Latest technologies, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT), smart applications, smart grids and machine-to-machine networks, inspired the organization for self-sufficient large-scale wireless sensor networks (IoT-based-WSNs). Many IoT devices are powered by batteries with limited lifetime and deployed in remote areas. Thus in some situation, limited battery restricts the network lifetime. Scheduling is an effective approach for an energy efficient IoT-based-WSNs by categorizing the smart devices into an optimal number of disjoint subsets which completely cover all objects in the monitored area. Scheduling is an effective approach for an energy efficient IoT-based-WSNs by categorizing the smart devices into an optimal number of disjoint subsets which completely cover all objects in the monitored area. Finding the maximum number of such disjoint subsets is nondeterministic polynomial-complete. This paper proposes a hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm with an efficient schedule transformation, termed as HABCA-EST, to solve above problem. The unique feature of HABCA-EST is the rapid growth in the fitness function due to complete utilization of excessive information among the scheduled devices. The swarm and EST operations in HABCA-EST work together to efficiently search an optimal solution in less running time. We consider an application of sensing different objects in the monitored area, termed as target-coverage, to analyse the effectiveness of HABCA-EST. Results show that HABCA-EST takes less number of fitness evaluations (up to 10%) and schedules less number of smart devices (up to 94%) which leads to a reduction (93%) in simulation time as compared to the existing techniques.