In Gillespie’s case, I suggested the option of scheduling in a back-up slot for additional work, such as one to two designated weekday evenings, so that she wouldn’t need to use her Saturday time for any lingering tasks.
Other people find success by scheduling a back-up slot for an activity they’re trying to do. Elizabeth Morphis, a professor, needed to submit a journal article by a June 1 deadline. She planned to work from 6–9 a.m. each day during the week of May 18th to fit the writing in around her teaching commitments. “But I decided to carve out additional hours each day of the weekend to work on the manuscript, just in case,” she says.
By the time the weekend rolled around, she was glad she did. “I needed it,” she says. “My two-year-old was not sleeping well that week and I was up with her more than once during the night.” Morphis could only use the 6–9 a.m. slot once, but instead of panicking over her four lost mornings, she used her designated extra time and submitted the article ahead of schedule. “Scheduling back-up slots has been how I have been able to stay productive this summer,” she says.
The back-up approach isn’t just a tactic. It’s a mindset.
To be sure, designating a back-up slot is not easy in a full schedule. If finding one chunk of time for research or creative projects or exercise feels challenging, finding time for two or more — that you hope you won’t need! — might feel impossible. Consciously leaving extra time open involves trade-offs, often difficult ones.
But good time management means planning a resilient schedule, not a perfect one. When you schedule one slot a week for something, you only get to it if nothing else goes wrong.
If you schedule an extra slot, then the priority still happens even when all doesn’t go perfectly. There is a big difference between spending zero time on something and spending some time. The narrative changes from “I never go to yoga” to “Hey, in a crazy week I still got to go to a yoga class!”
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