The Weekly Habit: Time Management
Now I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing that I always feel I’m failing at, it’s time management. But this week, here’s what all I have to get done:
1. Finish the copy edits on my novel
2. Attend tapings and recording sessions for the first Fierce and Nerdy webvella, “Oh Merry Beaver!”
3. Huge project at work.
4. Five days of Fierce and Nerdy as usual.
5. Actually finish a book by an author I want to meet with next week if schedules align — luckily it’s a really good book, or I might have to commit seppaku.
Oh, and did I mention that my first pregnancy symptom has been not being able to stay awake past 11pm or get up before 7:30 anymore? Apparently, the dot in my womb, wants me to get plenty of sleep.
I often start feeling seriously overwhelmed when faced with such an intimidating schedule, but I’ve found that there’s no amount of work that a good time management system can’t surmount. I’ve accumulated a few tips after the jump that you might find useful for really bad weeks. And if you have any tips to add, please, please, please let me know in the comments. I could seriously use the help this week.
1. Figure out how much you’ll need to do on each project in order to complete everything by the end of the week, then block out your entire week, including times to eat. Buy a bunch of snacks for between meals, so that you have the energy to keep going.
2. Cut TV. Period. You can reward yourself with a DVR layabout after your hell week.
3. Only carry literature with you that you have to read. Everything else should be put out of sight, even if it takes your computer forever to power up — like mine — don’t fall into the temptation of magazines.
4. Make a To-Do list every day and don’t go to sleep until everything is crossed off.
5. Complete your daily to-do list in order of hardest to easiest. That way you won’t have to try to pull off the most complicated tasks when you have low energy or are super-sleepy.
6. Check your email only once every two hours. And only check your voicemail once a day.
7. When you get depressed or overwhelmed, take a 5 minute break. Walk around, get a glass of water, use the bathroom whatever, then sit down and do the work.
8. Just do the work. In the end, that’s the only thing you can do, so putting it off doesn’t help anything or anyone, including yourself.
I hope these tips help. Again, let me know if you have any time management tips of your own in the comments.
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For me the biggest thing is to just start. Even if the first things I do are not very good and don’t get used I need to jump into whatever it is with both feet.
For me the biggest thing is to just start. Even if the first things I do are not very good and don’t get used I need to jump into whatever it is with both feet.