Planning your own day around its fixed points
A project manager has a ten o'clock site review, a noon owner call and an afternoon delivery coordination commitment at another location. Her list also contains change pricing and three subcontractor calls. Filling the apparent gaps looks possible until she adds preparation, travel and the records needed after each meeting.
Build your own timetable from commitments that require your attendance or a specific received answer. Put their actual locations and preparation beside them, then check the work that can reasonably fit around them. An empty calendar square is not automatically an available work period. Keep room for transitions and known uncertainty; a useful day plan need not account for every minute as productive work.
Test the whole commitment, including its edges
- Locate the fixed points. Record the actual time, place, expected duration and your role. Confirm which appointment is received, which is proposed and which requires another person's availability. Identify what must be ready beforehand and what answer or record follows it. Attending a site review is a calendar commitment, not an assumption that the reviewed work will receive approval.
- Add preparation and movement. Allow for the actual journey, access arrangements and setup rather than treating the meeting's finish as your arrival elsewhere. Check foreseeable uncertainty for this trip and day. Plan business calls in a suitable stationary setting. CCOHS advises avoiding phone use while driving and using a safely parked location for calls; hands-free conversation remains a distraction.
- Fit bounded work into the remaining periods. Choose a defined pricing step, record review or call set whose estimated effort fits the usable gap. Include the time needed to save or hand over unfinished work. If a task needs more than the available period, divide it at a meaningful boundary or give it another place. Do not assume every forecast end time will hold.
- Resolve conflicts before the commitment fails. Decide what can move, what needs another qualified receiver and what must be escalated. Confirm the handover is received and covers the actual responsibility. Tell affected people when you can answer. Revise the day's plan when conditions change rather than shortening travel, dropping preparation or silently expecting two locations at once.
Common mistakes
- Counting travel and meeting preparation as free time.
- Scheduling calls as work to complete while driving.
- Placing an unbounded task in a small gap.
- Delegating attendance without confirming the actual responsibility and receiver.
Checklist
Check each fixed point for
- Received time, location and actual role.
- Preparation and required inputs.
- Travel, access and transition effort.
- A bounded task that fits the usable gap.
- Conflict response and received handover.
Check your understanding
A meeting ends at 10:45 and the next call starts at noon. Can you promise an hour of pricing in between?
