Making the Most of My Time

I am an okay time manager.

On weeks like this, when I have a major event coming up, I tend to get things done, but the to-do list gets longer and longer and everything has an air of immediacy about it. I have to spend more time and effort on my time management skills and use my lists more diligently.

The problem with weeks like this is that everything has a specific time frame for completion and nothing can really get going until that time frame. This is the type of week where I can't really get things done ahead of time, I can just wait until it is time to release information and finish tasks.

Anyway, I am an okay time manager. I am also a procrastinator/perfectionist who always feels that there is plenty of time to get things done until deadlines come up and then I wish I had started things earlier... I am trying to evolve into someone who has less deadline stress and more space to get tasks finished.

I have already finished and scheduled one of the tasks due to be released this week. I have two tasks scheduled for next week that need to be finished this week before the Online Conference for Music Therapy gets started Friday evening. There are three tasks that need to be done for that event, but they are only time-bound to being finished by Friday evening.

My attempts at evening routines have not been panning out the way I want them to - completely laziness on my part rather than the routines. When I get home at night, I am mentally and physically exhausted so crawling into bed feels great. The problem is that things don't get done if I am always crawling into bed. None of my plans have worked yet, so it is time to revamp the routine and keep looking for something that will work for me.

Time management comes from all sorts of tasks, ideas, and routines. Post-it notes and my bullet journal is just one of the ways I organize my tasks, thoughts, and appointments. I get to take a stack of post-it notes back to my car to help me with these things again. I put notes and ideas and reminders on these notes and then stick them to my dashboard. The new car has less of a dashboard than the older one, but I think I can make it work. I've missed that part of my routine lately. I get so many ideas for songs and TMEs when I am driving to and from work, and I haven't had any place to record those thoughts. I will be reinstating that part of my time management system this morning. I'll get the post-its together now.

So, the trick is to take what works for you and then work it!

This evening, I want to work on decreasing the mess in my living room. I will try to find one bag of papers to recycle in my recycling bin outside. This means that the papers have to be suitable to release into the world without personal information. I can do that - I have so many notes and things that don't need to be shredded first - one bag will be easy to fill. If I can get one bag out of my home, I'll be on a roll...

So, I have a plan for tonight. Get home, cook dinner (burritos tonight), eat, go through email, and clear out one bag of paper recycling. Talk to Dad and Sister, and then do some reading. After reading, take a shower, and then head to bed for the last bit of reading for the evening. Keep the television off in the bedroom... we'll see if I can get that one accomplished...

It is now time to get going on my work routine and get to the after work part of the day. Happy Monday.

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