Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Time Management

I think I pretty much suck at time management. I'm horrible for putting things off. I'll think about doing something and then won't do it. Does that make me lazy? I'm really bad about keeping my prescriptions updated, my MRI appointments current and getting in for my blood tests when I need them. I'm really bad about making sure things go on the calendar, but I don't check the calendar every morning, so what does it matter? I've been putting off exercising so long my Nike's have spiderwebs across the top.

So how on earth am I going to learn how to manage a busy career? I have an article due today that I could have done yesterday, but I was having so much fun working on Spell and playing with the new Yahoo group that I just put it off. I have to fill in the gaps in my marketing plan and... well, you all know. It never ends, which is fine and what I signed on for, but still... I would like to be somewhat organized.

I generally make a weekly to do list that I keep on the desk, as well as my articles to do list and my tracking list to track when I invoice and get paid for articles. I would love to have a fiction list to track how many pages I write in an hour, but I don't have Excel and haven't made one in Works yet.

Does anyone have any tips? Do you work on email for so long and then close the program and write? Do you devote so long to promotions before or after writing?
How do you stay sane?

4 comments:

Heather Harper said...

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Best anti-procrastination book ever.

Rachel Vincent said...

I wish I had some advice, but I don't really worry about staying sane. I'm happily insane. Seriously.

I set my phone (pocket PC) to give me reminders about real-life stuff, but other than that...I'm not very organized.

Lexi said...

Oh, Lord. I need that advice too! I think I'm just as bad as you, Teri!

Carrie Ryan said...

I'm also not that organized. My biggest problem is "pretending to do work," like blogging, surfing blogs, messing with my blog template (sense a theme here) and then calling it a productive day. I always have to remind myself that in the end, it's the writing that matters most and that's what I need to judge my day by.

At the same time... you don't really HAVE to write every day. See, I run in this circle all day long :)