How To Make Schedules - Work Backwards

I’ve been making a lot of schedules these days. Schedules for shoots, schedules for marketing, schedules for my upcoming wedding.

When making schedules, it’s really easy to put the first thing first on the list, then the second thing on the list second. So on and so forth until you find your launch date. 

The trouble with this is that many things in our lives have drop dead dates and times. The product release is on the 20th. Sunset is at 6:45. When making schedules chronologically, those dates come much sooner than we want. 

A better way is to work backwards. Put your drop dead time on the calendar. Then put the date that everything needs to be ready before that. Then put the date that first versions should be in, then put the date creative should be locked. So on and so forth. 

This works well because it helps you respect the launch date more than the current date. When we make schedules chronologically, we usually won’t pile on tasks for the first few days. But often, this leads to tasks piling up just before launch. Making schedules backwards lets you build on buffer time just before launch. Maybe you do need to pile on tasks the first few days to meet your deadlines. 

This method is also helpful when working on personal projects that have no drop dead dates. Making schedules chronologically often leads to procrastination. There’s no date it needs to launch, which often means it will never launch. 

Picking an arbitrary date in the future on which you will launch your project, and working backwards from there is a sure fire way to actually launch it. Whether it’s perfect or not. 

I leave you with my favorite quote on schedules from Annie Dillard. “A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.” 

Your days will come and go whether you create something or not. The question is, will you catch those days and do something meaningful with them?