{"id":812,"date":"2015-10-15T23:19:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T06:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/?p=812"},"modified":"2016-06-03T14:05:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T20:35:27","slug":"a-scatterbrains-guide-to-time-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/a-scatterbrains-guide-to-time-management\/","title":{"rendered":"A Scatterbrain’s Guide to Time Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of us don\u2019t work well with schedules. As time constraints go, setting up a block of hours as \u201cwork time\u201d and trying to stick to it every day doesn\u2019t happen, no matter how we try to drag ourselves to the desk every day. I used to punish myself for not doing what I was supposed to by not letting myself do what I\u2019d rather be doing. I ended up doing nothing, which is lame and had to stop. So I came up with a few strategies to keep myself honest and help me get work done.<\/p>\n

The first step is self-awareness. I figured out how I spent most of my day with retroactive day planning. I\u2019d record everything I did in a day, color coded in a calendar app so I could see how much of what I was doing at a glance. I have different colors for working, house stuff, health stuff, and dicking around. At first \u201cdicking around\u201d time made up the bulk of my time, which was a little depressing.<\/p>\n

Next I figured out what kind of dicking around I was doing, and if some of it was needed downtime for my brain. I separated productive relaxation, like reading novels or watching documentaries, into another color called \u201cFilling the Well.\u201d More wasteful dicking around isn\u2019t forbidden, but removing some of that color from the calendar made me feel better.<\/p>\n

I also started noticing patterns, such as when I\u2019m most productive and when my focus sucks. This let me aim my productive hours for when I typically have the most energy. When I made my vow to write an hour a day, I added a repeat \u201cwriting\u201d block to my best hour for writing. I frequently shift the time around, but having it sit there in my calendar, reminding me of the promise I made to myself, has helped keep me honest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since I started blocking time in 15 minute segments or more, I also started using time changes as triggers for action. While reading articles on the internet, I\u2019ll notice another hour rolling up and decide, \u201cDo I continue doing nothing or do something?\u201d If I\u2019ve been dicking around for more than an hour, and I haven\u2019t done much that day, I\u2019m usually spurred to get off my ass and do something. It doesn\u2019t always work, but productive hours have gone up since I started treating time this way.<\/p>\n

Note: this method can backfire, such as running 5 minutes over with the last activity and deciding to say screw it until the next hour. I\u2019ve come up with a couple strategies to combat my slacker tendencies. For example, if I haven\u2019t hit the 15 minute mark I\u2019ll tell myself, \u201cIf I start before 15 minutes are up, I can mark it down as productive time (even if I start 14 minutes in).\u201d I know I\u2019m lying to myself, but it works because I keep going once I\u2019ve started.\u00a0I also have the fight the tendency to put off writing until the hour is up by reminding myself: if you\u2019re serious, start now. The clock is not a ruler, just a guide.<\/p>\n

Checking the clock works better at limiting behaviors I don\u2019t want. For example, if I hit a point where I don\u2019t know what to do with myself, I\u2019ll block out 15 minutes to let myself chill. Making tea is a great activity for reorienting myself. The point is allowing space for thinking. I know this probably sounds like I\u2019m micromanaging my own life, but it isn\u2019t when you consider how much relaxation time I allow.<\/p>\n

The fact is the average office worker only manages about 2-4 productive hours a day.<\/a> Because they have to be there for 8 hours, they spend more time looking busy than actually accomplishing things. When I set goals for myself, I aim for that 2-4 hour sweet spot and dedicate that time to single-purposed focus. So if you\u2019re trying to hold yourself to an 8 hour workday as a freelancer, can\u2019t stay focused and waste a lot of time, stop beating yourself up. Cut it down to size before it burns you out, and stop sacrificing \u201cme time\u201d to the false altar of productivity. Unless you hit a manic flow where you can\u2019t stop working because your project is seriously awesome and you can\u2019t let it go, you don\u2019t need to push yourself that hard.<\/p>\n

After committing to two hours of solid work, I have the freedom to do what I want for the rest of the day. And it definitely works better if I get it done early, even though my best writing hour seems to be in the evening, because then I can spend most of my day guilt free. Willpower is also depleted as the day wears on, so every expert on productivity recommends getting the stuff you don\u2019t wanna do out of the way first. Knowing you don\u2019t have to do it all day helps as well. I often work one or two hours in the late morning and another one or two in the evening after dinner. Whereas if I spent the whole day dicking around and start in the evening, I get half as much done. In any case, I started getting my projects done at a steady pace. Sure, it\u2019s not miracle worker pace, but the work is getting done<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sure, some people are so driven they can work 20 hours straight on a thing they love and keep that pace up until their project\u2019s done. I\u2019ve done that myself, but it leads to burnout. It also leads to massive guilt when you can\u2019t keep up that pace, and fuck that. Stop comparing yourself to others, figure out your own patterns, and work within your own needs.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of us don\u2019t work well with schedules. As time constraints go, setting up a block of hours as \u201cwork time\u201d and trying to stick to it every day doesn\u2019t happen, no matter how we try to drag ourselves to the desk every day. I used to punish myself for not doing what I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[20,25],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living","tag-advice","tag-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}