'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.

Being Your Own Boss: Good News, Bad News

I see that I haven't written anything for Easy Griller, since I discussed grilled octopus last week. No, I haven't grilled - or eaten - octopus, but that didn't stop me from writing about it.

One of the definite 'up' sides of being your own boss, running your own company, is being free to do what you want with your time.

That's also one of the 'down' sides.

Take today, for instance.

In a few minutes, I'm going up to the attic, and expect to read - or maybe take a nap - for a couple hours. Now, I've got a good reason for doing so: There's a long-dormant project or three that I've moved off the back burner. More of that in Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space. There are two science fiction authors whose work I like: one did a good job of sketching out plausible and very different societies; the other, not so much. I'm trying to figure out what the difference is.

So far, so good.

But, part of me seems to be thinking that it's pretty neat, going off and reading on company time. The other part of me realizes that I'm the boss and that I'm not entirely convinced that this is a good idea.

However, there's no time-sensitive task pending today, apart from three posts in yet another blog, and this literary foray might yield useful results.

I'm heading for the attic now.

Relatively Unimportant, but Urgent

I spent about half the day, getting a Knights of Columbus bulletin ready for mailing. Well, maybe not half the day: but counting those bulletins, filling out the postal forms, and getting the carefully-sorted mess to the Post Office took time. So did waiting while the new fellow behind the counter worked his way through a relatively complicated and unfamiliar procedure.

Then, I had errands to run for the family.

This evening, I'm trying to catch up on what my business requires: which is creative work today. I'm not going to get as far along as I wanted to.

Next, I work on the family's Christmas letter.

Without a family, and a few community responsibilities, I could concentrate on business. But without the family - and, I suppose, the community - what would be the point of a business, or much of anything else?

Four-Day Weekend Coming Up

I still don't have that schedule worked out. I did, however, make a graphic for Thanksgiving. Which is something. Specifically, it's a task completed.

I'll try to be back with something more significant, later in the week. Meanwhile, here's that graphic. Maybe next year some city will try to top Seattle's 'Thanksgiving: day of mourning' school project with 'Turkeys of the World, Unite!'

Good Advice About Time Management

"How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week" assumes that the reader works in an office: and gives good advice about meetings.

The seven-point list is worthwhile reading for people who are their own bosses, too. It's the same touch-papers-once, sort of advice I've read for decades, with the possible exception of Michael Hyatt's advice about unfocused Web surfing.

What makes this list helpful is that

• It's manageably short (seven items)
• Recognizes human needs and limitations ("make appointments with yourself")
• includes a review/revise step

I'm not convinced that it'll open up ten hours a week, but I've been wrong before.

("How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week" is Friday's post in "From Where I Sit / Musings on My Life, Thomas Nelson and the World of Publishing" - Michael Hyatt, President and CEO, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

Spend an Entire Day, Getting Nothing Done: Here's How

Yesterday was not a red-letter day for me.

I rely on one computer for most of my 'heavy' work, including graphics and web publishing. The latter doesn't take that much power, but it's easier to have everything on one unit, instead of trying to set up a network.

Easier for me, anyway.

So, early this week, an odd little bit of malware showed up on a routine scan. It seems to show up, every time my eleven-year-old son uses this thing.

"Seems to," because I don't have enough data yet to make a case. We could be looking at statistical hiccups here.

Anyway, I'm concerned and/or worried about something having gotten into the works. "Concerned" being the rational, logical, part of the process, "worried" being the emotional side that: but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, I spend quite a bit of time chasing ghosts in the machine. No luck. I still don't know where that 'Fraud.ProtectionBar' came from.

That was Wednesday. Yesterday was more of the same, plus frustration with a digital camera.

(Note to self: next time, think a little longer. Buying the rock-bottom cheapest, made-in-China model may not be the most prudent and Promethean path.)

So, after supper on Thursday, I get back to working on Wednesday evening's Sauk Centre Journal post. There's a nifty Christmas yard display up, here in Sauk Centre, involving flashing lights. I was trying to create an animated GIF file to display it.

Simple? To someone else, no doubt. To me, not so much.

About 10:30 or so, I decided that I was getting somewhere, and that it wouldn't make sense to stop 'at our moment of victory.' I glanced at the clock a short while later, and it was 2 in the morning.

Subjective time sense and objective reality aren't always on speaking terms, I've found.

Some shred of common sense allowed me to abandon what I was doing, and get some sleep. Not much: just enough to remind me that I am no longer twenty, and that I can't get away with all-nighters the way I used to.

So, best-case scenario: I write off yesterday as a learning experience.

Wondering about that schedule I was starting last week? So far, it's not working out too well.

No Wonder Managers Make More

One of the advantages of working in a large business, and being under the supervision of someone else, is that you can blame your boss for bad management. As a sole proprietor of a tiny business, you can do the same thing, but it's like throwing mud in the air: it comes right back at you.

This morning, I looked over the first (partial) week of my new time schedule.

I came to the conclusion that, in terms of planning and execution, it could have been worse.

The biggest issue seems to be dealing with unexpected events, with keeping an eye on myself running a close second.

I'm making a few revisions of the schedule, filling last week's sheet, and getting on with a new unexpected issue.

The digital camera I have in the shop for a dataectomy is in worse shape than I figured. The technician is, currently, using some sort of data-recovery program in an effort to scoop the video files out.

I'm thinking about getting another camera.

Great: more money going the wrong way.

One Schedule: Kaput for the Day

That schedule I put together went 'pop' today, for the most part.

The digital camera I use to make photos for my 'flagship' website's journal ("Sauk Centre This Season / Sauk Centre Journal") is 'at the shop.'

I made my longest video recording yet with it, last weekend. And learned that I can't get the video out of the camera and into my computer. I think it's too large - or that it's so large that it takes too long for the system to handle.

So, I drove 20 miles to the nearest business that handles technical issues to my satisfaction. The technician who would handle the job had today off, so I left the camera there. I'm hoping that the files will be out of the camera and on a dvd Monday.

Or, since Monday is the day after Veteran's Day here in America, it may be Tuesday before I see the camera again.

That trip took almost two hours out of the day.

Down side, lots of time spent.

Up side, I had time to think while on the Interstate.

This Week, I Gotta Get Organized

Toward the end of October, my wife said I should start keeping track of what I do with my time. After more than a quarter-century of marriage, I've learned to listen when she speaks.

She was right, as usual.

Two days of tracking confirmed what I'd guessed before. I was spending by far too much time on a particular blog. It had shown promise at first, but the early growth hadn't continued.

That's been the case with all blogs. I've been working at them long enough now to see that either there are limits to the number of viewers I'll get: or that I've been doing poor marketing. Maybe both.

Aside from blogs, I've been spending (maybe wasting) time on creative tasks that are fun, and eventually may be worthwhile. But, for now, they've been keeping me from getting more immediately useful things done.

The first part of this week, I evaluated what I've been doing, what I've got, and what I want to get done. Then, I put together a generic weekly schedule that may help me get to the short-term goals.

Enough for today.

When Flashes of Inspiration Meet Flashes of Lightning

Actually, it wasn't so much "inspiration" as post-work on a rendering of a 3d graphic that's ready for posting to an online art community. I'm developing a reputation of sorts there, and prefer to post just before their weekly prime time: weekends.

I'd blocked out time Friday night to get the work done. I'd heard rumbling, but thought it might be heavy machinery or trucks in the area. A bright flash of light outside could have been headlights of a vehicle turning the corner. Fast.

The second bright flash was definitely lightning.

After a few more flashes, I decided that it was my cue to shut down, and disconnect, the computer and the laptop. I can afford to lose neither the data on them, or replace the equipment.

I was still working with the laptop when the power went out for about a minute. Not particularly good timing on my part.

I stayed up past the time I'd allotted for the post-work task, since the National Weather Service had a severe thunderstorm watch for this area. Several of them, actually. Then the warnings started.

More about that at Through One Dad's Eye.

Even though I didn't get the post-work done, I'm not considering getting a system to provide backup power through situations like this. Something like that would be expensive to buy and maintain: much more, I think, than whatever I might gain from being able to work through these infrequent storms.

Monday Broke Out With Unusual Severity

Of all the tasks on my to-do list today, the only item done was my blogging.

Which is business-related. Eventually, when traffic builds up, I expect more revenue from those ads in the column to your right: and the ones between news items at the bottom.

Family matters got in the way. My wife and one of the kids were out of town for most of the day, partly to pick up my oldest daughter's laptop. That left me with an 11-year-old itching to get a laptop that's become too buggy for my oldest to use, my oldest who is tense because she hasn't been able to work on her projects while her laptop was in the shop, and another daughter who's getting over a non-serious but very irksome super-cold.

Oh, well: I got a chance to reflect. I don't what the latest thing in psychological theory is, but my experience has been that my brain acts as if there's automatic machinery, or perhaps subroutines would be a better term, that keep running when I'm not using the circuits for something else.

Whether or not that's a valid model for how the mind and brain works, keeping most of my head in idle for the day may have something to do with the mental images of banners, and a few other graphics that dropped onto the front desk this evening.

They might even be worth something.

Organizing, Schedules, Impulse, and Making Decisions Without Agonizing

I haven't gotten to the two tasks on today's list yet. I still hope to, but I'm running out of 'today.'

There's a bit of an excuse: going through an online community discussion thread this morning, I found a lead to two other online communities of bloggers: from a source I've learned to trust.

I'm trying to develop a fairly large footprint of places where my blogs can get noticed, so I spent quite a bit of today setting up a presence in one of them. We'll see if that was good use of, or a total waste of, time. Or maybe something in between.

Impulsive? Yes. Foolish? I'm not sure. On the whole, I think that increasing visibility of six blogs that exist, and have potentially revenue-producing advertising, is more urgent than putting a couple of gizmos on an existing website.

One thing for sure: I'm not going to spend much more time thinking about that decision. That would be a total waste of time for sure!

Feedback, or lack thereof, from the new online community will give me an answer with almost no effort on my part.

I think the lesson here is 'decide. Then move on.'

Getting Organized Without Angst

I'm 20 minutes past the end of my time slot for blogging today, but I'm not going to worry about it. I hit a promising set of posts, and checked them out while they were on the browser.

Overall, I think I've saved some time by doing this now, rather than shutting down and setting up again.

Now I'm 25 minutes past the end of that time slot.

Time to wrap up.

Getting Organized: Not the Best Start

It could have been worse.

Instead of working on my Sauk Centre Journal the first part of this morning, working my blogs, and then graphics for another website, I monitored the 35W bridge disaster while working blogs.

I suspect that most of my readers were more concerned with I-35W's bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, than about my midweek update about life in small town America.

However, I'm getting at the S. C. Journal entry now, and then I'll be back on schedule.

Tomorrow I Gotta Get Organized

And I probably will.

I got an inexpensive 18-month planner, scribbled the top projects for tomorrow into appropriate time slots, and set it aside for reference tomorrow morning.

And I just remembered a detail that I missed. That's what these notes are for: jotting down things that would be forgotten or ignored.

There. Got that written down: the non-trivial, time-dependent item that I left out of tomorrow's to-do list.

This system should work: it's simple, and avoids the sort of self-micro-management nuttiness I've tried before.

Time will tell. And so will this blog.

Next Week I Gotta Get Organized

It happened again.

It took me all evening, and part of the next morning (it's not quite 1 in the morning as I write this), to finish five videos, ranging from about five to fifteen minutes long, for a website I run.

About an hour ago, I realized that I had a bulletin to finish by the seventeenth of July. Not August: July.

That's a little awkward, since it's now 55 minutes into the 20th of July in this time zone. Make that 56 minutes.

If there ever was a time when I could keep a half-dozen or so unrelated schedules juggled in my head, I can't do it now. Besides that, my wife reminded me that I can't pull all-nighters, sleep a few hours, and spring forth the next morning with a clear head.

It's time to get some sort of formal scheduling process started.

Not entirely unrelated to what I've written so far: I also discovered that I can't stand for well over an hour under a bright Minnesota summer sun without a hat, without turning the acreage on top of my head a rather attractive shade of red.

My wife, noting the condition of my scalp, turned to our second daughter and told her to "get the oil, and do his head."

And so, while I continued with my video production, my daughter oiled my head.