Give yourself a window

One way to feel less stressed about your schedule

We’ve all been on the receiving end of time windows. The groceries will be delivered between 10 a.m. and noon. The cable guy will come…sometime during the window of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We hope.

Wide ranges are often frustrating as you cool your heels waiting for the plumber to show up. But tighter ranges can be smart if you — like me — get quite worked up about being on time to things. A range turns the temperature down a bit for deadlines that don’t need to be that strict.

Broaden the meaning of punctual

So, to be clear, this tip is mostly for people who aim to be on time for things — but I’m guessing that if you’re reading a productivity newsletter, that includes you. If someone tells me to be somewhere at 10 a.m., I figure out how long it will take me to get there, and figure out how long it will take to get ready, and then I aim to build in a buffer so I am generally arriving by 9:59 a.m. even if there is traffic or a complicated parking situation.

That’s fine for a really important meeting. It’s less necessary if ten families are all meeting up at a playground or if I just need to touch base with someone briefly by phone. My personality is such that if someone tells me to get them something by 2 p.m. on Thursday, I will move heaven and earth to do so, without asking if there’s a reason for that timing. This can be frustrating for everyone if it turns out there isn’t really a reason.

Be less exact

So, recently, as I was in a seemingly endless email chain about setting a time for a call, given that something with an uncertain end time was happening right before, I realized that I was better off saying “hey, could I just call you sometime between 10 and 11?”

The person agreed, especially since I made it very clear that she didn’t need to sit around waiting for my call; if it didn’t work to pick up when I called I would try back in a little bit. I was so much more relaxed about this than if I’d tried to set an exact time. I’m sure that came through when we did connect.

If you find yourself doing similar acrobatics to meet an exact time that doesn’t have to be exact, maybe you can try giving yourself a window too. “We’ll be at the playground around 2/2:30 and would love to see you there.” Or “I can give this report back to you sometime next week unless there’s a more specific time you need it by.”

Now, if you’re not the punctual sort, this tip is not for you…because I’ve found that chronically late people have already taken the liberty of giving themselves a range. To them, saying you’ll be somewhere at 10 really means you’ll be there by 10:30, or possibly even 11. The problem is that no one else is aware of this assumed range, and this can lead to bad feelings. For a range to work, it needs to be transparent and mutually agreed upon.

But if it is, then this builds in flexibility for things that don’t need to be exact. Sometimes schedules work better when there’s a little bit of give to them.