Recently, my schedule has been a bit off. I’ve been working on a variety of projects that all seem to have project teams that schedule meetings at conflicting times. This means that I regularly end up with 30 or 60 minute gaps in my calendar between meetings. These are the most unproductive times possible because it takes at least 5 to 10 minutes to unwind from the last and then the same to get back ready for the next. This leaves only 10 to 45 minutes to get something done.
Predictability in your schedule is good for ensuring you have high productivity. When you know how the rest of the day is going to go, you can focus on the tasks at hand and start to get ahead. If you find yourself constantly bouncing back and forth between new tasks, you will never get anything of value complete.
I have a hard time with long-term habits. I’ve developed a few but I fail more often than not when trying to establish new ones. It can be very difficult to do things in new ways. But striving to do better is always worthwhile.