us will not be surprised, however, but will continue to schedule tasks
in the time slots remaining, and when the schedule is full, stop.
Cramming, by the way, is not allowed. During the definition
stage, you determined how much time is required to complete each
task. If you attempt to cram a two-hour task into a one-hour time slot
on your schedule, you will not be able to complete it and will end up
rushing the task, cutting corners and quality. You must decide, even
before starting, that it needs to be rescheduled to a time when you
can dedicate the necessary hours to its completion.
You will find leftover tasks because your schedule is full. Despite
their being low priority tasks—if you didn’t fill up your schedule only
with highest priority tasks—you still need to manage them. Some
should be discussed with your boss if they are part of your assigned
duties (bring along your planner for this discussion). Others should
be negotiated with the appropriate stakeholders—family, friends,
committee members. Having your planner during the negotiations
and permitting others to see your schedule is worth a few credibility
points. Ideally, you will be able to shift responsibility for a low prior-
ity task to someone else; if not, move the due date to a time you can
accommodate, or reduce your involvement to a manageable level.
You may wish to make your schedule available to others, certainly
anyone having responsibility to schedule your time. Technology is on
your side if you’ve chosen a planner that can easily synchronize with
a resource accessible to others.
an alternative approach
Although we have disallowed cramming, it should be mentioned
that there is a scheduling scheme alternative to the rational method dis-
cussed above. This scheme will certainly appeal to the more control-
oriented individual, and have an attraction for those who are hopelessly
behind as well. (We’ve also discussed this technique elsewhere, when
we decided that in some cases, a job worth doing is worth doing poorly.)
In this method, once you’ve captured your duties and given them their
G E T O R G A N Iz E D