A Little Bit At A Time
Quite tasty!
This ongoing conversation I’m having with myself regarding time management and what I’m committed to is, I think, a good one. At this point I don’t think I’m ‘staring at my navel’, over-contemplating my situation. Hence, I will continue with the investigation...
Old News: I’m still not doing MEM every day (see previous post for what MEM stands for). I am keeping on top of my teaching and school related duties well enough and I am working on songs more than I would if I didn’t have my MEM commitment in place. So I believe I’m making progress. More on this at another time.
New News: WEEKENDS! Ah, the vastness of ‘free time’ we call the weekend! The two free days where we think we can fit a week’s worth of fun! I tend to over-schedule and over-expect what I can do in a weekend. I look forward to getting to work on projects that have laid dormant, taking care of that nagging issue in the back yard, working on various long-term projects for school, baking something exciting that others will enjoy, the list goes on and on. Usually what happens is I envelope myself in one project for hours and leave everything else on the wayside and then I rush to get the coming week’s school work prepared late Sunday night.
Composing this blog is one of those time consuming projects. I’m new to this process so I’m not particularly expedient when it comes to writing my thoughts. Working on songs, baking bread, fixing items around the house are examples of other projects that can steal time from otherd on the weekend.
This week I’m trying something new. I’m working on items on my ‘to-do’ list in groups of 20 or 40 minutes. When the time is up, no matter whether or not the job is complete, I stop working and go onto something else. Of course, certain chores like driving my daughter to her job 20 minutes away will take about an hour to complete, so with that, I make an exception. But where I can, I make sure I only dedicate a specified amount of time to any given chore.
We’ll see how this goes, so far I’ve cleaned the kitchen(20 min), made and consumed breakfast (20 min), driven my daughter to work (60 min) practiced piano(2o min)and worked on the blog (40 minutes). I doubled up tasks on my blog work with also hanging out with my daughter’s bird. I plan on continuing this way, switching tasks and at the end of the day I’ll assess what was completed, what still needs to be done and I’ll make a list or tomorrow’s morsels of time that need to be in the mix.
This process reminds me a great deal of the Pomodoro method which involves working in 25 minute bunches with 5 minute breaks - only real difference is the Pomodoros were designed to facilitate working on one long-term project. This process, on the other hand, is focused on changing projects constantly. I’ call it the Spinning Plate Method.
One other thing I’m wondering about is, how much being in a relationship would interfere with my plans. Granted, there are massive benefits to having a significant other, but from where I’m perched right now, I’d think it would be more of a hinderance than an enhancement. Of course, as soon as I meet a special someone, I’ll probably start blathering about the benefits of being involved in a relationship.
We shall see, we shall see. Again, if you have any suggestions on how to fruitfully spend your time on the weekends, please leave a comment.
See you next week!
Cheers,
The Wacky Curmudgeon
