You may not think of this as time management tool, but I feel a good routine can really help with the time management world.
Several Years ago I started a new job. The fellow I was replacing spent two days teaching me everything that was going on and what needed to completed. Okay, deadlines.
What I found interesting was the last day we made a list of everything that needed to be done. Then he wrote out the work week, Monday thru Friday. Then we took the tasks and put them under different days. Once all the tasks had a day then we put them in a priority on the days.
Just like that I had a schedule of things that needed to be done and when. As I started working each week then things started to become a routine.
Once the routine started working, things were getting done and I was successful. Then when curves and things that upset the routine started I was able to take them in stride and take care of those issues, and still get the main tasks completed as well.
I am currently a General Manager, and I have found a rhythm to the store. Orders, schedules, deliveries, interviews, hiring, training, and other odds and ends. So I try to set up times and days things need to happen and make a routine. Now there are always interruptions, things don’t always go according to plan. Yet making a routine helps get things done and insures the important daily things make it to the completed/done section.
Writing is and can be very sporadic. How can you take creativity and put it into a routine? As I’ve talked with other writers some things are starting to become apparent. Self discipline, and a passion about getting their stories onto paper. (Okay perhaps paper is become cliché, but it has to be written in digital or written down, but words have to be put out in some form or another I just use paper as the metaphor to get the point across.) There are things that are common, research, writing, editing, revising, beta reading, and critiquing. So a routine can be built, how it is built is up to you. There are many roads to Chicago, how you get there is your affair.
What I like best about routine is this: you can go to autopilot and things just get done. However, you must make a routine that works for you, be disciplined to make it work. Once it is working then things that must be done, do get done.
Showing posts with label self discipline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self discipline. Show all posts
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Take Care of Your Future Self – No One Else Will
This last weekend I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and my new grandson. Because of my time constraints with work, it was a down and back day trip. Thus a very early start, O’dark thirty.
So I took the car and filled the tank. We packed what we eat for lunch. So the next morning we loaded up the family and took off. I didn’t have to stop and tank up, besides the gas station was not open yet. We were able to make our deadlines and had a great trip.
One reason the trip went so well was due to some advanced preparations. My past self took care of my future self, as I like to think of it. No, I do not have a time machine; I do not control any time travel device. I’m very linier, just like the rest of us. I do try to think about what will happen later, and try to make arrangements to make things easier for myself later.
I’ve made a commitment to this blog to have a tip on Thursdays. Typically, I am at work early Thursday mornings. Or I have to work late Wednesday night. Either way I do not have the opportunity to write a blog and post it Thursday. So I write the blog entry earlier in the week or, if I have time, I’ll write two or three posts, and then set them up to auto post. I meet my commitment to post weekly, and I am able to meet my other obligations.
I try to do as much as I can before due dates, or put things in place for later use. I like routine where I can use routine. I change shoes and have hat, pen, and keys in the back of my car. I put them back when I am done. So when I get to work, hat, pen, shoes, and keys are ready. My old self puts things in place for my future self to use. Gas is in the car, instead of I’ll fill it tomorrow, I fill it now, so tomorrow I have a full tank. If I know I’ll have an early start the next day I try to lay out my clothes before I go to bed. I try to take care of my future self as much as I can.
By doing these things, it helps me get other things done. I’ve tried to teach my children the same concept. I tell them, “Put your homework in your notebook, and put the notebook in the backpack now. Tomorrow when you are in class, you’ll open your notebook; and find the assignment is right there, ready to be turned in.”
What can you do to help with your writing? Get research done, put the notes in one place. Keep your thesaurus, dictionary, and other things you need for your writing in one location. Then when you need an item, it is right there, ready for use. Take care of yourself, no one else will. If you can discipline yourself to do this, you will become more productive. With so many demands on us, anything we can do to give ourselves a bit of advantage helps. Finding the time to hammer out a few words, pages, or chapters is a challenge. So find those little things you can do to give yourself a leg up later on. You’ll find yourself thanking your past self for your foresight.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
All About Time and All About Writing - Guest Blogger Greenwoman
Greenwoman was one of my first "fans" for my blog. She kept hounding me to get my blog going. I'll not give the phrase she said, it is a bit, risque. She has a whole guest blogger thing going on over at her blog. (Which gave me the idea of having guests for my blog.) I believe she is the source of the Meme's that are going around! I am happy she agreed to swap blog posts. So Thursday has arrived on Wednesday. You can read my post over on Greenwoman's blog. I'll also be on Cherie's blog this Friday.
Take it away Greenwoman!
SO, Dean has this fantastic blog all about writing, and time management. This is a good subject!
I have a confession to make. I'm TERRIBLE at time management. It isn't because I don't know how to do it--I've read an entire self-help section's worth of time management advice. The problem is that I am undisciplined. No, that's not true. It's worse than that. I'm REBELLIOUS.
"Well then," you're probably saying to yourself, "it's a good thing she doesn't have to work for someone else."
Well yes . . . and no. No, because it means I have no one to feel rebellious toward besides myself. (I imagine there's medication for this. I'm afraid to take it. It might make the voices in my head go away.)
SO, in order to get my writing done, I have to trick myself.
I figure I can do anything for 15 minutes at a time. I can even listen to my kids talk for 15 minutes. So, I employ a timer and a reward system to stay focused. (The reward is usually something like spending five minutes goofing around on twitter or making another cup of tea. I am a simple creature.)
I started using the timer method during NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) a few years ago. My writing buddy and I would have "word wars": 15 minutes on the clock, type as much as you can, the one with the most words wins. Okay, so you don't win anything, except an opportunity to feel smug. But you take what you can get. After a session was over, we'd spend some time chatting and comparing notes, shake out our wrists, and then do it again.
I wrote 100,000 words in 30 days--all in 15 minute increments. And the thing is, my family barely even noticed I was participating in NaNoWriMo. With short bursts of intense focus, I managed to get my daily writing done in one or two hours instead of sitting in front of the keyboard from morning 'til night.
Over the past two years, my writing buddy and I have inched our sessions up to 30 minutes. Longer sessions are a good idea when editing--it's hard to get editing done in 15 minute increments. And these days, sometimes our check in will go like this:
Me: "Time! How'd you do?"
Laura: "Good! I'm getting this chapter rearranged. You?"
Me: "Good, I'm on a roll. Want to jump back in?"
And off we go again. Sometimes, we even work WITHOUT a timer. Like when we write at a coffee shop or the library.
But sometimes when I'm working alone, I need to go back to 15 minutes. It's a way of psyching myself out. "Yes, I have 4500 other things I also need to do today. So I only have to concentrate on writing for 15 minutes. Then I can do something else."
Usually I only need the timer once. Because usually the real issue is getting my butt in the chair to work, and once I'm there, I don't want to stop.
I use a simple kitchen timer, but there are some options out there for writers like Write or Die (http://writeordie.com/).
The great thing about living by the timer is it makes everything feel more like a game. Sometimes I even use the timer for less pleasant tasks than writing. Tasks like cleaning. But let's not talk about that: I'd rather be writing.
Take it away Greenwoman!
SO, Dean has this fantastic blog all about writing, and time management. This is a good subject!
I have a confession to make. I'm TERRIBLE at time management. It isn't because I don't know how to do it--I've read an entire self-help section's worth of time management advice. The problem is that I am undisciplined. No, that's not true. It's worse than that. I'm REBELLIOUS.
"Well then," you're probably saying to yourself, "it's a good thing she doesn't have to work for someone else."
Well yes . . . and no. No, because it means I have no one to feel rebellious toward besides myself. (I imagine there's medication for this. I'm afraid to take it. It might make the voices in my head go away.)
SO, in order to get my writing done, I have to trick myself.
I figure I can do anything for 15 minutes at a time. I can even listen to my kids talk for 15 minutes. So, I employ a timer and a reward system to stay focused. (The reward is usually something like spending five minutes goofing around on twitter or making another cup of tea. I am a simple creature.)
I started using the timer method during NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) a few years ago. My writing buddy and I would have "word wars": 15 minutes on the clock, type as much as you can, the one with the most words wins. Okay, so you don't win anything, except an opportunity to feel smug. But you take what you can get. After a session was over, we'd spend some time chatting and comparing notes, shake out our wrists, and then do it again.
I wrote 100,000 words in 30 days--all in 15 minute increments. And the thing is, my family barely even noticed I was participating in NaNoWriMo. With short bursts of intense focus, I managed to get my daily writing done in one or two hours instead of sitting in front of the keyboard from morning 'til night.
Over the past two years, my writing buddy and I have inched our sessions up to 30 minutes. Longer sessions are a good idea when editing--it's hard to get editing done in 15 minute increments. And these days, sometimes our check in will go like this:
Me: "Time! How'd you do?"
Laura: "Good! I'm getting this chapter rearranged. You?"
Me: "Good, I'm on a roll. Want to jump back in?"
And off we go again. Sometimes, we even work WITHOUT a timer. Like when we write at a coffee shop or the library.
But sometimes when I'm working alone, I need to go back to 15 minutes. It's a way of psyching myself out. "Yes, I have 4500 other things I also need to do today. So I only have to concentrate on writing for 15 minutes. Then I can do something else."
Usually I only need the timer once. Because usually the real issue is getting my butt in the chair to work, and once I'm there, I don't want to stop.
I use a simple kitchen timer, but there are some options out there for writers like Write or Die (http://writeordie.com/).
The great thing about living by the timer is it makes everything feel more like a game. Sometimes I even use the timer for less pleasant tasks than writing. Tasks like cleaning. But let's not talk about that: I'd rather be writing.
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