Time management is a problem for most people I know, especially the tech-nerdy sorts.
Solving problems and creating a balance between work and free time takes discipline and motivation, but it's not brain surgery.
Andrina Kelly has some pertinent slides posted from her MacWorld presentation on afp548.com. Check them out and start tackling that pile of stickies on your desk.
Getting things… done?
Both Sarah and I started reading the GTD book and haven't finished. I couldn't get past the feeling that the author needlessly repeats himself and doesn't really get to the "meat" until pretty far into the text. Maybe someday we'll finish the thing.
I've long felt that my attempts to efficiently manage time have been hampered by the pervasiveness of multi-tasking. Either I "multi-task," or it's required for the job or situation. It's hard to break the cycle of multi-tasking, and I often feel the effects of information overload.
On a related note, check out this article about how studies have shown multi-tasking actually may lead to a sort of cognitive atrophy. Interesting stuff…
GT...snore...
Yeah, I could see that. I actually dove into the GTD using the audio book available on iTunes, it's about 2 hours. He does go on about the same things (I guess it's just an effective way to get through to the audience when they're all on their blackberry's trying to email), but when listening to it on the tube or even just on my iPod, the repetition was not that annoying (I could just fast forward) and it also gave me time implement stuff as he was describing it - whether that was a physical system or just in my brain.
Anyway, the components of GTD are all really intuitive, it's just no one has the intuition to implement all of their ideas on how to organize their life in a structured format. I just found it helped me to get that extra push to actually centralize my to-do management, which I wouldn't have done without a little bit of structure.
good post
I missed this post the first time around, Nate, it's very interesting.
I can't stress enough the importance that having a structure to the day has to me. Early on in my freelance life I realized that if I didn't keep to somewhat of a routine, I got very little done, and that was before the internets. My friends would laugh at me my routine was so rigid, (they all figured that being self-employed meant you could do whatever you wanted to...) but, by creating a schedule and a routine, you make a habit. Habits take less energy, and get done easier and faster. Of course, any structure has to be flexible enough to deal with what the day throws at you...
This echoes a story by Lou Lesko that I quote in my book... about how to get work done in the "digital darkroom". The darkroom used to be a sanctuary where you could withdraw into a little world with no distractions. The digital darkroom, if you're not careful (and by some theories, actually unplug from the internets) more resembles a superhighway than a sanctuary.
The other note I would make is the ability to compartmentalize. I have a lot of identities... running the ride, teaching, writing, photography, oh, yes, and Sales at TSP. I have to keep them in their own little box, and that feeds into the routine. Everything has it's time and place, like Sunday morning I write, Sunday night I prepare for class. From 4AM to 7 or so weekdays I make widgets. heh... Managing the small ways in which they overlap becomes the interesting problem.
...funny thing. It was Clavell's "Shogun" where I was first exposed to that notion, back in school.
GTD
I noticed that GTD is one of your keywords. I've recently been slowly working GTD into my workflow and I have to say that it's making a world of difference. And I'm probably only 1/2 way there.
Simply taking the time to think about the "next actionable item" not only for a meeting, but also for your to-do's does wonders, along with having a trusted system. I used iCal as my trusted system and while it has some drawbacks (namely, it doesn't like to deal with my over 100 to-dos), it does work. Ben at the office also uses it with Omni Focus.
There is one part of Andrina's slides which I don't quite agree with - although the rest of it is spot on. The idea of scheduling in your day with the priority tasks is optimal, but I would probably say that it's unlikely that someone with a lot of external inputs will be able to stick to it, regardless how well he or she plans out the day.
One of the problems with IT time management is the buffer required to schedule tasks. Simply put, it's impossible to estimate how long a particular task will take to do. It might be a 5 minute fix, or it might take days, depending on the problem and whether or not you're going in the right direction to fix it. For instance, I've been able to knock off technical problems on the ICA's Digital Media SAN in usual 15 minutes or less on every issue except for one - the PasswordServer error - and that has taken me hours spread over a week to tackle. And it's still not solved yet (it will be soon, dammit!). How do you plan for that? Well, you can't, or else your days would have lots of space in between, 'just in cases.'
The key is to acknowledge the fluidity and make sure that at all times you know exactly what you have to hit and make it into small pieces. I may not be able to plan out my day exactly like what she shows in iCal, but in the small snippets of time in between the "unpredictable" parts of my day, I can be very effective in knocking off some important items.
I find that while waiting for scripts to run or even for someone to write up something big in iChat, I'm sometimes able to hit a small to-do on my "next action" list - or maybe even just maintain the list a little bit. That list is everything - it ensures that, like Andrina says, the brain is for working and not remembering crap. That alone gives me a piece of mind that allows the singular focus needed to get moving.
We'll see if this focus - and the GTD system - lasts, but already I feel more on top of my sysadmin tasks, CEOadmin tasks, and even my UK wedding planning.