Scheduling

[nou]

Part of what makes scheduling hard for me is that I have to both:

• schedule things a long way in advance; and
• rearrange my schedule at short notice.

The main reason for scheduling things a long way in advance is that it gives me a structure to slot in small tasks that have to be done in specific locations; for example, I realised I need to go and look for a memorial stone in a specific churchyard, so I slotted it in to a day when I plan to work in a cafe a short bus ride away from the churchyard. These small tasks come up frequently but randomly, at varying levels of urgency. It also gives me time to think over my plans and sometimes make them more efficient.

There are several reasons for needing to rearrange at short notice; for example, someone I want to interview asked me to come at a specific time on a specific day at a place near the abovementioned churchyard, so I swapped a work-at-home day for my working-in-that-cafe day. Other reasons include bad light/weather on a day when I’d planned to take photos.

I’m OK with this in general, but it does make it hard to plan things with other people, since rearranging at short notice is unacceptable, inconvenient, and/or unfair to them.

Comments

[doseybat]

People vary so much in how in advance they schedule, I wonder whether anyone has quantified it (thinking primarily about optional, leisure, and weekend activities). Last few years I find myself increasingly reluctant to commit to things ahead of time, because knowing I am committed to a thing tends to create dread and wanting to escape. But at the same time my emotional stability relies on commitments other people insist on: e. g. weekly team meetings. But feeling forced to depart on a foreign trip past self arranged 6 months ago is So Horrible. Hmm.

[nou]

I also sometimes struggle with having to do things that I decided to do ages ago. The things that help me are (a) making sure I schedule in things that I really really enjoy (this might be something as simple as planning to have a really nice breakfast), (b) reminding myself that it rarely actually is as bad/difficult/strenuous as I worry it will be, and (c) reminding myself that when I stick to my plan I’m almost always very glad afterwards that I did. Not sure if any of that would help you. What does help you?