"Scheduling" For INFPs

As an INFP, I like talking about how I get things done because it's different than the way a lot of other people do things. The point isn't that I'm special or anything, it's just that I've had to experiment to find out what works for me because the "typical" way doesn't often work.

I was talking with an INFP friend about writing/work schedules recently and we discussed the idea of using "intentions" rather than scheduling things at a certain day/time so that the to-do item could be on our minds rather than strictly scheduled.

The way that this works is to set a work intention for the week or the day and then you let yourself be pulled toward it at the right time.

This "pull" is important for INFPs and over the years I've tried to learn the best way to work with it.

I have a couple of posts up (at least) that go into this process: Sticking to the Plan vs. Going with the Flow and My INFP-Style To-Do List. Both of these posts explain how I use a little structure to give myself space for "the pull" because that space is important.

Ultimately, I use structure to give me the most space possible so that I can then go in any direction I want to. Take the writing of this blog post for instance.

On my calendar, every Tuesday afternoon there is a block for "Write Blog Post" because I aim to post a blog post on Wednesday morning every week. Now, this is a little bit of a trick because blog posts don't always get written on Tuesday afternoons, nor do they always get posted on Wednesday mornings. But they will generally get posted by the end of the week. For instance, it is now Thursday afternoon.

But anyways--Tuesday afternoon came and went this week and I did not write a blog post even though I saw it there on the calendar because there was something else I wanted to do (and at this point I can't even remember what that was).

Wednesday afternoon however, I was ready to write a blog post so I sat down and started writing. I got about halfway through before I saw something on my website that needed attention, so I abandoned the blog post to take care of that. No problem. It's still only Wednesday afternoon and I just need to get something posted by Friday. And I was glad to take care of that thing on my website.

And now it's Thursday afternoon and I'm finishing up this post and will get it posted afterward, so I've made my weekly blog post in a circuitous but ultimately, finished, way.

The thing is that having it on the calendar reminds me that it needs to get done every week, but I know that it won't necessarily get done on a Tuesday/Wednesday but it will get written and posted by Friday.

If it's not on the calendar, it may not be on my mind enough to actually get it done, and I really like doing a blog post once a week. But if it's scheduled too tightly, I may miss out on something else pulling at me on that time and day. Simple, right? ;)

Amanda Linehan is the author of Productivity For INFPs. She is an independent author, coach, and INFP, who has published six full-length books and has been read in 113 countries. She has been creating content for INFPs since 2009.

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