Hey everyone. I've had this topic on my mind for some time now and I figured what better place to get advice from than Vizzed? So here goes....

It just seems like I never have enough time in the day to get everything I want to do, done. So my question to all of you is, do you have any advice on how I can better manage my time? I'd really appreciate any feedback and help that I can get. I look forward to reading your replies.

SunflowerGaming :

The issue of time management has been a conundrum for me as well. I spend a lot of time writing material. Although I may release one or two pieces of material a week, I am always working on something. What really frustrates me sometimes is that I take as much time on each piece material as necessary rather than rushing to get things done faster.

 

Although I would love to be fast my material, and would much rather worry about quality rather than quantity. This is something that I have learned to adapt over the years. I will be the first one to admit that when I first started writing I didn’t necessarily think about quality, even though I was probably faster in terms of getting things done; I prefer the way I work now as opposed to back then. I guess it is a little different for everybody, but for me when I do and how I do it works.

 

What is even more frustrating is when I want to keep working despite being utterly exhausted and trying to convince myself to take downtime in order to recharge my batteries. I love down days as much as anybody else, but it is truly frustrating after taking downtime for two maybe three days, and then trying to get back into a routine and having trouble in doing so.

 

What I try to do in order to save time is I do my writing blocks. Rather than simply saying I’ll be writing between this time to this time, I basically try to go with how many words I can write in a given session. Depending on how long a piece may take me to complete, I will usually try to go between 300 and 900 words before taking a break. Most of my material averages between 1500 and 2000 words or above. In terms of getting through a first draft that is what I try to do.

 

I am only going on my own experience here, but I think that all depends on what you are trying to do and what are you trying to get done. Obviously, this differs for everybody and there is no will clear answer because everyone is different. What is it that you are trying to get done?

First identify where time might be wasted.

Are you sitting in a bus for 40 min a day? Do you spend lot's of time in traffic? Are there "dead" times at work? Do you have to wait to pick up someone a certain day of the week?

Also see if some things can be eliminated.

Is there something you are doing but it really isn't being productive? Is there something that is stressing you out or is bad for your health? Be sure never to eliminate things like sleep, proper eating, rest, and exercise.

Thinking about everything you want to get done can overwhelm you. When you are overwhelmed and frustrated, you tend to do sloppy work and make mistakes. My advice is to put first things first and focus on the one task at hand and then move on to the next one, instead of trying to split your mind onto multiple tasks at once.

Other advice is, dont bite off more than you can chew. This means that you should not try to jampack a lot of things into one day. You would be setting yourself up for an unnecessarily frustrating day. I had a convo with my friend about this yesterday. He tried to pack too much stuff into his days and maintained that for a week or two and ended up getting sick and missed three days of school because of it. In the long run, you end up wasting more time if you try to overwork yourself. Your performance gets sluggish until you get sick and then when that happens, you dont want to do anything.

You could also try setting aside something that isnt absolutely necessary to get done right away to a later date when you do have some free time, instead of having a nownownow mentality. That way of thinking can be beneficial in some ways, but it can also be detrimental.

Wow, a lot of really helpful advice. I hope you all keep them coming. I really appreciate you all taking the time to read and post here. Thank you.

Create a list of objectives the evening before to prepare yourself for the next day.  Rank them based on "have to" and "really should" for what needs to get done.

Pick the worst thing you're putting off and do that as soon as possible.  If you goggle "eat the frog" and watch the story, you'll see why you need to do the worst thing first off.  After that, continue checking your list off and accomplishing as much as possible.

Lastly, train yourself, through practice, not to be on the computer so much.  This internet is a massive time suck and is killing people by keeping them sitting in a chair or on a couch.  It's stealing sleep time and destroying focus and not allowing you to get anything done.

Practice going a full hour (!) without using it on the phone or your laptop to do other things.  Try eating breakfast without going on first.  It's a habit that's taking all your time.

1. Prioritize the night before.
2. Get the worst thing you've avoided out of the way first.
3. Continue checking off items.
4. Avoid the internet.

Done.

Pretty much what everyone else is suggesting would be my suggestion,

though I've tried this and failed it many times. I've set up calendars and to-do lists, and even had a white board in my room with a checklist of things I should accomplish daily on a time table. All attempts at this fell into disuse after a certain amount of time.

It's simply learning self discipline, something I definitely haven't mastered yet.