Schedules - are they flexible or not?

How many times have you received a phone call and someone has said are you free at a specific time? We all get these calls and especially when you are working that is something that you can get quite often.

What people have to understand is that not everyone has the same schedule. I know that there are times when we will work Monday through Friday and try and keep some normal hours and then there are the times that we may have Wednesday to ourselves but work one or both of the weekend days. For us, our schedule is based on the needs of the clients and when some of the various tasks can be done. There are times when a task can only be done in the evening or on a weekend so we will work around that.

Now schedules do fall into a lot of different categories and you need to understand some of them.

• Hard schedule – These are things that must be done at a given time on a specific day.
• Flexible schedule – When something needs to get done but not at a given time or on a specific day but needs to be accomplished.

• Semi-flexible schedule – This is when things need to get done on a specific day but not at a specific time

Schedules can mean some different to different people and that is what you need to understand. There are times when a specific day will work for a meeting and then another time that same day won’t work. Schedules are sometimes that you need to understand and be willing to be flexible especially when you are trying to plan something involving others. When it comes to schedules you have to remember that you don’t know the other demands on someone else or their schedule. Also don’t demand that others fit into your schedule but try and work together to see how things can work out.

Schedules are always something that can change depending on the other demands on your life. Understanding that others have demands on their time will help in being flexible when someone else may have to reschedule a specific meeting or if they need to be a little more demanding of your time at a specific time.

For me, I have a more semi-flexible to flexible schedule and that is because there are demands that can come up and they need to be done immediately. When there are client issues that mean a business is greatly impacted that will mean that my schedule will change to assist them. There are times when I look at my calendar and laugh because there are a lot of things scheduled for a specific time during a specific day but I know that what I am telling myself is that a specific task needs to be done during that day. Making sure that you identify on your schedule the items that can be moved during a specific day or moved to another day if needed is important.

Schedules will change from time to time and that is something that needs to be realized by others. A schedule in a lot of ways is just an outline of what needs to be done and when. I have learned that being flexible and understanding other individuals and their schedules has made it a lot easier to accept changes to my own schedule.