A Thought for the Day: Marketing Isn't Yucky

"Marketing isn't sleazy, yucky, expensive, or phony - unless you make it that way...."
"Start Your Home Business in No Time," Page 116, Carol Anne Carroll (2004)

'New and Improved' Schedule Worked: Pretty Much

Last week, I started working with a 'new and improved' schedule. ("The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work" (September 8, 2009)) Ten days later, I haven't followed it perfectly, but that's okay: I got the important tasks done. Most of them, anyway. Easy Griller and Narcissus-X are surprisingly hard blogs to write for.

Still, I can do better. I've penciled in (literally) some time tomorrow, for moving items around on the schedule - mostly, a matter of putting all of each day's 'to do' items in one spot.

That, and a procedure of crossing out tasks as I do them, printing a new schedule sheet each week, dating and filing them as they're filled, should help me spend more time productively, and less on 'management' tasks.

Eleven Blogs, Thousands of Posts: Dropping the Ball is Too Easy

I've got nearly a dozen blogs now, and discovered that I can't trust my memory to update each of them in a timely fashion.

Besides, I think they'll do better if visitors learn that they can count on something new on certain days.

I still think I can make blogging a reasonably profitable occupation - but I'm also looking at other ways to make money. More about that another day.

Now, if I'm going to get that apple eaten by an hour before Mass, I'd better wrap this up.

Related post:

• "The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work"
  (September 8, 2009)
• "I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More: Time, Organization, Energy, and Priorities"
  (July 20, 2008)
• "Organizing, Schedules, Impulse, and Making Decisions Without Agonizing"
  (August 4, 2007)
• "Getting Organized: Not the Best Start"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Tomorrow I Gotta Get Organized"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Stay Focused: But on What?"
  (July 30, 2007)
• "Scheduling, Organization, and Less"
  (July 21, 2007)
• "Next Week I Gotta Get Organized"
  (July 20, 2007)
• "Computers and Kids: Return of the Sequel"
  (June 27, 2007)
• "The Principle of the Speckled Ax"
  (June 19, 2007)
• "Back to Work"
  (June 18, 2007)

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

One of the advantages - and disadvantages - of being self-employed is that you get to set your own schedule. No more having a boss keeping track of what needs to be done and when.

I've got, so far, eleven blogs and a handful of projects that I 'really ought to work on.' The blogs are a high priority - not because they're fun to write, but because they're what's bringing in the most revenue.

I had a task schedule, defining what needed to be done and when, dividing the week into half-hour segments. When I was done, it visually represented a reasonable, practical allocation of time and effort.

I last modified it on April 27 of this year. A little over four months later, I've come to the conclusion that I haven't used it because I won't use it.

Reasonable? Yes. Practical? Yes. The way I work? No.

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

My task matrix was far from the 'best' anything. But even if it had been the ultimate organizational tool, it would have done me no good - if I didn't use it.

The problem, I think, wasn't so much that I don't like schedules. It's that my mind doesn't work that way. Deadlines I can handle.

So, the new-and-improved schedule has time for things like Mass and Soo Bahk Do marked out - and deadlines for each day in bold.

We'll see how this works.

The Soo Bahk Do, by the way, is a more hopeful thing, than part of my regular routine. I started learning, some time ago, but stopped a bit before getting my hips swapped out. I'm getting a little less out of shape now, so it's a matter of deciding to get involved again.