look over that summary just before I went to sleep so that it stuck in my mind.
This strict routine was fine as a short-term solution to a specific problem (i.e. my A-levels) but I’m sure would fail for the same reasons that my old school schedule failed. It’s *too inflexible*.

Lately, I’ve been finding that I have trouble getting on with the important stuff because “there’s always something routine which needs doing”…
bq. These tasks, if left to their own devices, can divide up a day into time periods that are too small for any substantial work to be done within them.

Because of this problem I’ve been thinking about implementing some sort of schedule to bring a bit more order and *discipline* into my life and reading the post on Open loops has finally galvanised me into some sort of activity…

As I see it, I need to look at my schedule in two different ways:
* *A weekly programme* to deal with those slightly longer things, both routine and not so routine and,
* *a daily schedule* to regulate the silly little daily chores we all have to do.

I think that these two ideas need to be kept separate, lest I end up with the same problems I faced with my school schedule. As I see it the need to
* Be *loose* enough so that I’m not completely restricted in what I do at a specific time but
* be *strict* as far as essential chores and tasks are concerned. I need to include *time constraints* on things such as email checking, reading and RSS browsing.

I also need tom make sure that I include only the things I know I do (or need to start doing) _every_ day/week, and not add in things that I thing would “just be a good idea to do regularly”.

h3. Creating my schedules

My first step was to dig out the documents I wrote a few months back when I first looked into this idea
* _Things I do every day_ included stuff like email, phone calls, feed reading and catching up on the news.
* _Things I do every week_ included stuff like hoovering, practicing my guitar and updating my blog.
* _Things I do every month_ included car washing and servicing, clearing out old files and mass-updating my PC.

After picking through the lists I decided that with a flexible plan I’d be able to fit all the monthly jobs in at some point so there wasn’t any need to schedule these. I could simply plan them into my *normal calendar*. I also removed all the non-relevant and not-so-important stuff that I really didn’t _need_ to do on a weekly/monthly basis.

The next stage in the process was to chop up my week into blocks. As I work in a 9-5 job I decided that my blocks would run from 6.30pm through ’till 11.30pm, this gives me five hours per evening to play with.

After drawing out a grid with the five columns (Mon-Fri) and five rows (each hour-long block) and scrubbing out Tuesdays I started playing round arranging the various jobs in the grid. I’ve tried to spread them out so that I’m not doing repetitive and boring tasks one after the other, and my time on and off the computer is divided up. I also took note of the fact that whilst I’m at my most productive on Thursdays, on Friday afternoons I’m never really in the mood for doing much.

I also allocated a specific block of time to spend reading fiction, or walking in the park so that as long as I stick to the programme I’m _forced_ to chill out for a bit.

When deciding upon titles for the blocks I’ve tried to keep them fairly *broad* in certain instances, while maintaining a few stricter blocks where I need to.
For example, I’ve a dedicated block for “Bagpipe Practice” as it’s something I really _have_ to do on a weekly basis, however another block is simply entitled “musical bits” - I can choose to practice guitar, write lyrics or study other music.

It seemed only sensible for me to leave the weekend out of my programme, mainly because I spend so many weekends away so trying to set definite things to do would simply be impossible. Of course saying this, I did include some broad goals for my Sundays - only to apply if I’m not away. One of these falls between 8.30 and 9.30pm, where I intend to review my week and spend some descent time looking over how I did and what I learned, reading my journal and getting ready for the next week. The other is in the period after 9.30, where I intend to switch my computer off and spend the time reading over any factual literature I’ve picked up over the week, almost as a learning/revision session - something I’ve taken from my A-level revision strategy.

Creating my daily routine was pretty straight-forward - I’ve set a specific time each morning to check my email and act on anything simple. Each evening, before I begin my “evening schedule” I’ve set aside half an hour to act on any email which I can’t deal with in the mornings. I’ve also set aside twenty minutes each morning to skim through my RSS feeds and take a look at the latest news stories.

My next step is to produce some pretty-looking graphics that I can pin up/keep in my wallet so that I can keep myself on track. I might also include some bubbles for filling in when I’ve completed a block, so I can keep track of how long I _actually_ spent on a specific task, and adjust my schedule accordingly.

h3. So in summary…

* Blocking up your time and creating a fixed Baseline calendar is cool, providing you don’t *go over the top*.
* It’s important to have a *definite time-block* and description for each essential chore or task.
* It’s also essential to have an *indefinite* and unrestrictive description for tasks that could change, so that your schedule is *flexible*.
* It’s a good idea to split your schedules so that you have a separate one for daily, weekly and monthly events.

*Note:* Having my programme arranged in blocks means that It will be very easy for me to re-jig the programme should I find myself busy on a particular night, or without a computer or something. Perhaps for a truly flexible programme I could have fluid block which I can place where I want within the week. something to think about anyway.


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