How to Stick to a Schedule Even When You Go Off Track

Running woman consults her watch as she returns to track to stay on schedule.

Struggling to stick to your daily schedule? Don’t let one distraction keep you from what you intended to spend your time on.

To regain focus and be more productive, it’s far better to create a weekly schedule using a technique called “timeboxing.” You can’t say you got distracted unless you know what you got distracted from. Without knowing how you want to spend your time, there’s no way you’ll spend it intentionally.

However, there’s a common question I get about timeboxing that seems to trip people up: “What should I do if I get off track?”

Everyone gets distracted from time to time. The difference between a distractible person and an indistractable person is that the indistractable person takes steps to make sure they don’t get distracted by the same thing in the future. As Brazilian author Paulo Coelho said, “A mistake repeated more than once is a decision.” If you keep getting distracted again and again by the same thing without taking action to prevent it, you’ve made a decision to be distractible.

Next time you find yourself slipping off track from what you planned to do, take these steps to get back on schedule:

1. Prioritize Tasks Effectively

Prioritizing tasks is essential for staying on track and ensuring you focus on what truly matters. Start by identifying your values and aligning your tasks with them. This helps you make significant progress on what’s most important without getting bogged down by less critical tasks.

Remember, not all tasks are created equal. By prioritizing effectively, you ensure that your time and energy are directed towards what truly matters, helping you stay on track, learn how to be more productive, and achieve your goals.

2. Stick With the Day’s Schedule

Whenever something gets in the way of one of your time blocks, it’s imperative that you get back onto your schedule with the next time block.

Many people instead try to rejigger their entire day right away, shifting everything else around to try to make up for the lost time. This is a problem for two reasons. First, it takes time to reconfigure your schedule, which itself can be a time-wasting distraction. Optimizing your calendar falls awfully close to the kind of pseudo-work people do to try to get out of doing real work. Second, if you rejigger your schedule on the fly, you risk training yourself to think of your timeboxed schedule as something that can be changed. Convincing yourself it’s perfectly fine to adjust your schedule makes it easier to not stick to it in the future, defeating the purpose of timeboxing.

The most important thing is to get back to doing what you said you were going to do according to your timeboxed schedule you made in advance. Just pick up the next thing you had planned to spend your time on. Don’t worry about not fully working on the last block. For now, just remember that what you planned to do with your time is traction, while everything else is a distraction, and that includes changing your schedule on the fly.

3. Minimize Multitasking and Focus on One Task at a Time

Multitasking might seem efficient, but it often leads to lower productivity and increased errors. The brain can only concentrate on one complex task at a time, and switching between tasks results in more errors and longer completion times.

Focus on one task at a time to give it your full attention, leading to better quality work and faster completion. Use techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in focused intervals followed by short breaks, to maintain concentration and avoid burnout. This approach helps manage internal triggers that cause stress and anxiety, allowing you to make steady progress without feeling overwhelmed. This is key to understanding how to stay on schedule.

4. Regularly Review and Reflect on Your Schedule

It’s time to reflect on how your day went. Did you spend enough time doing what you said you’d do? Did you focus effectively on the task at hand, whether that was working on a big project or being fully present with important people in your life, like friends and family?

One of the misconceptions about timeboxing is that once you set a schedule, you have to stick with it forever. That’s not how it works. You need to stick with it, but not forever. Understanding how to follow a schedule means sticking with it and knowing when to make adjustments. While it’s imperative that you follow through on how you planned your day during that day, you absolutely need to make adjustments, just not at that moment. This is essential for understanding how to maintain a schedule effectively.

When you first start timeboxing, you’ll want to reserve time to think about your schedule for the day ahead. As you gain experience, you’ll be able to spend less time adjusting your plan. For instance, I went from revising my schedule for the day ahead at the end of each day to working on it once a week.

5. Build In Buffer Time

After your day is done, you’ll want to find a way to make up for the time you lost. When first building your timeboxed schedule, you’ll want to make sure you’ve reserved “buffer time.” Incorporating buffer time into your schedule is crucial for managing the unexpected and staying on track. Buffer time provides the flexibility needed to handle unforeseen tasks or delays without derailing your entire day. This proactive approach helps maintain your schedule and reduces stress by showing how to manage unforeseen events.

6. Get to the Source of the Distraction

Use your buffer time to consider that distractions only have three potential causes:

Internal triggers
External triggers
A planning problem

Here’s a closer look at the three causes:

1. Internal Triggers

An internal trigger is an uncomfortable emotional state you seek to escape. If you found yourself slipping off track because you were feeling bored, lonely, stressed, or anxious, you succumbed to an internal trigger.

I did this all the time when I found writing too difficult and instead checked email. Writing is hard work—it’s often boring, tedious, and lonely. I’d find escape by checking email or doing some other kind of pseudo-work to free my mind from the discomfort I felt.

The next time you get distracted, ask yourself, “What emotion was I trying to escape?” In Indistractable, I write about dozens of techniques you can use to deal with your internal triggers so that they lead you to traction.

2. External Triggers

External triggers are all the things in our outside environment that can lead us off track. They are all the pings, dings, and rings that can derail a well-planned day.

There are many ways to hack back all the external triggers that lead to distraction, but doing so requires us to first ask a critical question: Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it?

If an external trigger, such as a notification on your phone, is set as a reminder that you have an appointment you planned for or it’s time to hit the gym, then great! It’s serving you.

But if that external trigger interferes with your plan, such as a notification from your phone while you’re trying to concentrate, then turn it off. Studies find two-thirds of people with a smartphone never adjust their notification settings. Come on!

Take a minute to make sure you don’t get interrupted by another external trigger during your scheduled focused work time.

Hacking back your phone to fight distraction takes just a few minutes and will save you countless hours. Learn to use the “do not disturb while driving” feature on your phone (even when you’re not driving). Use a distraction-blocking screen sign at your desk to keep colleagues from interrupting you.

3. A Planning Problem

The last potential source of distraction is a “planning problem.” This happens when we simply don’t allocate enough time for a task or don’t allocate enough buffer time for a task that takes an unpredictable amount of time.

For example, sometimes people will argue, “What about traffic? How do I know how long I’ll spend trying to get to work?” That’s an easy one. Since traffic is a potential concern every single day, it shouldn’t be a surprise. If you had a super important meeting you just couldn’t afford to miss; you’d leave home early and plan for extra time. The same goes for any block of time; if you’re not quite sure how long you’ll need, just build in a bit extra.

“But what about my kids?” people might ask. “What if they need me to pick them up from school if they get sick?” Well, that’s to be expected, too. Kids getting common illnesses shouldn’t be a surprise. The answer, of course, is not to give up on planning your day but to have a contingency plan in place so you know what you’ll do in the future.

Maybe you’ll have a friend or family member ready to help? Or perhaps you’ll reserve extra time once every few weeks to make up for the time you may have missed to deal with rare but predictable emergencies. Does a brain surgeon stop in the middle of doing brain surgery because their kid needs to be picked up from school? No—they have a plan, and so should you.

7. Adjust and Improve Your Schedule

Approach your schedule like a scientist, not a drill sergeant. A scientist forms hypotheses, conducts experiments, analyzes results, and makes adjustments based on findings. Treat your schedule as a hypothesis you test daily. Over time, you’ll get better at making it fit your needs.

Look for recurring distractions and determine if they were caused by internal triggers, external triggers, or planning problems. Use a Distraction Tracker to note when and why you became distracted. This insight will help you make informed adjustments.

When reflecting, adjust your upcoming schedule based on what you learn. If a particular time block was consistently disrupted, consider changing its timing or duration. If you identify frequent internal triggers, plan breaks or stress-relief activities to manage them. For external triggers, create a distraction-free environment by minimizing interruptions.

By regularly reviewing and adjusting your schedule, you ensure it evolves with your needs and continues to align with your goals. This iterative process enhances your ability to stay on track and maintain productivity.

Mastering Your Schedule for Success

In the words of Voltaire, don’t let “perfect be the enemy of the good.” Stuff happens, but don’t sabotage yourself by finding excuses for not planning ahead. Sticking to your schedule ensures your physical and mental health by keeping you healthier and happier. You’ll excel at your job when you follow through on your commitments, just as you said you would. You’ll have closer, more fulfilling relationships when you are fully present in body and mind.

Being indistractable means living with personal integrity. It’s about keeping your word to others and, most importantly, to yourself. Mastering how to stay on schedule ensures you can live up to your commitments and achieve your goals. Remember, learning to keep up with the schedule helps you stay consistent and focused on what truly matters.