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My husband Erskine is an excellent time manager.
A favourite activity of Bahamians is to fly to Florida and "shop 'til we drop"! I had never learned the technique and I'd waste days wandering around shops, achieving nothing.
Erskine's advice: "Make a list." I was to jot down the names of shops that carried the items I needed, then list each item under the shop that sells it. "Buy it when you see it," he said. "Don't wait for a better deal elsewhere. You might be wasting your time."
You can put business, personal and writing objectives into ABC "to do" lists:-
A= To be done that day
B= To be done within the week
C= To be done within a month
Store the lists on your computer or in note pads. As items on the B or C action lists become more important, they're bumped up to an A or B category.
Keeping my laptop exclusively for writing helps with time management. I use our real estate computer for my "day job" and when I move to the laptop I quickly shift into writing gear.
I find that "Pending" files are a waste of time. A decade ago, as executive secretary for a major wholesale and retail outlet, I had to extend my desk to accommodate the growing number of files.
Now, computers and the Internet simplify my life. I've created electronic "mailboxes"
in Outlook for "in correspondence", "out correspondence", fellow writers, etc. and am almost on my way to a "paperless office"!
Of course, you must back up regularly on a zip disk or CD.
Time Management Tips:-
* Be decisive. If you have a tedious project, tackle and complete it to the best of your ability, so you can get on with what you enjoy the most.
* Use your peak creativity period to write. Are you a morning or evening person? If you have a daytime job and are a "morning person", get up early and write before breakfast; if you like to "burn the midnight oil", write in the evening.
* Friends or family members often make unnecessary demands on you. Learn to say "no" (within reason).
* Telephone calls or visits from friends can prevent you from getting a story or article finished and off to a publisher (friends are important of course, but wait until later when you can give them your undivided attention - over lunch or dinner, for instance).
* Group similar activities together and make a list when setting out on errands, planning your route, so you don't have to double back and waste time.
* When reading magazine articles or book chapters, tick those you've read, so you don't waste time rereading them. I use 3M "Post-it flags" to bookmark important pages.
* Get rid of the "clutter". You can't get things done when clutter's in your way and a cluttered mind is not a productive mind.
* Set priorities and goals, but remember, you don't have to be perfect!
John Keats, one of the top poets of his era, wrote "When I have fears that I may cease to be before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,….."
He lived from 1795 to 1821 - only 26 years.
If you don't take time in hand, your pen might not "glean your teaming brain"!
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