In this interesting blog post about making good use of time, Stephanie Romero asks what strategies others have found helpful for making good use of our time. I am always looking for ways to better manage my time, so I am hoping that others will take the opportunity to comment on that post with helpful suggestions. As for myself, there are two things that currently help me to use my time well.
The first thing that helps me to make good use of my time is a strong sense of discipline. At least discipline is what I think it is. It is the ability to instantly sit right down and get to work as soon as the boys are asleep – provided that I do not fall asleep while putting them to bed, as I sometimes do when I am exhausted. I’m not sure where this ability came from, as I would never have imagined that I would ever use the word “disciplined” to describe myself. When the boys are awake, I am not able to get any work done at all. Somehow, as soon as they are asleep I am able to get right to work – I think it is because I know that if I do not, if I waste what precious little work time that I have available, then my work will not get done. In other words, I know that I really do not have a choice – if I want to work, then I have to get it done at that time because there is not any other time available. For some reason that is powerful motivation to sit down and get my work done. Powerful enough even to help me avoid distractions and time wasting temptations like Facebook.
The other thing that helps me to make good use of my time is to focus on one thing at a time. That’s right. One thing at a time. No multitasking – okay, almost no multitasking. It seems odd that doing one thing at a time means that more things get done, but that is honestly how it works for me. By concentrating on one thing at a time, that task gets my full attention and I power through it much more quickly and effectively than if I were to have my attention spread among multiple tasks. When I do multitask, I can feel a difference in my productivity and that difference is enough to prevent me from multitasking, at least most of the time.
Photo by mconnors on morguefile.com.
