Maker's Schedule vs Manager's Schedule
Getting your schedule under control
Summers here in Wisconsin are some of the best you’ll find anywhere. They only last for a few months, so you tend to want to try and do as much as possible. From sun up to sun down, you feel like being outside.
Last week hit a point where I realized that summer is half over and I have so much I’ve wanted to do, but haven’t found the time. I’ve been procrastinating and putting things off. My schedule had turned into a mess.
For help I turned to a timeless blog post from Paul Graham called Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend that you do.
It’s one of the most popular blog posts ever written. I discovered it many years ago and it has helped me numerous times over the years. It just did again.
Graham discussed the difference between a maker’s schedule (requires uninterrupted time for focused work) and a manager’s schedule (for those who view time in hourly increments. Designed for meetings, interruptions and multitasking).
Here is a great visual comparison between the two.
I’ve found myself squarely in the manager’s schedule of late. The problem with that is to do really deep work, deep thinking, brainstorming, creating and problem solving, I know I need to be operating under a maker’s schedule. An uninterrupted few hours really works wonders.
I operate at my best and am the most productive when I operate under a bit of both schedules.
There are days where you need to operate on a manager’s schedule. You have to attend meetings and operate on a hour by hour schedule. I have those days now set.
The other days I now have set on a manager’s schedule.
If you want to create something, make art, write, study stocks, learn something new or anything else you want to concentrate and spend hours on, you need to operate under the maker’s schedule.
The multiple hours to do the work have to be found. Maybe it’s built into your daily schedule. Maybe you can’t do that and you need to carve out those hours very early in the mornings or late at night.
Whenever it is, block it out. Eliminate the possibilities of being interupted. Make uninterrupted time to focus on what it is you really want to accomplish.
The ideal schedules should look like this.
You don’t want them to look like this. As you can see there is no maker’s schedule anymore.
Prioritize what it is you want to get done. Sort it from the most important on down. Then schedule it by blocking out time to do it.
I know you’re busy. But you know what? Everyone is busy. You’re no different.
Don’t use busy as an excuse. Just schedule it!
Our schedule determines what we actually get done.
The Coffee Table ☕
Blake Millard who writes
had a touching piece about the death of his father. "Life moves pretty fast" He points out how important it is to have a good financial plan in place. It makes things so much easier on your survivors during the grieving process. My condolence to you and your family Blake.Frank Dobbins who is one of my go to follows for bourbon recommendations had two extremely helpful posts on bourbon. He ranked the best bourbons from both the Buffalo Trace stable of brands All 42 Bourbons From Buffalo Trace, Tasted & Ranked and also the Heaven Hill brands Ranking All 28 Bourbons From Heaven Hill Distillery To Crown The Best. My two favorite distilleries. His favorites run very closely to mine and I think both lists are extremely accurate. If you’re looking where to start with trying bourbons and what’s good, these are where to start.
I found this visual of which US states are the best to do business in very interesting. This list is done by CNBC and North Carolina came in as the top state. Where does your state come in?
Source: Visual Capitalist
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