Time Management Tools

I'm finding that my biggest enemy is always time. There's so many things that I want to do or have to do and there's always a few things that fall through the cracks. It's usually my personal hobbies that do but when it starts piling up and my work also starts falling through the cracks, it's time to reevaluate my schedule.

I'm trying out a new more balanced schedule recently and while it is far from perfect, I'm already enjoying the benefits tremendously. I find that there is truth in taking a true day off from everything and enjoy life by yourself or with others. It makes the rest of my week more productive because I feel relaxed and fulfilled before I get myself into a crazy busy work week. But during the week, I find myself struggling with not getting consumed over my work and not allowing well-deserved breaks every now and then. I also find that I have been neglecting my hobbies and other opportunities to self-improve myself.

I used to come with an hour by hour schedule which actually helped out a lot when I was younger. In addition to school, I was filling my extra hours with piano practice, swim lessons, karate lessons, art lessons, extra tutoring and whatever else. I found that at the young age the only way I feel like I'm tackling all the various things I was juggling, I would write myself a schedule. I would definitely use this during long breaks like the summer because that's when it's the easiest to get lazy.

I decided to bring that back and wrote myself up a general hour by hour schedule that works around my work day. It's retro and throwback because of the format, it's a simple piece of paper that I place in my room somewhere prominently so it's easy to look at. I find that the paper printed version not only saves paper in the long run (like not writing or printing out a weekly schedule) but it also becomes easier to use than a digital calendar. I use my digital calendar on my phone and I have a paper agenda as well for other uses but I found the hour by hour schedule worked best for my planning purposes for my work at home.

I've updated since my childhood days and now made it into a fun game for myself. Maybe it's my way to trick myself into thinking it is fun (it is fun!) to help me get over the initial mental roadblock "I'm too busy" or whatever other excuse I come up with in my head. How it works is that I will roll a dice (I got from a Cranium game) and see what color it lands. It tells me what category I will be focusing on. Then I roll it again to determine which specific activity that I will be actually do
ing that day. If I roll a purple, then it's a wild so I can pick the category or activity. Here are a few reasons why I think it works well for me.

1. The randomness that rolling the dice helps me on the days that I feel indecisive. 
2. See my goals/hobbies listed out on a paper prominently in my room keeps me motivated to achieve these goals. 
3. It's a daily reminder that I've made self-improvement an important aspect of my daily life. 

I don't use it everyday, just on the days that I can't decide or I feel like I'm being unproductive. I found that having absolutes makes me not want to do things more and I knew that if I saw this as a thing that I had to do everyday, I would abandon the game idea before it even started. It's flexible as well because of that. I can use the schedule as either a rule of thumb or something I actually follow. I can also do each activity day by day instead of hour by hour if I feel like I'm onto something creative and I don't feel like stopping.

I created a weekend and a weekday schedule to tailor my different needs. I've also placed adequate time for relaxation and breaks. There are many studies that show that we cannot double task well, our brain only can focus one thing at at time. I had this habit of simultaneously watching TV while grading for example and that would cause me to grade twice as long as it should.  I w
asn't enjoying my TV show fully and I wasn't concentrated on grading fully so it was a lose-lose. But if I don't schedule my time to relax and watch TV, I knew that I would eventually get overwhelmed as well. There are also a lot of studies that show that our minds cannot concentrate on one thing for a time period of about 30 minutes. Our minds get distracted and starts daydreaming or thinking about other things instead. I took this into consideration in my schedule and breaking up things helped me become more productive. Even just taking a five minute stretch break every now and then helps get blood pumping to your brain or stiff legs and in turn makes you feel more motivated and productive.

I hope this idea helps and my experiment inspires you to find your own way to manage your time better!