Our personal and professional worlds are ever blurring. Managing the two via scheduling can be both tedious and challenging. Let me help you with some practical advice to make it all easier.
I've had 1 way where this works for me and 1 way where it doesn't work for me. Starting with what didn't work -
Blocking Time in Advance - I used to try and block time 1 week in advance. At the end of one week, I would block time in the next week for "work time." This didn't leave room for the ad hoc, unpredictable things that would inevitably come up, and I would easily just book over my blocked time. Doesn't work.
Blocking Time within 24 hours - At the end of one day, I block time for the next day so that I can associate those time blocks with specific tasks (or Most Important Things). Then that time was specifically dedicated to those MITs, and I lowered the risk of just booking over that time for another issue or request that came up.
re - "Blocking Time"
I've had 1 way where this works for me and 1 way where it doesn't work for me. Starting with what didn't work -
Blocking Time in Advance - I used to try and block time 1 week in advance. At the end of one week, I would block time in the next week for "work time." This didn't leave room for the ad hoc, unpredictable things that would inevitably come up, and I would easily just book over my blocked time. Doesn't work.
Blocking Time within 24 hours - At the end of one day, I block time for the next day so that I can associate those time blocks with specific tasks (or Most Important Things). Then that time was specifically dedicated to those MITs, and I lowered the risk of just booking over that time for another issue or request that came up.
Awesome and concrete tip. I slightly edited what you wrote and included in the main article under that section. Thanks Ben!