Scheduling and Time Management

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From author Alyson McLayne via Romance University:

With January just ended, I realize I haven’t set any goals for the year. And truthfully, as busy as I am, I can’t help but wonder What’s the point? I already have goals for this year in the form of deadlines: 3 books to complete, 12 newsletters to craft, 25+ blogs to write, and the world to wow on social media—not to mention conferences to attend and edits coming out of my ears.

Maybe, like me, you’ve reached the point where you no longer sit down and write a list of New Year’s Resolutions—only to fail come December 31^st. Instead, perhaps you choose an inspiring word that becomes your mantra, or theme, for the year. One year I chose the word “success”, and last year a friend of mine chose the word “courage”. This year she has a catchphrase: “Seize the moment”.

These are all good ideas. I can only imagine that if we courageously seized the moment whenever we could during 2018 it would lead to great success!

But I feel like those kinds of words and the sentiment behind them are too ephemeral for me this year. I need something with more grit, more heft, to get me through the challenges I face. Like many of you, in addition to writing, I’m also busy on the home front—I have twin five-year-olds, a puppy, aging and sick parents, and a husband who works long hours.

. . . .

Scheduling and Time Management!

I’ve been playing around with scheduling for a while now, trying to figure out what works best for me—especially as my kids started kindergarten this year and the layout of my days changed to early mornings on school days (hard when I’m a night owl) and activities or play-dates in the late-afternoon.

Some days I feel so overwhelmed with everything I have to do, I jump from task to task and end up feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing—a downward spiral that leads to missed deadlines and burnout. When I work in a scattered fashion like this, I waste time shuttling between tasks and lose track of what I’m doing. Then it takes time and energy to get my brain re-focused on my original task.

And when I do try to concentrate on one project—writing my book, for example—my brain keeps expecting (and wanting) to click away to Goodreads or Facebook or Gmail or Mailerlite—the pathways it knows.

My ability to concentrate has been diminished by multi-tasking!

. . . .

[H]ow can I take the success from my last retreat and repeat it in smaller doses during my day to day writing schedule—even with edits, newsletters, blogs, social media requirements, kids, a dog, and a household to run?

First, let’s think about what I actually did before and during my retreat:

1. I PLANNED the retreat ahead of time.
2. I COMMITTED to the retreat.
3. I DECIDED what I was going to work on before I arrived.
4. I ELIMINATED distractions.
5. I FOCUSED on only one project during the retreat (HIGHLAND BETRAYAL).
6. I had an EXPECTATION that I would write a LOT.

. . . .

Here’s the best tip I can give you to stop losing hours to social media and other places on the web: download a program from the internet called Freedom and install it on your computer, tablet and/or phone. Freedom is a software program that allows you to block internet access in varying degrees—so you can cut yourself off entirely, or just cut yourself off from social media. I have several different settings, the one I use for writing cuts me off from everything but dictionary.com.

Freedom also allows me to schedule a start and stop time, so I can sync it up with my writing schedule. If I want to browse social media, but I don’t want to be at it for longer than half and hour, I can set Freedom to start after just 30 minutes. The program will cut you off automatically, so you don’t lose two hours looking at cute puppies and kittens.

Here are some other ways I eliminate distractions:

1. I commit to my work time, which means no household chores, phone calls, texting/messaging with friends or playing with the dog. I let people know I’ll be incommunicado for that time, walk the dog beforehand, take lunch/tea/water with me into my office, and go to the bathroom before sitting down, etc.
2. I leave my phone out of reach and turn off the sound. This is extremely important as I have access to social media, google, messaging, texting, and email on my phone. It has the potential to screw up an entire time-block.
3. I set up Freedom ahead of time, so I don’t have internet access first thing in the morning or during work hours. If I go on social media, I set up Freedom to start after a certain amount of time.
4. If you’re working in Word, set your document to Focus View (bottom left corner of your manuscript). That gives you a black border around your document, so you can’t see all the files on your desktop waiting for your attention.
5. Try working at the library/coffee shop during the day if it’s too distracting at home.
6. Engage sensory deprivation. For me that means wearing earplugs. (Did I mention I have kids?). Someone else might block noise by listening to their favorite music. Or you may be one of those people who can’t work without the TV on. Whatever the case may be, don’t forget to set it up before hand.

Link to the rest at Romance University

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