For financial advisors with a jam-packed schedule, all it takes is a surprise phone call ("Your son has a fever—can you pick him up from school?"), transit delay ("WVBR is reporting that Route 13 is bumper-to-bumper") or other snag to de-rail you for the entire day. That is, unless you've managed to expect the unexpected through your daily planning.

"I like to think we all have the ability to be clairvoyant to an extent if we really give ourselves a chance to think things through," says Mitzi Weinman, founder of Time Finder, a productivity training company. "When you anticipate and prepare for what could go wrong, if things do come up, you're ready."

Try these six tips to problem-proof your schedule:

Pad appointments. Be realistic: It's unlikely that even on the best of days you can leave one meeting and step into the next seconds later. (Maybe you pass along info to a colleague regarding Meeting No. 1, grab client files for Meeting No. 2, or, heck, use the restroom.) Add time buffers between appointments so that one unexpected event doesn't domino effect throughout your whole day, says Kerul Kassel, author of Productive Procrastination. It also gives you a few free minutes to put out fires. She suggests adding 25% to travel time, and five to 10 minutes between meetings.

Worry—just a little. Allow yourself to dwell briefly on what might go wrong on a given day, suggests Weinman. It'll help you be better prepared. Thinking that your laptop computer will run out of juice mid-PowerPoint presentation can only ensure you remember to keep it fully charged and bring the power cord just in case.

Create emergency time. "Most people end up putting too much into their day," says Kassel. "But there are always unplanned things that come up. You've got to be flexible to achieve your goals." Try to schedule an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon for tasks that are important but not urgent—meaning they can be dropped to take a call from a frantic client or rush out to replace a stained shirt before your big meeting.

Keep a time log. "We all underestimate how long it takes to complete a task," says Barb Friedman, president of Organize IT, a consulting firm. "You think you sat down to answer emails and it took five minutes, but really it took 20." Start timing yourself, she suggests. Getting a better estimate of how long you need to, say, cold-call a prospective client, will help you budget your time better and avoid the stress of a constant time crunch.

Flesh out your schedule. Your schedule should include a list of items you'll need for a particular event or appointment, says Weinman. "It's about making sure you have the right contact number in the car, that you have accurate directions," she says. (You might delegate the round-up to an assistant, who can check traffic reports and put everything you need in a handy folder.)

Don't panic. When the unexpected puts a monkey wrench in your plans, focus on being proactive rather than reactive, advises Kassel. "The more stressed you are, the less aware you are of opportunities to fix the problem," she says. Instead of fretting about getting lost en route to a meeting, for example, you should be calling your office for better directions, paying attention to the street signs you pass, and notifying your client that you're running a few minutes late.

Originally published by AdvisorMax.com.