Timing your work

Today I'm going to tackle a topic that is both a personal issue and strength for me - timing work.  The vast majority of people out there have some sort of metrics relating to work performance, whether it is very specific (number of calls made per hour) or very broad (is my small business making money).  Since time is a finite resource, everyone needs to worry about their own time and how it is being spent.  

I read an article discussing two types of scheduling - forward and backward.  Forward scheduling starts with the estimated duration to find the end point.  Backwards scheduling starts with the deadline and works backwards to discover when it needs to be worked on.  Most knowledge workers, myself included, use backwards scheduling to determine when we need to work on a project and if we'll need to put in overtime or bump another project to get it done.  I'm pretty aware of my capabilities, so I feel pretty good at back-scheduling.  

I run into a problem when I'm given freedom and have to set my own work schedule.  If I'm not given a deadline, I can't effectively back-schedule, and my work load starts to pile up, waiting for a deadline to spur me into action.  Oh, how my life was difficult until I discovered that setting deadlines for myself took care of the problem.  I had to learn that my problem was using backwards scheduling when forward scheduling was appropriate - without knowing what those two were!  

If you have any scheduling strategies and/or stories to share, please post a comment.  

-sjk