A week has lapsed since I last blogged. The best intentions, right? The reason is I’ve been working full tilt on a segment of my Sooper Seekrit Projekt. This project requires a lot of learning on the fly – A LOT, – watching instructional videos, and simply doing by trial and error. And it has led me back to my ongoing battle with time.
Since it’s only February, I imagine Father Time (why not Mother Time?) is still a tot stumbling around crying for attention and structure. I want to make him behave but I’m not good with children, especially the toddler variety. Time isn’t exactly my nemesis but I struggle to keep him to a schedule. Because of this project, I’ve gone from long naps in the afternoon to staying up until the wee hours primarily because there is so much preparation to finish before I can even start. I wake feeling harried and tired. Before I can put my feet on the floor, Little Time is up and off to the races again.
I’ve been instructed by well meaning types (who are just naturally organized) to create a set schedule and stick to it. But Time cries so to watch that extra video, spruce up this blog post one more time, or figure out just what a “headline analyzer” and a “AISEO” are blinking on my WordPress dashboard. (It just turned green! Is that…good?) Before I know it, my carefully crafted schedule goes from late to ruined. And there’s the matter of my creative processes. Ideas and sentences must percolate before I write them. Even Toddler Time beating on a pan with his spoon can’t rush it. So whether it’s by allotting bigger time blocks in my schedule, or buying more hours in a day, I’ve got to get a better grip on time management.
So Dear Reader, what do you do to manage your time?
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I think this is not something that is really susceptible to advice, but for what it’s worth, what keeps me most on schedule is what I have to do for other people (teach, do something with dad, etc.). The main problem I encounter with it involves activities counter to my own circadian rhythm. I am a night owl by nature but having to take dad for physical therapy at 8 a.m. for a whole summer two years ago seems to have readjusted my clock in the sense that it’s not hard to get up now. I just find that as I feel my energies growing and coalescing, I’m getting tired because I’ve been up too long.
I’m a night owl too. Nothing resets my clock. I had to get up early for school and work for years and it never got any easier. Since I’m retired, I don’t have to schedule in 9-5 blocks anymore but I still find staying within a designated, say, 2-3 hour block of time difficult. And I tend to work in fits and starts – whirling dervish and then down periods.
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You win!
OK, this one actually worked correctly – the link I got in the push email actually brought me here. Yay! So you win, too.