My friend Kelly was eager to go on his first business trip to Europe. “Imagine! A week in Rome!” he cried. “If we get lucky and wrap the deal early, I’m going to spend a few days in Tuscany.”
The negotiation had tense moments, but it closed on time. Kelly even got the weekend in Tuscany he dreamed about. But Rome wasn’t the thrill ride he hoped for because his new manager, Tom, loves structure.
Kelly’s an easygoing night owl, so he was grumpy about the mandatory 7 AM breakfast every day. They had a leisurely hot meal, socialized and talked through the day’s agenda. They made a Plan B for the hard points. Then the team walked in together after a van dropped them off in plenty of time for the meeting.
Tom’s strategy seemed like overkill until Kelly watched the other side scramble. He told me, “One guy rolled into the conference room breathless after he overslept. His colleague tried to bluff her way through several key points. And their lawyer asked their assistant to go on a coffee run because he hadn’t had time to eat. It was so painful!”
Kelly will probably never be as structured as Tom, where he maps every minute of the day. But he learned an important lesson: Predictive scheduling, a way to create a framework for your day, is a powerful tool.
There’s a saying that, “As you do one thing, so you do everything.” That means that small actions that don’t seem to mean can be force multipliers. Goodness can certainly grow, but the downside is that you can’t quarantine bad habits. They often show up where and when you least expect them.
A writer at Skyword Community tweeted this commentary about how she’s used the tactic of good choices to design her day: “I don’t start writing until I’ve worked out, played with my dogs, and updated my To Do list. Routines help get me into the ‘going to work’ mindset I need to be productive all day.”
The writer’s decisions may sound basic, but they conceal an important soft skill: discernment. Discernment is a way to say an intentional “Yes!” to certain activities before doing anything else. And when you consistently made good choices, you create a stable foundation, the topic of the April series, Build Routines that Build You Up.
Get your day started on the right foot by using predictive scheduling. Here are three ways you can say a smart, focused “Yes!” to activities that build you up:
Predictive scheduling is about more than planning your day—it’s a way to demonstrate self-care and self-respect. Choose wisely!