What’s on your calendar? What’s not?
A friend told me recently, “You can learn a lot about what a man values by looking at his checkbook and his calendar.”
Our calendars tend to be full of work:
Schedule in some value as well including short breaks:
Work on your novel, play with your kids, start a blog, exercise, feed the homeless, learn HTML… Put your heart on your calendar, even if it’s only in 10 minute breaks, and you’ll prevent work from taking over who you are.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Tiffany // Oct 10, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Great post! I have been so meeting-ed out the past few weeks, I feel like a zombie when I get home. Scheduling in those important things is a great way to make sure you don’t forget to live your life in the details. . .
2 Ryan Paugh // Oct 10, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I didn’t know 4-Hour Workweek was on tape. Brilliant! Thanks for the great idea Chuck.
3 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 10, 2007 at 6:43 pm
@Tiffany– Thank you, ma’am.
@Ryan Paugh– I wasn’t sure it was, but there you go.
4 Joanne // Oct 10, 2007 at 11:17 pm
You know, I have tried to schedule in both work and play but what I ended up with was feeling stressed when I couldn’t keep up and was constant waiting to do what’s next rather than focus on the now. So in the end, I opted to have a high-priority work list/schedule (much like your first box) and a side list of non-work related stuff and down-time that I can select to do when I find myself with free time on my hands. That way I get all I need to get done but my schedule is flexible enough to accommodate all the unpredictable things (e.g. ran into a friend and decided to go for coffee) or random whims (e.g. do nothing, sketch for a bit).
Either way, I had to experiment with several different scheduling styles before I finally found one that worked!
5 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 11, 2007 at 10:43 am
@Joanne– I know exactly what you mean. That’s a great suggestion.
6 elysa // Oct 11, 2007 at 11:55 am
I am a crazy scheduler when it comes to work related things and it is usually that my personal life sort of “fits in” I need to start adding in my personal time into my schedule as well.
sidenote: is your designer friend going to contact me or should I just run with it?
7 Shawn // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Don’t bring your lunch. Many times we’re sooo caught up in getting things done and saving money, that we pack a PB&J and eat at our desks. As a result, we don’t leave our desk, the office, or even the building for hours on end.
Even though going out to each for lunch can interrupt your day and cost a few dollars more than packing a sandwich, getting away from the office can save you from getting burned out, stressed out, etc.
8 JoeDrinker // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:32 pm
My wife and I both have crazy planned-to-the-minute schedules, so we have our calendars shared in such a way that she can add something to mine and vice versa, just like in an office. It sounds a little business like, but I know if there’s family commitments from the office and I can let her know of my locked-in times while she’s at home.
We’ve discovered that setting aside blocks of time for each other this way works pretty well. At least this way we both know where the other is during the day and if we have any common free time, even though we usually just end up crashing at home when we have time to breathe.
9 Christine OKelly // Oct 13, 2007 at 8:18 pm
What a smart idea… How sad that most of us are trying to fit our real life in around our hectic schedule. Everyone seems to be looking for more of a work-life balance, and here’s a way to achieve it!
10 Ashlie // Oct 14, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I work 3 days a week. I love my job.
Which is too bad ’cause I also love this site but it may not be of any use to me…. bah.
11 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 15, 2007 at 2:28 pm
@Elysa– I always find it rewarding and freeing when I come upon a task that I really want to do on my calendar. Helps me not feel so trapped by it. Sideresponse: I meet with her tomorrow night, and so I’ll have her contact you Wednesday after we’ve talked. Thanks for the follow up!
@Shawn– I was a big proponent of this one when in cube land. These days, I balk at how much money I spent on eating out. I had a buddy who brought his lunch to each restaurant we went to. I’m sure he was embarrassed and we did make fun of him sometimes, but he got the best of both worlds.
@JoeDrinker– You know what else sounds business like? Not making any time for your wife. Much better to be efficient about it than to try to be organic and just fail to ever see each other.
@Christine OKelly– It’s so rewarding when you look at your agenda and see things that you’d really love to be doing. Thanks for stopping by!
@Ashlie– You’re wrong there, Ashlie. This site is perfect for people who don’t hate their jobs in a sort of “look what I’m missing out on,” kind of way…
12 Pam // Oct 16, 2007 at 5:43 am
Excellent advice - we’re always scheduling “work” into our lives. Fun, family and our own needs and interests should be given just as much priority!
13 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 16, 2007 at 11:13 am
@Pam– The hardest thing for me to do (something I fail at more often than I succeed at it) is to take care of my faith first, my wife second, and my work and such after that in terms of my priority. I really believe it is important to avoid having work just perched up on the #1 spot day after day…
14 rockyfeler // Dec 6, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I hate calendars. I hate knowing answer to the question “what I’ll be doing in the future” unless answer is “nothing” or “whatever I like to do then”. Future events crawling around my brain are the worst distractions for me.
I also don’t care about watches, and I am not very fond of that whole day/night thing. I like to sleep when I feel asleep and it often happens when the sun is up and shining.
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