I spent a lot of today trying to fit in all the chores and responsibilities I have to do into a coherent and workable schedule, one in which I can get what I need to get done done but also not go absolutely bonkers with no time for myself, my kids, or the unknown.

I THOUGHT I had achieved a rock solid schedule but of course, it has cracked in a few key places already: forgot to include my daughter's new homework club time that started today, dinner took longer than expected to prepare particularly because the kids helped out, and important phone calls interfered. All perfectly expected unexpected things to happen and I'm glad they happened today... it will help me work out the kinks of the "time layout".

But it does bring into sharp relief the fact that, no matter what you're doing or what your priorities are, you can't get everything done. There is not enough time to fit everything in. You have to pick and choose and some things will have to fall by the wayside. I'm not sure what I'll have to drop but it will have to be something.

What has helped me is that I've taken the advice of almost every productivity-related website and actually written down my goals. I've even put them in order of importance:

1. My health (Exercise and eating right, as well as my comfort and entertainment. If I'm not happy and well, what's the point?);
2. My family (Both immediate and extended, my being with them and their welfare.);
3. My money (Not only making it but keeping it and saving it. Kind of important in this world.);
4. My learning (This includes self-imposed challenges, much of my non-fiction reading, things I would like to learn as well as things I really should learn for my career.);
   
5. My friends (Just as with my family, this in about connecting to them as well as supporting them. And it also includes other social efforts, making new friends, chatting up strangers meeting new people and the like.);
   
6. My profession (Librarianship of course, but can include related efforts such as anything else academic. This involves both working on my own professionalism and librarianship skills but also supporting the profession itself, with getting published and presenting at conferences.);
   
7. My "goodness" (Lacking a better single word for this, it refers to my efforts at making the work a better place, ethical goals, and helping people, however that manifests itself.); and
8. My administrative matters (Checking email, filing, organizing, communicating, etc. Holding a lot of the previous 7 together.).

Although I've created this list, and tag all my activities in my to do list (RTM) with them as appropriate, I don't feel as though I've fully integrated them (and it) into my routine and efforts. But I guess, what it should come down to is that activities furthering goals near the bottom of the list must be sacrificed for those nearer to the top. Thinking of it this way, I'm not sure I can, although I quite sure I should. I can't really stop checking email or the going through the bills as they come it. Perhaps for things like that, they need to be filtered and focused on how they support what is higher on the list of priorities. That sounds better. Still, some things I'm trying to do, must be canceled. Don't know what of course, and all that rambling above means that it's not going to be a simple matter to determine what or how.

Any ideas? Anyone out there in this situation with any part of the solution?

Labels: aboutParenting, aboutProductivity

 

A little over a month ago, I said I was going to learn French. Well, I took longer than I expected to prepare, started later than I expected, postponed it more than I should have, and changed my strategy too often.

But that's ok. I have certainly learned more French than I ever have before. I am still slowly working on it but, what with traveling and preparing for interviews and their presentations, plus other work I have to get done, I have reduced my efforts to learn La Belle Langue quite a bit. And the workload will only get worse. What I need is some touch of formal pressure to keep up with it. Maybe a language partner, or a regular tv show or vodcast to understand, something like that. My other issue is my efforts to retain what I have tried to learn each day... with my other responsibilities and projects, I need some easy way to insert repetition of key lessons into the following 24 hours, whether it's a vocab list to carry around or a phrase to go over in my head. Something to drill something into my head until it sticks.

Learning a new language is hard. Or maybe it's just me? Anyone else have issues with this kind of thing? Any tips on making it easier?

Labels: aboutCommunication, aboutEducation, aboutHumanNature, aboutProductivity, aboutWork

 

I like Twitter. It's another easy way to get to know what's happening in other people's heads, what they're reading, what they think is interesting. And I get to share those things with the world too: special events, what I think is important, what I want to share with people. And it certainly doesn't hurt to be in the middle of all those swirling ideas and communications. I may even get a new idea myself one day! lol

But one twitter related phenomenon disturbs me: over-following. I guess all tools get taken into the realm of spam, misuse, commercialization, et cetera, but when supposedly "real" people using Twitter are following literally thousands of feeds... I mean, what do they think the "following" function is for? Well, maybe I've got it wrong. I think it's to read the tweets of those whose opinion you respect or are interested in in some way, those feeds that are going to inform you of something like an institution's upcoming events. You're populating a list of things to theoretically read. You may skip a few but the idea is to read a good portion of them. But when someone's following 2747 Twitter feeds, what good is that? Unless these are all very rare Tweeters, that's a lot of material even to ignore regularly.

The first thing that I think when I see that is that they are playing some sort of game. "I really need a lot of followers so I'm going to follow others so they feel like they should follow me!" I'm following 25 right now and I even consider weeding out a few now and then.

Again, maybe I'm all turned around on this. Maybe there's some Twitter tool (Twool? Gawd, I've gone over to the dark side. lol) that helps weed through the piles of Tweets that must build up. Anyone know anything about this? Hmmm...

Labels: aboutCommunication, aboutEthics, aboutHumanNature, aboutInformation, aboutOnlineTools, aboutProductivity, aboutReading, aboutReason, aboutSociety, aboutTechnology, aboutWeb2.0

 

I have two young children so I know all about distraction. I joke (or more accurately, STATE) that I can't get any work done at home and that going to work is much more relaxing and therefore productive. One of the writers over at Stepcase Lifehack wrote 10 really good tips on creating an environment and the tools for staying focused on your project, whatever that may be. My favourite is number six, setting a deadline:

Deadlines have both advantages and disadvantages when trying to force concentration. A deadline can make it easier to forget the non-essential and speed up your working time. If you give yourself only an hour to design a logo, you will keep it simple and avoid fiddling with extravagant designs.

Do you have any special ways you like to "play the game" of Concentration? Put them in the comments!

[ From "10 Tips for Razor Sharp Concentration" at Stepcase Lifehack ]

Labels: aboutProductivity, tips

 

For what feels like years, I've had an item in my to do list that I've managed to continually postpone despite the fact that I was so gung-ho when I wrote it down. Learn something new. I know, as a librarian I'm always doing that but I wanted it to be an active, concrete task that chose. Each month (crazy, huh?). I even made a list that has quite a few items on it, ranging in specificity from the incredibly broad and vague (e.g. Health.) to the painfully narrow (e.g. Learn the basics about "canonical discriminant analysis".).

My idea was that I would systematically add skills and content to my repertoire that would help me in my work, my profession and my life in general. But it's hard to do! With time constraints, chores at home, kids running around, and a billion other potential projects waiting for my attention, I have yet to sit down and choose something for my "month of learning".

But today was different. I chose something. French. Ok, not everything. I don't expect to become fluent. Just the basics. I remember a good deal of my high school French classes. I'm Canadian (that's got to count for something). And it's in my blood - my grandfather is fluent and very French-Canadian. My goal will be some basic (re)understanding of the fundamentals of grammar, a handle on accurate pronunciation, and a small but practical vocabulary. Perhaps enough to visit Quebec or France and not have to hope that someone speaks English! lol

Any self-directed learning plans of your own? Have you had any difficulties getting them accomplished, or even started? How have you solved them, or have you? Any ideas?

P.S. Oh and my deadline is actually August 1st so I actually have less than a month but I wanted my repeating task (of choosing a new something to learn) to be scheduled for the first of each month.

Labels: aboutEducation, aboutProductivity