A method and system for scheduling the use of CPU time among processes using a scheduling tree having a yielding indicator. A scheduling tree represents a hierarchy of groups and processes that share central processing unit (CPU) time. A computer system assigns a yield indicator to a first node of the scheduling tree, which represents a first process that temporarily yields the CPU time. The computer system also assigns the yield indicator to each ancestor node of the first node in the scheduling tree. Each ancestor node represents a group to which the first process belongs. The computer system then selects a second process to run on the computer system based on the yield indicator in the scheduling tree.