Ha! That could be more manageable indeed… thanks for the tip! 🙂

You are giving me something to thing about! I think this mode of planning has to do in part with billable hours. I’m an attorney and I usually try to get all my billable hours done from the hours of 9 to 7, with an hour and a half lunch break (on break now!) in which I generally relax and/or exercise. Usually work planning is at least part billable (I might be reviewing case deadlines and figuring out next steps for example) but personal planning is not. I could bill time later into the evening or weekend to make up for it, but I used to do that and found it depressing. There’s this constant pressure I feel not to take my eye off the billable hour timer, even if it’s a couple of minutes. If I have, for example, a dentist appointment during the work day, I try to schedule it at lunch and that’s my lunch break. I do have a stay at home spouse, however, and I’ve been back in the office full time since June, which keeps work and home a bit more separated. BUT I recently made partner and I am not as wedded to the billable hour anymore. I may have to try integrating life a bit more now!

@Ellie – I tend to wind up using Friday morning for planning, rather than Friday afternoon, partly because of the loose end issue. I often do an email triage Friday afternoon, starting around 2-3 p.m., which means that plenty of people respond to what I send out right around 4 p.m. However, I suggest “Friday afternoon” for many people because there tend not to be many meetings then, and also, planning doesn’t have to take that long. I am talking 15-20 minutes. If it helps to be fresher, then Friday morning could certainly be an option.

@Maggie – I assume people still have to plan work project time lines and such. People plan workouts, they plan personal organization projects, they plan family weekend activities that are still available… lots of things can still benefit from planning!

@Kersti- I’m interested to see how many people plan work and personal at totally separate times. In my mind we have one block of time, and unless there is complete and total separation (which is the case for far fewer folks now with so many people working at home) then the two will affect each other. A later work meeting means that’s not a good night for some personal project. Some family/self related stuff has to happen during business hours, and so that would affect the allocation of work priorities. Once you get into planning mode, it wouldn’t add many minutes to address both. So I’m really intrigued to see how common this two-time approach is!