Time Management for Busy Individuals: From Wish List to Real Schedule
I used to love a good, daily ‘to-do’ list. I would create/update my list before bed and be ready to tackle it in the morning. Being self-employed and mainly working from home, my list would include household chores, errands and business – all rolled into one.
The PROBLEM was that I never seemed to get through it! I’d rush around, multi-task, fight the clock all day and still feel inadequate and unfulfilled at the end of the day. I decided I was really bad at time management.
That’s until I experimented with a new way to organise my life – scheduling! Who would have thought.
Here’s how it works:-
- Have an on-going to do list for each area of your life. You can add to it or cross things off anytime. In fact, it’s a wish list which can include short, medium and long term goals such as qualifications, DIY projects, decluttering and even writing a will or sorting out a pension!
- Make sure to include things that are non-negotiables which MUST be done every week. This includes the food shop, cooking, cleaning, school runs etc. These items go on their own list and don’t change but they must be done, they take time so they have to be allocated somewhere on the schedule.
- Then you need a weekly schedule where everything is allocated a time slot. This is trial and error in the beginning. More often than not I found I wasn’t allocating enough time for tasks – especially ones involving travel.
A true do list – Time Management for Busy Individuals
I had to embrace the idea of a true do list. Many people mistake a long list of tasks for productivity. In reality, a do list should be more than a collection of to-dos, it should be a complete inventory of what must be done across work, life and home, updated weekly. Think of it as a master catalogue. Chores, meetings, errands, personal care, and family responsibilities all included. This weekly do list helps you see the full scope of your obligations, so nothing important slips through the cracks.
Don’t fall into the trap of making the to-do list too long and without boundaries. Focus on one large task a day and possibly 2 smaller ones. An oversized to do list can create chronic underestimation of time and invites constant, unproductive multitasking. If you constantly tell yourself “I’ll do it all,” you’ll spread yourself thin and end up achieving little.
The antidote is to assign time to every item on the list. Once you commit to scheduling, you gain clarity about feasibility. Start by allocating dedicated blocks for work tasks, errands, family duties, and personal care. Scheduling only works if you allocate a time window for every task/activity. This practice forces you to confront how long things actually take and reveals gaps in your day that can be restructured or trimmed.
Scheduling – Time Management for Busy Individuals
Scheduling also requires honesty about your pace. Some activities genuinely take longer than you expect, while others finish quickly. By placing tasks into a diary, you’ll see patterns – recurring meetings, travel time, or energy dips. You’ll likely discover that you’ve overcommitted when you rely on memory alone. The diary acts as a reality check, helping you reallocate or drop tasks that aren’t essential.
Another important theme is the negative impact of multitasking. Multitasking often feels efficient, but it fragments attention and increases cognitive load. When you try to juggle multiple tasks at once, you’re less productive, make more mistakes, and take longer to complete each item. Focus on individual tasks. The time you’ve assigned to tasks becomes a commitment, not a vague intention, and you’ll find that your brain settles into a rhythm, making progress more reliably.
To maximise effectiveness, build in buffers and review points. Allow small buffers between tasks to account for interruptions or overruns. Schedule a weekly review session to adjust the do list, reflect on what went well, and re-prioritize for the next week. By doing this you’ll remain proactive rather than reactive, ensuring that the schedule serves your real needs rather than the other way around.
Here’s how to get started – Time Management for Busy Individuals
Create a weekly do list that includes work, life, and home tasks.
Prioritise items by importance and deadlines; consider the impact on your goals.
Time-block each item in a diary, publishing specific start and end times.
Tackle high-impact tasks during your peak energy periods, reserving lighter work for later.
Single-task: commit to one task per block and minimise interruptions.
Build in buffers between blocks to absorb surprises.
Conduct a weekly review to prune, adjust, and plan ahead.
As you practice, you’ll learn how long tasks genuinely take. You’ll become better at estimating, which reduces wasted time and helps you protect time for what matters most. With disciplined scheduling, you’ll finish more, stress less, and feel in control of your week rather than overwhelmed by it.
In summary, the journey from a sprawling wish list to a realistic, scheduled plan is a habit worth cultivating. A weekly do list that covers work, life, and home, paired with deliberate time-blocking in a diary, reveals the true pace of your days. It exposes the lengths of tasks, curbs the temptation to multitask, and builds the consistency necessary for lasting productivity. Stick with it, and you’ll transform your time from a constant source of pressure into a predictable, manageable resource.
I always offer a free chat to answer questions, as well as understand your priorities in this moment.
If you want to book a FREE chat to discover how you could be maximising your time, gain clarity on your business, eliminate overwhelm and find true work/life balance – send me an email or whatsapp
[email protected] or 07942 477601
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Thank you for reading this months blog, Time Management for Busy Individuals: From Wish List to Real Schedule. If you would like more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Have a lovely day,
Sughra