Fuzzy Planning: A Streamlined Schedule is Not an Oxymoron

Imagine you had a piece of paper for each item on your to-do list and they were color coded by priority. You gave that stack of Post-it notes to your Executive Assistant, Fern, and she inserted them into your calendar based on due date, while also accommodating your meetings. At the beginning of each day she simply handed your calendar to you and you went to work.
Now we all know what happens throughout the day — you have to respond to emails, take phone calls and handle interruptions and emergencies. What was once a systematic, efficient and effective means of being productive has become a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants exercise in futility.
When un-planned meetings and new priorities pop up, do you stop what you’re doing and cross out, erase and rewrite your schedule? No, Fern takes care of that for you, your day is rescheduled and you continue on with your work. SkedPal’s Fuzzy Planning™ technique is the digital, automatic version of Fern, your highly-intuitive executive assistant who keeps you on track and productive.
Fuzzy Planning™ addresses the need for an agile planning system, a trusted system that continuously re-evaluates the circumstances to match the priorities and due dates with the time available to work on them. The underlying concept is that all plans are based on forecasts of events. The reality of the matter is that a forecast is never completely accurate. So, why should a plan be accurate? For example, if you plan to work on a task in the afternoon, you’re actually forecasting that you will not be interrupted by other priorities in that afternoon.
We all know that planning an accurate hour-by-hour schedule of your tasks and appointments can stay valid for only a short period of time. Before you know it, an ad-hoc event disturbs your plan. What if you could have a ‘fuzzy plan’? For example, instead of scheduling a task on Wednesday from 1–3 PM, you make a fuzzy plan to work for two hours on this task some time before Friday, preferably on Wednesday afternoon? Isn’t that more natural and in tune with our thinking? It also leaves a leeway to accommodate the inaccuracies in forecasts. But, in this case, you need a more intelligent calendar than existing static calendars.

This is just the beginning of the benefits of using SkedPal™ for productivity and scheduling. Now, add into this Fuzzy Planning concept, the reality that you are more creative and have a higher energy level at different times throughout the day. Fern knows it, she adjusts your schedule accordingly, and your day is streamlined. How can you make this work for you, without Fern? Our next published article addresses this issue, and how to master it — on your own!