eimarra | Using your time series: An overview (Reply)

I poke at time management now and then. Try new systems. Look at sites on-line. Try to increase my productivity. Recently, I’ve realized I’ve gotten lazy — I’m too inclined to sit down and putter instead of looking at what’s on my to-do list and doing it. If realizing that one isn’t being productive were enough to make somebody become productive, it wouldn’t be a multi-million dollar industry. So I’m embarking on the journey again, trying to do more — and this time, I’m blogging about it, with reference to things I’ve read and what I’m planning to try. Feel free to chime in on the comments of these posts with your own ideas and problems!

Here’s the current breakdown of the blog series:

Week 1 (August 15) — looking at why. Why do I want to be productive? What am I trying to accomplish? Where am I going? Why do I what I do, and how is getting more done going to impact that?

Week 2 (August 22) — looking at time. Short blocks vs. long blocks of time. Most productive times of the day. Family time commitments.

Week 3 (August 29) — looking at what and how. What needs to be done? How do I keep track? How do I know what still needs to be done? How do I decide what comes next?

Week 4 (September 5) — looking at barriers. Bad nights of sleep. Illness. Stress. Extra time commitments. Unexpected technological problems.

Week 5 (September 12) — looking at energy. Exercise and health. Caffeine. Sleep habits. Morning larks vs. night owls.

Week 6 (September 19) — building a system that works. Puts together everything from before — how to include down time, low-energy and high-energy times, accommodating things you can’t change.

Week 7 (September 26) — rebuilding when the system breaks. When I hit a barrier and suddenly realize that it’s been months since I’ve been on a schedule, how do I get back on track?

Week 8 (October 3) — checking and tweaking the system. How do I know if the system that I’ve got is really working? How do I go about improving parts without breaking it completely?

Come back next Wednesday and join in the fun!

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.