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The Isono-style schedule management technique

Hello everyone! I’m Sumiko from the MCO (Market Creation Office)/Public Relations!
This article will be a report on an internal presentation that Wataru ISONO-san hosted in late March!

日本語の記事はこちらから

Wataru ISONO

Joined beBit in 2013. Trained as a consultant and engaged in UX and performance improvement for more than 50 companies of varying fields such as education, media, and finance. After working as a UX Consulting Project Manager, he was involved in the launch and operation of the UX Team Cloud “USERGRAM” Customer Success team. Afterwards he served as the head of inside sales, and currently he is working on overall business strategy planning and execution as a business director in the Business Development team.

It all began from a single post on Isono-san’s Slack channel, #times_wataru.


“I want to host an event to share my knowledge about schedule management to new grads and new members. Would anyone be interested in hearing this?
→I want to give back what I learned at beBit”

Many “聴きたい” (I want to hear!) reactions we left on this post, so he decided to move forward with the idea! As I was in the process of setting up the Open Newsletter and being chased by deadlines, I joined as well in order to learn from the hard working Isono-san!

Let’s get started on sharing some of Isono-san’s schedule management techniques!

A snippet from the presentation on Zoom!

■First off, what is a schedule?

A schedule is a plan for producing value. It is the act of “identifying necessary elements” in order to produce the value you are looking for.

Most people probably imagine a timeline when thinking of a schedule. It’s easy to get caught up on deadlines and focus on “when” you need to finish, but it is much more important to figure out “what” you need to do.

【Point】A schedule is not for you, it is for everyone else

A schedule is a plan for producing value, so it should be owned by everyone involved. 

Occasionally, there are people who say they are managing their schedule, but set it up so that no one else can see. Schedules show people “What kind of steps a person is taking in order to create value” and “how the progression is going.” It must be visible to clients and people you work with. 

As a professional, people should not have to ask you when a certain task will be finished!

【Point】You manage your schedule, not others

Occasionally I see people who don’t schedule meetings with people because they are afraid they might be too busy. I can understand this feeling, but this act goes against creating value. Whether they will take the time or not is ultimately up to them. If you feel that it is necessary to create value, you shouldn’t hesitate to make a request. In addition, when someone makes a request, it’s up to you to decide how you want to spend your time.

As difficult as it may be, I would love for you to work in a value driven manner. Don’t make judgment calls based on what others may think - make judgments based on whether the work is necessary to create value or not.

【Point】A schedule is not a task - it is an ongoing process

A project’s schedule almost never stays on time. Some people may be satisfied after finishing their initial schedule, but in reality it's just the beginning. You should plan to update the schedule almost every day!

■How to improve your schedule management

【Point】Compare expectations and reality

I’m sure you all have planned schedules, but there are not many people who look back and compare their schedule with how things actually went. 

Let me tell you about the training I did in order to compare expectations and reality back when I first graduated in 2013.

Isono-san’s schedule management training in 2013. He practiced this for 1 year! Incredible!

The left side of each column is the schedule I set, while the right side is the actual work I did. As you can see, it is completely different. 

This is because humans cannot stay focused throughout the entire day. Sometimes it may be because of urgent tasks coming up as well. 

If you continue to use this training method, you’ll slowly be able to grasp when and how often unexpected occurrences may happen.

In my case, it’s pretty common for Nakajima-san, our Executive Vice President, to suddenly ask me to create documents for him. I’ve learned to anticipate this and set aside time to be able to work on these projects.

【Point】Understand “The Nano-Percent Date”

Most work has a deadline, and most people tend to have a “desired schedule” building towards that deadline. If you had a task that had to be done in a certain amount of time, you’d build a schedule such as “3 hours to plan, 2 hours to make the documents, 30 minutes to review, 1.5 hours to edit…” based on desire and ideals.

The “nano-percent date”* refers to the first date with a non-zero chance of delivery. If your schedule includes ideal occurrences, there is a high chance that you set your goal based on the nano-percent date. 

If you understand the idea of The Nano-Percent Date, you will be able to work under the assumption that risks will always manifest and build a schedule with buffer time.

*<Reference>
Waltzing with Bears
Written by Tom DeMarco (Author), Timothy Lister (Author)
Published by Dorset House; March 1, 2003

■Schedule management routine

【Point】Plan 2 weeks ahead

As often as possible, I check my Google Calendar 2 weeks ahead of time and make sure my plans are still going accordingly. In addition, if I organize and rearrange plans that are overlapping. If I leave the plans as is, I wouldn’t be able to attend both, resulting in being a bother to others and my “plan to create value” would fall apart.

There are some individuals who check their next day's schedule, or maybe the weeks, but sometimes that is not enough. Adjusting schedules only a few days in advance causes stress on those around you, and it also requires your effort as well. 3 weeks in advance, most plans are not developed yet, so 2 weeks in advance would be the best timing. 

If you can stick to this routine, your schedule management will improve drastically.

In addition, keeping track of your schedule 2 weeks ahead allows you to have mental stability as well. If you do not know what’s coming, you cannot perform as well. If you visualize the plan to create value and work with peace of mind you’ll be able to give your best performance.

【Point】Reflect on time allocation and your mission

“It’s difficult managing many tasks at the same time.” “I feel extremely busy, but I don’t know why”
When this happens, I would recommend you make your time usage visible.

Isono-san’s time management sheet. He utilizes this every 3 ~ 6 months.

Separate what you spend your time on, and make it visible.

In my case, as I have urgent tasks and interviews come up, I try to leave at least half of my resources open. Separate your tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly and see how many hours you are spending on each task.

A chart on how time was spent throughout the month.

If you aren’t reaching desired productivity, you must think of what costs you will cut. Use documents such as your PlanReviewSheet* to figure out what the organization is looking for with your time. If that vision and your tasks are not aligned, try to eliminate the discrepancy by outsourcing the work to someone else.

Many people attempt to reduce paperwork in order to make more time, but I wouldn’t recommend this. When you actually look at how long you do paperwork, oftentimes it is no more than an hour in a week. If paperwork is something you’re not used to, it can feel a lot longer than it actually is. Even if you save 1 hour a week, it won’t make a big difference. Things such as weekly meetings that take up many hours of your week is what you should be looking at to make more time.

Thus, the human mind can be distorted, so I encourage you to actually make your time allocation visible and reflect on it regularly.

*PlanReviewSheet: A sheet used at beBit for quarterly reviews to set goals and reflect on progress.

■参加者からの感想

That concludes the report from Isono-san’s presentation!

Here are a few comments from the attendees:

●This has made me realize that schedules are not to keep time, but should be used in order to create value.

●I know that looking back and comparing expectations and reality is important, but it’s something I haven’t been able to do. I definitely plan on changing this, and also making my time allocation visible as well! I’d love to copy Isono-san’s management sheet.

●I realize now that I created my schedule with no slack in mind, as if I was a robot. I thought that I wasn’t able to keep up with my schedule because of my lack of skill. I hope that I can learn to set a proper schedule and assume time for the unpredictable work that comes my way instead of believing that things not going to plan = my lack of management, skill, and negligence.

■To conclude

Did you enjoy this article? I felt every point was very useful! I have a tendency to be reluctant to make requests to busy people, so the thought of “being reluctant to ask = not being true to creating value” really hit close to home. Above all, I felt Isono-san’s willingness to provide value back to the company was wonderful! Thank you for the valuable experience, Isono-san!👏

If you’d like to see the whole presentation, you can search “【知見共有】10年先まで困らないスケジュール管理術” on Google Drive (the presentation is in Japanese only).

This time was Isono-san’s schedule management technique, but next time I’d love to hear everyone else’s management techniques as well! If you have any thoughts or ideas, let us know in the comments!

Our next newsletter will be an installment of “Inside beBit” - a series in which we ask 10 questions about a beBit member's work and personal lives! Please look forward to our interview with the Executive Officer, Shin TAKEGAWA.😉


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