Do the Work First and Schedule Your Rest
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
When I was in my early years of high school, I was still figuring out my time management habits. In Mondovi, Wisconsin, where I grew up, there was a TV show called TV-13 Outdoors that came on later in the evening on Sunday nights. And every time I heard that show’s theme song, I knew that my procrastination period for that weekend was over, and I had to do start my homework then or I wouldn’t get it done. If I heard that theme song today, I would probably still break out into a cold sweat because of the angst that my procrastination caused me in my early high school days.
I really disliked procrastinating and how I felt late on Sunday nights, forcing myself to do my homework when I really just wanted to go to sleep. I also noticed back then that my time throughout the weekend was also tainted because I was almost constantly thinking about my homework and how I should be doing it. So even though I wasn’t completing my work, I was still devoting time and energy to it in the form of worrying about it.
I reached a tipping point of frustration with myself somewhere mid-high school where I decided that I was no longer going to put off my work. I made a deal with myself. I committed to doing my homework on Fridays early in the evening and Saturdays during the morning so that I could do whatever I wanted and relax Friday nights and Saturday afternoons through Monday morning. I dangled the carrot of the reward of fully relaxed time, when I didn’t need to worry about my homework because it was already done. And it worked! I felt so motivated to get my work done early on my weekends because I had the promise of true leisure time baked into my schedule.
On weekdays, if I had homework, I made the same deal with myself. As soon as I got home from practice or my job, I would do my homework so that once I was finished, the rest of the night was mine. I carried this practice into college and beyond.
My days look different now that I’m a mom and I work from home than they looked in high school, but doing my work first and scheduling my rest is still a habit in my life. For every workday, I look at my task list and calendar the night before, and I estimate how long it will take for me to complete my tasks for the day. And I block my calendar for time in the afternoon when I can take an extended period of rest or leisure. Sometimes that leisure period is 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s 2 hours. My rest is scheduled, and it puts constraints on my working time, helping my brain to prioritize what is really important to complete that day and working as efficiently as possible in order to have everything wrapped up by my scheduled leisure time. And if I complete my tasks in less time than I budgeted, then I give myself even more leisure time. When your brain is sure that you’ll be receiving all of the relaxation and enjoyment you need, and that you only have a certain amount of time to get things done, it’s easier for your brain to focus on doing productive work during the time allotted.
So instead of procrastinating and doing your work last (which pollutes your free time with worry about your work), I would suggest doing your work first and scheduling your free time after. Work first followed by scheduled leisure time will help you to both complete what you want to get done in your life and fully relax after it is finished.
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Productively Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team