I did an interview yesterday with Jeff Ayers, a writer friend I met at Thrillerfest a few years ago. During the pre-interview conversation Jeff asked me how I managed to “do it all”, referring to family life, my role at Who Dares Wins Publishing and finding time to write. My answer was being organized, but lately, no matter how organized I am, my to do list has wrapped around my office three times!
My husband is uber organized and he’s rubbed off me. Add in a business partner who is a spreadsheet fanatic (I swear Bob is teaching his dogs how to use spreadsheets), my organizational skills have been amplified. But I’m not as organized as I would like to be. I’m good at multi-tasking. I’ve always wanted to have my laundry room in my kitchen since I fold my laundry while I’m cooking dinner while I’m quizzing my youngest on his vocabulary words and having a conversation with my middle boy about why senior year is not about slacking off and also playing draw something on my iPhone with my daughter who is away at college. Oh, and must not forget I’m also updating the shared family schedule on Google and having a text conversation with the DH (who is probably just in the other room). I’m exhausted. And that’s just the dinner hour!
But like I said, I’m good at multi-tasking. But it comes at a price. Sometimes you can’t multi-task and you also can’t “buy” more time in your day. I’ve had to play tricks on my mind so it feels like I’m multi-tasking. I have to have noise in the background. Once I had the TV on and the cable went out and I had no idea. Just white noise in the background, but helped me focus on one specific task. If the phone rings, I have to pace when I talk, actually, I clean the house when I talk. My best friend always says, “you just called so you could clean.”
The key to being organized is understanding how your brain processes and stores information. I’ve learned the way Bob processes information is very different from the way I process information just based on how he organizes a spreadsheet and how I organize our dropbox. I make him nuts with my folders inside of folders inside of folders.
Bob is big on mindsets and organization is a mindset. You can make it a habit by just doing it everyday. Before I go to bed, I make a list of I need to do the next day. I make that list in a timetable. I tell Siri (my friend on my iPhone) to remind me to do things at certain times of the day. Yes, that’s a little nuts, but if I didn’t use some kind of timing device, I’d never move on to the next task. That’s another thing about me that can be frustrating. I am a “completer”. I don’t like to stop things before they are finished. If I’m going to paint a room, I’m not going to stop until it’s done. This mindset is something I need to work on. Another one is changing from business mode, to writer mode. Not an easy mindset to change sometimes.
We have a lot of time in the day, so I think we can accomplish great things. But I don’t think we manage our time as effectively as we can and I’m always open to trying new things.
March On-Line Workshop $20.00
I had the opportunity to sit in on Writing Moms: How to do it all without loosing your mind on-line workshop with Natalie C. Markey a few months back. She will be teaching the workshop again starting 3 March at Write It Forward and as the queen of multi-tasking I highly recommend her workshop. As a matter of fact, I will be sitting in on the workshop again as it proved to be invaluable. And not just for moms, but for everyone who finds themselves wearing more that one hat.
Her approach is simple and to the point. She has developed a common sense template to help anyone with time management no matter who you are. The workshop is only $20.00 and it is run on a Yahoo Group. There are no set class times, so you can follow along as your schedule allows (time management!) You can participate as much as you like, or as little (though you will want to). Sometimes we all need a little help figuring out how to manage all things in our lives in order to be more productive.
Write It Forward!
It’s always about organization, isn’t it? As an older writer, I have moved away from multi-tasking because I can. I like to think I did it well. Filling my time has never been a problem but not multi-tasking is really challenging. It took me a couple years in retirement to create a daily routine that is productive but not hectic, is meaningful and not slothful. For me, it’s a bit of an adjustment to live in the entire day, one day at a time but it’s so interesting.
Enjoyed your post.
Karen
Time management is something I need desperately. Liked the idea of not only making a to do list, but using a timetable for accomplishing the tasks. My lists seem to just keep piling up. Wish I wasn’t on vacation when the online workshop starts. Thanks for the great post.
Yay for you KM Huber! Keep up the good work of living each moment
Yvette Carol
How is it that reading your post made me tired? The thought of making a list freaks me out. I constantly multi-task but I don’t actively think about it or plan ahead. I guess it’s true, we all process things in different ways.
Rita
Jen, I love this post. I love lists—and I LOVE crossing completed items off lists! Notebooks are my friend—never leave home without one. I hate leaving things half done and, above all, do NOT interrupt me when I’m writing. You can ask my DH about that!
Or as Nora Roberts once said: the only two reasons for interrupting her are blood & fire. Everything else can wait.
My kids have started to text me when I’m writing thinking they really aren’t disturbing me…
Jen, this is a situation that calls for Immediate Corrective Action.
Love these comments as much as the post. I’m a no list, non multi-tasker myself. I know I can’t do it all and I don’t want to. I do what my priorities are: family and writing. I’m like Ruth up there and Nora Roberts: only 2 reasons to interrupt my 2 hr. block dedicated to writing: blood (emergency room) and fire (in the house).
Okay, good. So there’s someone out there that deals with completionism like I do. My wife loves it when it is a house project; not so much when I’m up at 1 AM still writing. But it just doesn’t “feel” right otherwise, you know?
My dad is also one of those folks determined to be productive. He described it perfectly, as this: “I feel guilty if I don’t do something.”
It’s hard to let go sometimes/
And my gran coined it thus; ‘I like to feel useful.’ In fact that was one of the saddest moments of my life, when my gran had to move into a retirement home, and said she no longer felt ‘useful’….
Yvette Carol
Thanks for the recommendation, Jen. I need some help staying organized and focused. If I had an iphone I’d probably have it telling me to do things too. If only I could clone myself!
As you may know I’ve got four kids. So My dinner hour is like your dinner hour, except my husband and kids fold the laundry now. They got tired of waiting for me to get it done!
LOL–I’m also a control freak, so the kids don’t fold like I do….and they aren’t allowed to do laundry, but they do cook since I’m the world worst cook.
I’d actually love to spend some timed watching the way you and Bob work together. I think I could learn a lot by seeing your different styles and how they mesh.
Someone said, “We all have the same amount of time but it is how we use it that makes the difference.” Time usage varies individual to individual depending upon responsibilities and abilities. But I hear the hue and cry throughout my social networking that many associated with writing are struggling with how to “get it all done.” We can’t. We must choose priorities, and letting go of that which we enjoy is a tough call. Thanks for this great post. Nice to know we are not alone.
I have to make a to-do list for the next day ( with times) check it against my calendar events, or I can’t get to sleep at night for fear of missing something. Then for larger goals, I make charts. Books I lump into a grid 80k words would be an eight by ten grid and I color in every thousand words. I do goal posters for 1 and five year goals.
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Every six months or so I redo my goal charts because I’ve acheived some goals and need new ones or I readjust, because my goals have changed or are taking longer than I thought.
Remember, you can eat an elephant or a car one bite at a time.
Lisa Grace what a stirling idea, to make ‘goal charts’ I never thought of that before. So thanks! That last line made me laugh.
Yvette Carol
P. S. I know how to spell achieved, and should have spelled out “one”, and I’m sure I missed a couple of other mistakes. I need to remember to edit before I hit post!!!
Reblogged this on Hunter's Writing and commented:
Being organised, yes.
Yesterday I went to a school Mum’s coffee morning (it’s the closest I can suffer being reasonably introverted, yet needing to at least be recognised occasionally by human beings who aren’t related to me).
There I met a writer – she never said what she writes – who has four kids, one of them a toddler. So she writes late at night.
When I had a toddler, I wrote or crafted in the weekends only, or later into the evening. Once she got older, it got harder, then easier. Now I have the whole school day to myself. No excuses, I have it all, just need to do it all.
My kids are getting up there in age, so I have the house to myself most days. But its just as hard now to do it all and stay organized. I’m not being pulled at by toddlers, but all the different hats I wear with Who Dares Wins Publishing sometimes makes it hard to manage everything. Prioritizing is key.
One thing that is really great about having a partner in this is we can help each other figure out what has to be done right now and what can wait.
I just signed up for the workshop! I love getting organized, I just need to figure out how to stay that way!
Multi-tasking. Yes.
Great post, Jen; interesting and thought-provoking. Took a university course, once, in cognitive science (which is studying the way the brain processes information). The whole right-brain, left-brain thing plays into how different people handle multi-tasking too.
Fascinating stuff. Now if only I could harness it better in my own life!
–MRM
Thanks for a great post Jen! Yes as a busy mum I feel stretched a lot of times fitting it all in too. What I’ve fallen into the habit of doing in the last few years, is the last thing at night, before I fall asleep, I run through the list of what I have to achieve the next day in my head. Somehow it being the last thoughts I fall asleep on, it’s imprinted in my brain and I never have to use any other sort of list. Works for me!
Yvette Carol
Great post Jen. Staying organized is the most difficult thing, I’ve found. Between juggling a day job, my daughter, and working out, there doesn’t seem like much time for being on twitter or blogs or even writing my new novel. Somehow you learn to adapt though. I’ve learned to use my lunch hour wisely as well as my nearly two hours on the bus. I’ve set up a small table next to my exercise bike so that on days when I ride the bike I can work on writing or editing. Organization just comes down to making your priorities and determining what gets how much time. Some days, you may not be able to devote time to writing or blogging. That’s okay though because there’s always tomorrow.
quote: Lisa Grace what a stirling idea, to make ‘goal charts’ I never thought of that before. So thanks! That last line made me laugh.
Yvette Carol
end quote
Thank Yvette
The goal posters are fun. I hang them above my desk. They help me keep on, keepin’ on. Plus, I’m teaching my daughter to set big goals, but break them down into small manageable ones.
The charts are especially helpful on those days when I’m not inspired. After coloring in the block, I give myself permission to take a break and do something more fun.
Fantastic post Jen! Life is always changing and that’s why writers and everyone needs to be open to flexibility BUT the most important key to having it all is knowing yourself. I wrote freelance when I worked in PR and communications and now I still write freelance along with non-fiction and fiction while working from home with my 19-month-old daughter. My time management has changed to match my life. I break everything into lists and day parts but I try to stay calm and work my way through the chaos that my life continues to throw my way. I will look forward to seeing some of you in my class next month as we tackle the ongoing question; how to have it all?
Great post.
Dear Bob and Jen and Multi-Taskers Everywhere… This strikes home with me like a dart to the heart. The old You-Can-Do-It Syndrome that we so seldom mix with even a pinch of self-care. My solution has to be simple or else I will simply add pressure to organize myself to all the other pressures pressing for attention. Thus I default to the Best Use of Best Energy Principle. First I Prioritize on a Post-It.. the 2×2 inch size though granted I print very small. The things I must accomplish just for today and in order of urgency. Then I identify my Best Energy Envelope for that day.. the hours I will be at the top of my productivity taking other obligations into account. I slip the Post-It into the Envelope.. metaphorically of course.. and take off down my 2x2inch track at a steady-as-possible pace. When I reach the edge of the Energy Envelope I sometimes push on for a while. Or.. if I am able to step out of the too-pressed-by-stress segment of my monkey brain.. I make what is perhaps the most valuable observation of the entire enterprise… This Is the Best I Can Do for Now. Because after all.. the best we can do is just that.. the best we can do. We should not expect more of ourselves than that.
Alice Orr http://publishingsensefromaliceorr.blogspot.com
My Mom always accuses me of calling simply because I’m driving somewhere .. or have groceries to put away! Gosh this sounds like me! I’m a completer, too, and hate to leave any task only part done. When I’m writing, I have to get to a chapter break. When cleaning, I have to finish the room. I definitely need to check out that course on time management! Thanks!
I had to laugh about the folders in folders. I’m that way, too, and it drives me nuts when I have to find something DH’s computer because he’s not like that at all.
I think Natalie’s class is worth every penny if for no other reason than it gets you thinking about different times of day you can squeeze a little extra task in. It’s great.
Like you say, I think it’s crucial to be organised, especially if you’re a writer. When faced with completing a 90,000 word novel, the task can seem insurmountable unless you’re prepared to accept you need to break it down into smaller chunks – eg – 500 words a day over at least five days a week. Then it doesn’t seem so bad.