At the beginning of the year, I made myself a schedule using an Excel worksheet. It starts at 7am and runs continuously until 7pm, 7 days a week. You would think seven twelve hour days would allow plenty of time to take care of business. Especially since I am semi-retired and, theoretically, only work part-time. That theory means I can set my own hours and schedule because I have no “boss” to answer to, no time clock to punch. Does that sound familiar? I’m sure many of you have also found that not having a “job” means everyone around you assumes you have plenty of free time. Yes, I used “assume” because this is one of those instances when the trite old saying proves its accuracy.
My results with the schedule are mixed. I reworked it in March since it didn’t seem to be a total success. I weaned myself off Facebook and actually thought I could see the top of the mountain. Then I discovered Robert’s April Platform Challenge. Don’t misunderstand, I think it’s a great set of exercises and I’ve learned a lot that is going to be beneficial. Still, he’s taken me back into the time-sucking morass of Social Networking. In a desperate attempt to find ways of merging his advice into my already overwhelming non-schedule, I’ve been paying close attention to anyone who claims to have a solution.
Since his Day 12 post included a nod to time management, it seemed like a good time to make an effort to harness some of the advice and try getting the cart back on the road. I had been reading random articles on different blogs and storing the information in the back of my head (kind of like putting it on the top shelf of a very cluttered and poorly lit walk-in closet. I decided I needed to start treating the whole problem as though I were doing research to write an article for a client. So, I went back and found all the most interesting sounding articles, printed them out, took my bright yellow highlighter to them, and began to plan a job.
So, it seems that I have two problems with my schedule. I need to set categories and priorities. Everything on my current agenda is allotted a time slot. I think I’ve left enough time for each task, but somehow I only make it to one of two of them each day. The others just slide past without notice.
I’ve been reading the AWAI (American Artists and Writers, Inc.) newsletter for years. A lot of it is about promoting their products, but they frequently have useful tips included. Recently Cindy Cyr had a thought provoking post there about time management. She advises you to make a list of everything you normally do every day. Then group the list into categories. Then take the categories and assign priorities and timelines to each. Arrange your day based on the categories. Then stick to the list. She says that interruptions are the deadly enemy of efficiency because switching between jobs gets your brain off track and it takes extra time to refocus.
Rebecca Matter also writes for AWAI and she ran a series on time management back in 2009 that still applies. She indicates you need to make your goals specific and actionable, but keep them realistic. So, I am revising my schedule to make it more efficient. Then I will follow Rebecca’s recommendation to use post-it notes to avoid taking on too much at a time. At the end of each day, I will make a list for the next day. First on the list will be anything that didn’t get accomplished that day, then the most urgent things that need doing the next day. It reminds me a lot of the old “One Minute Manager” system by doctors Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. I’m going to use actual Post-It notes, instead of the electronic version, because the idea is to limit the size of the list to what will fit in a 3 by 3 square.
So, I’ll be trying to integrate these ideas with Robert’s recommendations to bring my life back under some semblance of control. If you have tricks that help you keep your number of tasks under control and your attention focused on getting through each one before wandering into the networking jungle, please pass them along in the comments below.
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