Hi,

I am often experiencing the problem of breaking up my schedule.
Each evening I make a plan (daily schedule) for next day. I would better demonstrate it on concrete example. Suppose that I have only tasks with A priority. For “mathematical” experiment: Each task has equals work time: 5 hours, all other task qualities are the same. So usually I decide to make 1 hour a day for each task. Therefore normally it would take 5 days to complete a task.
I make daily schedule like this:
9:00-10:00 task A1
10:00-11:00 task A2
11:00-12:00 task A3
12:00-13:00 lunch time
13:00-14:00 task A4
14:00-15:00 task A5
15:00-16:00 task A6
16:00-17:00 task A7
17:00-18:00 task A8

Next day would be probably the same.
The problem is that sometimes when I start doing task, for example, task A1, I can’t stop doing it until finish.
So I perform in fact the schedule (task takes 5 hours):
9:00-10:00 task A1
10:00-11:00 task A1
11:00-12:00 task A1
12:00-13:00 lunch time
13:00-14:00 task A1
14:00-15:00 task A1
After that time I finished the task A1. I am completely tired. And in 99% cases I do nothing after that. So I loose my 3 working hours after 15:00. Therefore negative points are:
• I am tired.
• I loose my 3 working hours.
• I have feeling that I broke my schedule and that I can’t follow to my schedule.
• Other negative point: after 2 hours of “enthusiasm” on A1 I already tired to concentrate on the same task so long time, so my productivity falls. And instead of 5 hours that tasks normally takes in 5 days per one hour a day. It could take 6 hours a day.
• I don’t know what to do with next 3 hours if I don’t want to loose them.

Positive point is that I completed my task A1.

So if situation was already happened (Most probably I should avoid this pattern but anyway). What should I do?
1) Continue my schedule?
15:00-16:00 task A6
16:00-17:00 task A7
17:00-18:00 task A8

2) or remake my schedule this way:
15:00-16:00 task A2
16:00-17:00 task A3
17:00-18:00 task A4

Reasons why it’s happening I guess:
• I become enthusiastic about task, so I want to finish it.
• Sometimes I underestimated task complexity (needed work time).

My questions are:
Did you experience the same problems?
What is the best way to do in this situation?
I am trying to prove for myself that it’s better to keep the schedule, make tasks one hour a day. But I still can’t find a “formal” prove why it’s better.

First rule of scheduling, a schedule should be flexible.
First rule of Bruno's work, never work on something for more than 2.30 - 3.00 hours straight.
Second rule of Bruno's work, take various brakes on various intervals and make the best of them


So by this I mean, its ok, to slip or rearrange schedule, and you should try to maybe include a 20 minutes break every two hours in your schedule, it will boost productivity.

There's a saying in hebrew: "Every program is a base for changes".

the fact that you plan your time is great. don't think that if you didn't make it to the deadline of your plan, that you failed. re plan. take time of how much it took, and how much you thought it will take.

You see, It's not a failiure in work habits. someone who just started to plan his time, can't possibly evaluate how much time it will take him to to anything. only by experimenting you can learn how much time a task can take.

If you need reassurance, ask yourself how much time does it take to change a car tier? oil? install a new computer card? there are some things, that unless we time ourselves, we will never know how much they need time to be done.

so thats the first advice: next to your schedule, write - done in x time or 90% done so next time youll know you need more time for this kind of task.

also, you need to learn how to break the task into amall bits. sometime, the smallest that you think. let me ask you how much time does it take to install a new Graphic accelerator card?

and when ill write down that the sub-tasks are:
1. opening the case, unplugging all cables (5-mins)
2. putting the card in (1 min)
3. close the case, replug all cables (7 mins)
4. install drivers and check card. (5-25mins)

thats a result of timing myself with installing hardware. i sub tasked everything. i found out that it takes couple more minutes to plug everything in that pull out. and when everything is okay, installing the drivers (if not plug & pray) take 5 mins top (reboot and stuff). so now i know it takes 20+- minutes to do so. thats more of an educated guess than you thought of when i first asked, right?

the 5-25 minustes are when something goes bad. didnt plug it right, computer decides not to open. yadda yadda.

thats the second suggestion: Divide EVERYTHING to smaller bits that you know how much time it will take you, and then actually time it.

and don't forget, it takes time to plan your time. planning time is a skill to be acquired in many ways.

Hope i helped

-Gil

I typically play fast and loose with my schedule. Rather than trying to block out specific tasks into specific times, I have a prioritized list of things that I need to accomplish for that day. I start on the first thing, and work on it until I'm done or I can't go any further. Then the next task, then the next. If something doesn't get done, it gets moved to the next day and reprioritized.

I *do* sometimes use blocks of time to work on specific classes of tasks. For instance, tasks for the day job get done from the time I get to work until lunch. After lunch, if there is anything still critical, I work on it, otherwise I switch to my personal project tasks. After work, I switch to my school work tasks. For this to work, tasks have to be separated out into different lists.

Most of this is pulled from "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

Originally posted by Siebharinn
I typically play fast and loose with my schedule. Rather than trying to block out specific tasks into specific times, I have a prioritized list of things that I need to accomplish for that day.

I *do* sometimes use blocks of time to work on specific classes of tasks.

Most of this is pulled from "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
Well this was exactly the system that I worked for until starting I have red Indie Life and book of David Allen. I had prioritized list (as I have it now) and I had blocks of time each class/category of tasks: developments, support, marketing, personal education. The problem is that sometimes some of the tasks were completely delayed. Probably I need to create detailed next actions not next task in terms of David Allen.
Last month I am trying system with scheduling the day as I red in Indie Life forum. I became more productive, but more stressful too.

The problem is that sometimes some of the tasks were completely delayed.


If you are prioritizing properly, then the delayed tasks aren't important. If they *are* important, they go to the head of the list and get worked on first. The key is to regularly reprioritize. The important things will naturally bubble to the top.

Originally posted by Siebharinn
If you are prioritizing properly, then the delayed tasks aren't important. If they *are* important, they go to the head of the list and get worked on first. The key is to regularly reprioritize. The important things will naturally bubble to the top.
Well, yes, I did not do often reprioritizing. The other thing that came to me today: I choosed tasks that I like or that just came in for executing.
For example, my task list:
A1
A2
A3
B1
B2
B3

I completed A1, A2, so I have:
A3
B1
B2
B3

After that new tasks A4 and A5 came in. They are "interesting".
So I have the list:
A3
A4
A5
B1
B2
B3
So I do interestings tasks A4 and A5. Fianlly I have:
A3
B1
B2
B3

Thing that I missed: if tasks have the same priority, oldest task should go first. So I should pick up the task from my To-Do exactly from the order they are. Or to be more accurate the algorithm should be the following: I pick up the task and ask myself: can I do it now? if I can, I do it, if not: I check the next task and so on.
Probably this system should work.

Originally posted by Akura
First rule of scheduling, a schedule should be flexible.
First rule of Bruno's work, never work on something for more than 2.30 - 3.00 hours straight.
Second rule of Bruno's work, take various brakes on various intervals and make the best of them


D*mn... You mean I haven't even been following my own rules of scheduling?!? :p

-Bruno

Originally posted by Akura
First rule of scheduling, a schedule should be flexible.
First rule of Bruno's work, never work on something for more than 2.30 - 3.00 hours straight.
Second rule of Bruno's work, take various brakes on various intervals and make the best of them


So by this I mean, its ok, to slip or rearrange schedule, and you should try to maybe include a 20 minutes break every two hours in your schedule, it will boost productivity.
Probably that was one of the reasons. I did not take rest every 2 hours. Making schedule flexible, does not it mean that it should be generated "dynamically" I.e. schedule should not exist. But I simply look my todo list to see what should I do next for now?

I don't schedule my development I do at home, like others I make a prioritised list instead.

A friend at work passed on the idea of a Moscow list. It sounds stupid but it works for me. Tasks are split into 4 categories...

Must = things that must be done no matter what.
Should = things that should be done.
Could = things that could be done.
Would = things that would be done given all the time in the world.

It seems to me that for professional development a schedule is of no use whatsoever to programmers - it's only useful for producers. If you slip behind schedule, what does that mean? It means the work you were allocated couldn't physically be done in that time. You have no other choice but to keep working, and "make up" another schedule.

The big thing that I try to do with Moscow lists is to not try to put everything on it at the beginning. The list will probably change a lot through development.

At the beginning the list could have things to do with basic framework code, then move on to more particular things when you know what they are.

Originally posted by PeterM

It seems to me that for professional development a schedule is of no use whatsoever to programmers - it's only useful for producers. If you slip behind schedule, what does that mean? It means the work you were allocated couldn't physically be done in that time. You have no other choice but to keep working, and "make up" another schedule.


Well if you do shareware professionally, you are more like a producer (publisher). In average I have about 90 items in my todo. (I don't count bugs and feature requests for programs).
Sometimes schedule is important in this case. But I still try to pick up my ToDo and perform task from there as best as I can.

I've been in the process of rebuilding my daily schedule after having it crumble to dust over the past few weeks. Might just be an autumn thing, of course, but it's still a bit of a shock to have the schedule you've been using for months, and with some success, just begin to fall apart under the stress of changing circumstances and priorities. It's coming back together, though, as I realize what parts of the schedule are most flexible and which parts have the most impact if they are not handled properly.

For example, I've learned to shift handling my email and Web forum participation to later in the day. The earlier I bring it up, the less real work I get done *after* that point.

Everything evolves, it seems, and what works today might need a bit of tweaking tomorrow.

-David