Try a Skeleton Instead of a Schedule

United States, 2021.

Many people find scheduling and time management to be a challenge. Most of us are familiar with the challenges presented by projects with tight deadlines and specific deliverables, when there simply isn’t enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done. But there is another kind of challenge when there are plenty of things that need to be done, but no definite deadlines to help prioritize or provide motivation. This situation is especially common for those who are self-employed, including freelancers, and people in early-stage startups, but many of us encounter this situation at some point in our work.

I have a client who is a self-employed consultant. When she is working on a project, there is a natural structure to her days, and she is able to create and stick to detailed work plans. However, when she was between projects, although she still had plenty to do, including marketing herself to find her next gig, she struggled with finding the best way to structure her days.

She tried using the same sort of detailed planning and scheduling she applied when working on a project for a client, but such a schedule felt constricting and wrong. It left no time for spontaneity and creativity, and didn’t allow her any breathing space until her next big project.

“It left no time for spontaneity and creativity”

She also tried having no structure for such “down time,” but that approach also didn’t feel right. Having no schedule or commitments made it too easy for time to slip away with nothing being accomplished, as she could always come up with a justification to put something off until tomorrow.

Working together, we developed an approach that for her was the perfect compromise between a detailed schedule and a complete lack of structure; we called it a “skeleton.” Where a typical schedule specifies exactly what needs to be accomplished each day, a skeleton for a day simply lists anything that must be done on that day (such as a meeting, or responding to an email) and then lists things that can be done on the day. Such a skeleton gave her the chance on the day to pick what she wanted to work on, without slacking off and working on nothing. With this approach she is still productive during down time, but it feels like a break from the overly scheduled crunch time of a project, as she can pick what she works on each day to fit her mood.

This skeleton that works so well for my client may not work for you, but if you face a similar challenge of how to stay productive without the constraint of a detailed schedule, I encourage you to experiment with your own creative approaches to scheduling until you find one that works for you.