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Time Management
Being that I’m a rather ambitious individual, I’ve had to find ways to manage my time in order to work on all of my interests. Here are the methods that I’ve used which have helped me have success in this area.
Making a List
Lists are essential to proper time management, as they help to catalog and prioritize all of the tasks at hand. I have one main list of projects that I work from and if projects on the list require further development, I’ll write another list consisting of the things that need to be done in order to meet that particular goal or help that project come to fruition.
For example, my main list consists of songs and albums that I’m working on (with deadlines/goal dates), webpages to create and clean up, and cleaning projects. I then take a smaller piece of paper and make a list detailing one specific item on my list.
These lists usually pertain to website goals, as I do most of my song mapping while working on them and cleaning’s pretty obvious – if there’s too many things in one area or said area is too disorganized for my liking, it needs to be cleaned up.
One thing to avoid is using a daily planner for lists. They’re great for keeping track of appointments, but I’ve found it much more efficient to set aside a block of time to work on something rather than plan to knock it out on a specific day. I used to do lists like that and would get about half of the listed tasks finished, but that was mildly frustrating as I didn’t have time to work on the other half.
Learn to Time Block
Being able to set aside small chunks of time to work on projects helps progress move along more smoothly. I wrote a blog about this a couple months ago called Time Blocking and the concept has helped me to set a foundation in order to stay focused on the projects at hand.
The basic idea is to set aside specific segments of time to work on a project rather than trying to finish a task on a specific day. Those segments can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours or longer. Even if the task isn’t finished on the day that time is set aside for it, taking the time to work on the task helps to move it further along than it would be if it was put on a daily list and not worked on that day due to its placement on the list.
Wake Up to an Alarm Clock
Setting a certain time to get up every day adds time to the day to work on projects, whereas sleeping in will take away a significant chunk of time. I get up at 3:30 AM every weekday and 5:30 AM on the weekend (if I’m home), and having that time in the morning to knock out tasks certainly gives me a good boost for the rest of the day. It also adds incentive to go to bed at a reasonable hour, even though that work better in theory than in principle most of the time.
Multitasking in Small Doses
A little of this is okay, though try not to make a habit of it. I’ll multitask a bit when I’m working out, as I need to take 30-60 second rest periods between sets. Those rest periods give me time to change songs, check something out on the internet, or even do bits and pieces of work for the site.
I have to do quite a bit of multitasking at my office job and it’s distracting enough there, so I try to only bring it home with me in small doses.
Schedule Time for Fun
This is something I’m guilty of forgetting to do, but working with music in any capacity is a rather enjoyable activity for me. Most of my fun comes in spending time with my friends watching UFC events, gaming, at music & gaming conventions, or spending time at the bar conversing over beer and bar food.
However, when those options aren’t available, I boot up a console and do some gaming, though it’s often hard to schedule it. I primarily game at night and it’s usually after I’ve finished everything else I’ve set out to do during the day. It’s a good time to relax and unwind.
Maintain a Daily Routine
Any tasks that need to be done should be knocked out first so the rest of the time available is spent working on personal projects. My daily routine consists of taking care of chores first, working out for an hour (except on Sunday), then I start working on the projects that I want to.
Obviously, it’s not always possible to stay on schedule, as I was unable to this week due to going to a rather fun Christmas party on Friday, and it ate into a good chunk of my Saturday work time.
Experiment with New Systems
I’ve tried quite a few different ways to manage my time and even after I stop using certain ones, I’ll still use some of the facets of it. Time blocking was my most recent one, which I strictly engaged in for a little over a month. I still adhere to it in the fact that I focus on one non-routine thing to do during weekday mornings and evenings, though my weekends have been a little more open-ended.
The next system I’m going to attempt is a sort of weekly shuffle – I’ll spend all of my free time during the week on that one concept and then focus at least half of my free time on the weekend to that concept, while working on the others an equal amount of time. The areas that spring to mind immediately are music, website work, cleaning, and gaming.
Achieve Goals
With all these steps in place, achieving your goals should be quite a bit easier than it was before. I wish you the best of luck!
Discuss this post at the For the Love of Creativity Forum!
Posted on December 18th, 2010.
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