138: Hyper-Scheduling Revisited

I’m in a similar scenario in that my work routine is a mix of disparate things. I’m a construction Safety Manager so my primary roles are (strategic stuff-low volume top of the importance pyramid & repeatable enough to be checklist driven).
Operational stuff- bigger volume relatively speaking & middle of the importance pyramid).
Communication stuff- large volume & usually bottom of the importance pyramid).

To push my Pyramid analogy to breaking point :joy: I also have to react to incidents/enforcement body visits/disciplinary issues (unannounced stuff- I liken it to a sand storm that just has to be dealt with and will erode the pyramid, so the quicker it’s dealt with the better).

My approach is to block time a week at a time. Top of the pyramid elements first (I read as your experiments) knowing that the further I go down the pyramid generally the easier it is to block general categories of work that don’t need detailed explanation- but do need a defined period in which to happen. The bottom of the pyramid stuff I just adopt a best endeavours approach so put reoccurring time-blocks in- knowing there will always be more of this availabile than time to do it.

If any sandstorm stuff comes up I drop 99.99% of things to get this dealt with asap. I then pretty much time shift everything forward and continue on with life.

Hyper scheduling wise:
If it’s a site based day it will be a full day block with no detail needed- I just need to know where I’m going for the day.

If it’s an office day I have a blueprint time-block creation shortcut of 3x30mins email/comms blocks (final one is also the shutdown block), an AM focus block of 3 hours & a PM focus block of 3 hours with an hours lunch break. The time-blocks are created using @MacSparky’s Shortcuts Field guide template approach. I assign tasks on a weekly basis which are refined or split down further if required- but it gives me a great starting point.

I draw together what specifics need to be dealt with for the current month (based on multiple shared responsibility schedules) in GoodNotes- which helps to dictate what some of the AM/PM time-blocks I need to cover.

I use Omnifocus as my task manager but I don’t work out of there- just use it to assign my “discretionary” time-blocks

The final bit is a Daily notes/call record in GoodNotes again. I use a colour in the squares type tracker for uninterrupted half-hours progress towards the AM & PM time-blocks.

Sounds mighty complex when I write it out but it works great and helps me to funnel multiple streams of input into one trusted place for me to look at.

It’s probably not canonical Hyper scheduling- but it works for me. Hope that helps :+1:

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