I went to a great workshop at Grub Street on Saturday. The leader was Hillary Rettig, and the topics were procrastination and time management. Her approach on these topics is very different. And inspiring. Inspiring for new ideas. But requiring some reframing, and some plain old hard work.
Hard work? Harder than writing? Way harder, in so many ways. You see, Hillary explains that in the course of a given week, you have 112 hours to work with (provided you sleep 8 hours a night, which you should). That needs to include working, commuting, shopping, cooking, cleaning, working out, writing (or whatever your passion/avocation is), relationships, entertainment, etc. How you spend those 112 hours is a choice. Granted, working isn’t a choice for many of us. But decisions around working may be (ie telecommunting, flex time, etc.)
She suggests 15 minute scheduling blocks, outsourcing where possible and some tough, mindful choices. In theory, all possible. In fact? I am finding there are three layers of effort involved.
The first is the list of things that need to be included in the 112 hours. I am trying to be complete in this and doing a complete brain dump. That said, I know some things will need to be modified, or dumped off the list. I am still in this phase, and a little stuck.
The second is the schedule itself. For me, two sub layers are involved here. The actual scheduling, and then tracking it. I was/am a Franklin Covey and Planner Pad girl, but am not loving the paper right now. Need to find a schedule/task softward for androids. Suggestions welcome.
The third is assessing. What happens if I don’t get the five hours of working out I scheduled actually done? What happens if I get on an Angry Bird jag? There are no repercussions, except to myself.
And that is the point. No one is forcing me to do this. I want to do this. And so I have to crack these three layers. And do the work.
I will report back on my success.