The Importance of a Well-Ordered Schedule and Attending to Tasks Right Away - 2

The Rule of St. Benedict explicitly emphasizes the importance of promptness in a number of entries. Yesterday's passage addressing being on time for the Work of God (basically the praying of the Divine Office) is followed by the command to be on time at meals.  

Last time we talked about the importance of order and discipline in our spiritual life, specifically scheduling and being prompt in our attendance to our pious practices. Today we shift our attention to our tasks at work.

But first, let's see what St. Benedict has to say about meals: 

"In the case of meals, if anyone do not arrive before the verse, so all may say the verse and the prayers together and all at the same time go to the table - if anyone by his carelessness or fault do not arrive, he shall be corrected once and a second time for this. If he still do not amend, he shall not be allowed to share the common meal; but let him be separated from the company of the brethren and take his meal alone, and be deprived of this allowance of wind, until he do penance and amend. And let the same punishment be inflected on him who is not present at the verse which is said after the meal. And let not one venture to take any food or drink before the appointed hour or afterwards. But if the superior offer a brother anything and he refuse it, then when he wants what he formerly refused or something else, let him receive nothing whatever, until he have made fitting amends."

Again, the key here is the strict promptness required. We see that there's virtually no wiggle room in St. Benedict's mind. Arrive on time or else. Eat when meals are served and don't expect food otherwise. If something is offered by a superior outside of normal meal times, you can accept, but if you don't, that's that. It's strict, isn't it?

Consider applying this strictness on the job.

Show up on time - something that should be obvious. (We should all be old hands at this practice.)

Once in our workspace, get right down to business. It's not time to sip your coffee as you chat or check the news, or text your wife, your buddy, etc. (assuming there's not a serious compelling reason to do so). Texting in particular seems a serious distraction to work these days. So many of us think that texting in the middle of anything we're doing is OK. It's not. We're being paid to do a job.

Whatever that job is, it's incumbent upon us to make use of our time at work without losing a moment of it, beginning with the most important tasks we have on our plate on any given day. So having some sort of organized task list broken down at least to the day logically makes a lot of sense.

Being self-employed requires an especially straight, steely approach. No one's watching me. No boss checks on my progress. I could sit around and watch Youtube videos if I chose to. Of course, you could say that clients who expect the results of the work I do on their behalf might be seen somewhat as a boss looking over my shoulder. And in some sense, that's true. But I could easily put off the work I've scheduled and get it done at some other time. But that other time would likely be time I could and should be spending with my spouse or children; or time I could stay in touch with other family or friends; or time I could attend to some domestic chore that needs attending.

I don't know about you, but, between work and personal obligations, there's plenty awaiting my attention and action - all the time. So when I schedule work - and I do schedule everything - there's no time to waste.

To make strict scheduling work, it's good to schedule in some blank spots, rather than jam every conceivable task into each day, filling every second. Stuff happens during a typical work day. You need some flexibility to deal with things that simply pop up, put out fires, etc.

However you organize your day, do it such that you can be prompt in attacking the task at hand at any point during the day. Beside showing up on time, you want to move from Task 1 to Task 2 to 3,4,5, etc. and do so right away. Not that a break from time to time is a mortal sin. But break means just that: a break in an steady, ongoing flow of work

Once you get your specific scheduling down to a science, you can focus on time, something I've found particularly beneficial. You begin the day, work the time allotted. You'll likely not be able to get to everything that needs attending. But you don't worry about that, because you've started the day by working on the most important items. The less important will need doing of course. But maybe not right this second. 

You can just imagine how effective scheduling combined with getting important stuff done right away would contribute greatly to a orderly flow of work and a stable workplace.