A method and apparatus for scheduling jobs having a staging time and a processing time are described. In one method, the jobs are divided into subsets based on a predetermined criteria such as depending on whether the staging time is longer than the processing time. In this method, the jobs in each subset are ordered independently. The jobs are then scheduled by alternating between the ordered subsets. In a second method, the jobs are again divided into subsets based on a predetermined criteria such as depending on whether the staging time is longer than the processing time. The jobs in each subset are ordered independently. The jobs in one subset are then simply appended to the other subset. In a third method, the jobs are ordered according to a predetermined criterion into a list and are executed by alternating between both ends of the list. The invention is also applicable to scheduling jobs having a destaging time. In this case, the staging time is set equal to the staging time plus the processing time and the processing time is set equal to the processing time plus the destaging time. The jobs are then scheduled according to the second method discussed above.