Scheduling Your Day: A Stage Manager's Perspective

So you're looking to makeover your daily schedule? Good time management applies to work, whether in a traditional office environment or in creative/self-employed professions, but it also helps you make the most of your own time when it comes to fitting in everything our busy modern lives require. What lessons can we learn from the perspective of the theatre industry about optimal schedules? Rehearsals and performance rely on effective timetables to fit in the preparation required and for the show to happen on time.

Thinking about the structure of your day is especially important if you are working from home, running your own business or working in an unsupervised way. While teamwork is crucial for many industries with theatre included, for stage managers there are many parts of our job which end up being self-driven: finding props, seeking contracts, daily paperwork, cues during shows (these are tasks like moving scenery or props). Sometimes our to-do list feels daunting, so how can we fit in everything that needs our attention? Here are my key suggestions.

Stick to a regular routine

Although creative and free-spirited people may feel stifled by the idea of applying a rigid structure to their days, establishing good habits and regular times to meals, work, sleep and other activities saves our energy for more important decisions. Once you have streamlined the variables of what type of activity to do when you will have more time to achieve work tasks and healthy habits. This also sets healthy boundaries for your working hours so you don't end up burning yourself out.

Pay particular attention to when you first wake up, regular meal breaks and a consistent sleep schedule. Whilst in the theatre industry we are often at the mercy of the show and rehearsal timetables, there are aspects within our day which are in within our control. Don't forget to schedule in exercise and hobbies or social events to make sure these aren't forgotten about.

More on the benefits of routines here.

Break the day into blocks

Sometimes in theatre rehearsals, there are multiple activities to accomplish which can happen simultaneously, such as acting scenes with the director, learning songs with the musical director, choreography, dialect coaching, fight direction etc. There is more that goes on behind the scenes than just reciting lines! In this situation and equally for a solo professional, it helps to break down the working hours into consistent chunks.

In an average rehearsal day of 10am to 6pm with an hour's lunch at 1pm and 2 short tea breaks (as per union regulations), this might look like working 10-11:30am, tea, 11:45am-1pm, lunch break, 2pm-3:45pm, tea, 4pm-6pm. This often results in working sessions of different durations which can be useful for tasks which require more or less time, but you could make these regular if it was overcomplicated. It's amazing how much you can actually fit into a normal working day by planning it in advance.

Taking sufficient breaks actually helps us to focus better whilst we are working, and allows us to rehydrate and add some movement into our day; particularly important when our work is computer-based. A popular method for work and breaks is the Pomodoro Technique, more on that here.

Personalise your schedule

It's worth remembering that what works for one person might be disastrous for someone else - some people spring out of bed at 6am and are ready for action, some of us really hit our stride in the afternoon or evening. The empowering thing about having control of your schedule is that you can make it work for you, prioritising the most important tasks and wasting less time on unproductive meetings and other corporate bureaucracy.

If you're stuck for inspiration or don't know how to start building your daily routine, use others to spark ideas, and start with a master list of what needs to be accomplished. This can include personal errands and exercise, we are not defined by our work, but it might help to categorise tasks by important level or how soon they need to be done. There are lots of apps for this, I personally used Microsoft To Do (which used to be Wunderlist), which has plenty of useful features like reminders, due dates, shareability and the like. I have used this on productions in stage management teams to keep track of our outstanding jobs.

Whatever shape your routine takes, you will see the benefit when you take control and plan how to make the most of your time.