Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Productivity Tip: How to use a digital timer to get things done
Millionaire Mommy Next Door: "The digital timer can also serve as a reminder to get up from your desk, stretch your muscles and rest your eyes. I usually multi-task these mini-breaks: I throw a load of laundry in the dryer, do some yoga stretches with my daughter, or pull a few weeds in the garden. About 5 minutes later, I'm sufficiently refreshed to sit at my desk for the next itemized task at hand."
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4 comments:
I think this is a good idea for people who have time management issues, and are in a situation where their time is their own. In my current situation actually setting a timer for daily tasks may be a little over the top, but certainly making time for the little things is important. For example, posting tonight as opposed to at 4:30 next Monday afternoon. Reading articles and posting takes maybe an hour a week, if I break that up over a few days, 15-20 mins for 4 days would give me ample time to get the posting done is relatively small chunks of time. larger tasks such as drafting or design projects on the other hand could benefit from the described break apart and tackle separately tactics.
My roomies just downloaded Awaken, an alarm clock and sleep timer for Macs. It's a great tool for working on long involved projects because you can set various alarms and get about your business. Time management has become a much more prominent issue for me this year, because my crew time and classes have a tighter schedule. A timer helps insure that I don't spend any more time than necessary on projects.
I feel like this is a little too intense for me. There is no way I could schedule myself down to each quarter of an hour. Like - tonight, my goal was to finish blog comments by 8pm. Clearly that didn't happen. But I will be done soon...hopefully. I do need to set goal for myself, and then I will be more productive, but I feel like the timer is kind of like setting an absurd amount of unrealistic goals, that same kind of thing. And you'll just end up being disappointed. Though I'm sure this will work for someone - SMs in particular... - something this precise is certainly not for me. Although - the bit about using it as a reminder to get up from your desk (or just to realize how much time has gone by) is a really great idea. Just as a wake up call to be like - "hey, what the hell are you doing - get to work" or "take a break already, you're going to go crazy."
I would certainly have no problem with making a timed schedule and implementing a timer, however I rarely let myself do things like this anymore. My problem is I get too caught up in it, and it ends up taking more time than worth it. I will spend so much time working on the schedule and figuring out if I have enough time that by the time I am finished with that, I have to start all over again because of the time I have "wasted" with the schedule. That, and the fact that I am trying to stick with one productivity tip at a time. Sometimes it is like I have productivity ADD, where I get so excited about all these different ideas, that I do them all at once, which fails miserably.
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