I have had a slow Saturday where, despite having the time to do all the things on my To Do list, I have managed, largely, to do a whole load of things I hadn’t intended to do. I haven’t been wasting time, by any measure. However, in the greater schemes of things I have erred on the side of doing low priority side-projects rather than the stuff with red flags on top.

I need to clean out one or more hamster cages, complete editing on two h2g2 articles I have had for too long, fathom some jQuery validation I need for a piece of work from my almost day job, write some simplistic documentation for someone I’ve created a blog for, and watch the Grand Prix.

Instead, I have created a new background image for my Twitter profile, created a matching background for this blog, had a walk, revived a flagging blog about my back garden, done some washing up, and watched the Grand Prix.

So, I’m not completely off target – and I’m quite proud of the image I’ve created for the backgrounds on here and Twitter… but those articles have been begging to get finished for months, as has that documentation for the blog. I think I may have to set my alarm for extra early tomorrow and get down to business before the house rises and the telly becomes a distraction. Yes, our nation may be facing economic struggle and political upheaval, but if I can’t get some basic writing tasks completed then I’m in serious trouble. That To Do list won’t sort itself out if I can’t put pen to paper and bang-out a basic set of bulleted guidelines and correct a few errant typos in an article or two.

Last week I had a conversation with someone at work and said that I could manage my time just fine. I think that’s true at the moment where I’m handling work, but home tasks… there I fall short of the ideal. I can little afford to find stress at home when I get more than my fair share from work. I need to keep my home life in order to provide some sort of foundation for greater calm.

Ohm! Ohm!

Right… a little calm sorted – now, back to that list.

Shit!

Now I’ve written a blog entry instead of what I’m supposed to be doing…

I appreciate the concept of time management; but, I have difficulty keeping to any plans I make for myself. When I sat down at my desk this last Monday, I wrote out a ‘To Do’ list with about twenty different activities on it. I think I managed to do about half a dozen by the end of the week, because I either found myself engaged in other activities or trapped in meetings. I have no big issue with meetings, but they can have a sponge-like effect on free time. Before you know it, a whole day has evaporated and you feel like you have got nothing done at all.

Now, time management isn’t just concerned with work life, either. At home I also find myself with a dozen different small projects, and they get disrupted by the need to engage in ordinary household activities like washing up, ironing, preparing meals, doing food shopping, and sleeping. Amongst my list of things to do at home, I have two writing projects, some research for a third writing project, two websites for charities I support, a Tyranid army I need to start painting for my eldest, a pile of reference books I need to check out to determine their value in completing my writing projects, and a bunch of other stuff I’m likely to forget unless I create a ‘To Do’ list for home, too.

So, does anyone have any advice on ways to better organise work and home time? I know I could do with some help…

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