Working on Your Goals When You Don’t Have Time to Work On Your Goals
Finding Time to Make it all Happen
Today: Identify the little spots of time you have right now to make progress on your goals.
How to Waste Time on Your Laptop – an Expert’s Guide (or, My Real Life Strategy for Getting Things Done.) Don’t you just love your computer?!?! It is such a time saving device. I can do my banking, order groceries, talk to my agent, invite friends over via evite.com, and design my next newsletter anywhere in the world that has a Verizon tower nearby. It is amazing all the tasks I can get completed the aid of a power outlet.
So why have I spent a large part of my summer playing Free Cell?
I have just hit some major deadlines in my life after 18 months of running at full steam ahead. I realized just this last week apparently I am not capable of work unless I am under tremendous pressure and have a sense of overwhelming guilt. I just kind of sat there thinking, “I know I have things to do, but I don’t want to do any of them.” Real mature attitude – yes?
So I have got to go back to giving myself some rules and boundaries when it comes to my time on the computer.
Here are some of the rules that I am now abiding by when it comes to time wasters:
1. No More than 20 minutes on Facebook a day. I have to tell you, I loves me some Facebook. I love seeing what old friends are up to. I love hearing about the little things in my niece’s life that my brother probably wouldn’t call to tell me, (“Elsa said A-B-C today. We have started the Harvard Fund.”) Love hearing the latest industry buzz and reading what my favorite authors and readers are up to. Love Love Love.
And that is where the trouble begins.
I love checking out what everyone else is up to, and can get super caught up in commenting on people’s status. That is fine when I am standing in line at Safeway. But when I should be writing my next chapter on time management? Not so much. So when I am at home, I am keeping my Facebook addiction down to 20 minutes.
2. Clear out my inbox once a week. I will do anything to avoid answering unpleasant or complicated e-mails (see my Free Cell reference above.) So I have been giving myself a weekly inbox dump where everything must be dealt with (and then I reward myself with an episode of Top Chef – hey, it’s better than chocolate chip cookies.)
3. Turn the Wireless Off for a Chunk of Time – Every Single Day Twitter and Facebook and E-mail – Oh My! I have several ways to keep myself entertained on my computer. I love hitting the reload button on my Outlook to see what new mail I have sitting there (yes, we have already established I have a problem. Now let’s move on, shall we?)
So, for about 3 hours every day, I turn off my wireless and concentrate on just working. Whether it is writing a blog post, writing a chapter, brainstorming a new speaking topic or having a conversation with a client, I focus completely on the task at hand and not on the e-mail that I am waiting for.
I call this my “Cave Time” and it is the only portion of the day that I can trust myself to do anything that involves numbers or creativity (which for me, both require super-human concentration.) Now don’t get me wrong – a little Free Cell every once in a while is a good thing. But I want my computer to be a tool to get more things done, instead of a distraction that keeps me from getting things done. (I can watch all the cute cats on You Tube I want once my speech is written!)
Maybe wasting time on your computer is not your vice. When I asked a group of women what their secret (or not-so-secret) time sucker were, here is a list of what they came up with:
• Celebrity Gossip
• Phone time with friends
• Texting
• Glamour Magazine
• Shopping (for self and kids)
• Looking for recipes
• “Stupid” TV
• YouTube
• Solitaire
• Twitter and Facebook
All of these things, in moderation, are fine for most of us. But, I know that I have let an hour of writing time turn into “Just checking out a few LOLCATS pics. Gulp.
Fear of Success Sometimes, it can be a bit scary to start working on things we are passionate about. If we never get started, we never get disillusioned. It is a lot easier to give up on a game of Spider Solitaire or watch Entertainment tonight than to get frustrated by bumping up against obstacles while working toward your goals.
I have to set up rules for myself when it comes to computer time. Is there an area of your life that you need to get in control of, time-wise, in order to get stuff done? How will you do it – set time controls on your computer? Have a friend hold you accountable?
I have given myself a not so subtle reminder. Whenever I open up my computer, there is a quote that pops up to remind me how I need to choose to spend my time…
“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
In the commetns below tell me is there an area of your life that you need to get in control of, time-wise, in order to get stuff done? How will you do it? You could win Just too busy: Taking your family on a radical sabbatical by Joanne Kraft.
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My time waster is Farmville……Need.to.stop…..
Guilty! I spend too much time on this computer-thing. At one point I said I would only join facebook and not twitter. But then, I was told that if I wanted to build my blog I needed to be on twitter. So I joined. Now that the election season is heating up my twitter feed is going crazy. I need to get that in perspective. At one point I said I would turn the computer off after breakfast and not use it until lunch. Then, turn it off again until school and chores are complete. I may need to put that into practice.
I really need to work on the amount of time I spend on Facebook and the computer all together! I am always on for “little” amounts of time but really those add up to a good few hours a day.
I love your computer/wireless rules and need to implement something similar. And now, I need to get off the computer.
I have just finished with this goal in my life. De-clutter my electronic life. Someone special in my life made a comment back in December about why I was so often on my Blackberry. Now, I thought I was not that bad, the students my husband teach are way worse. But then I thought about it. I could not go anywhere without it! Then I read an article about smart phones vs bibles. The question that was brought up was: what if people treated their bibles like their cell phones? What an amazing thought! So I set out doing such. Now I carry my bible everywhere and have cut down on the e-mails I receive and my Facebook time. And I have upped my time spent with my bible. I can tell you, it feels good not checking my Blackberry every two minutes because that little red light is blinking!
Guilty! Especially of “stupid” TV. What’s hard is I’m also recovering from foot surgery, which limits my time on my feet. (Insert excuses!) I did the “cave time” the other day, and not only did I accomplish a couple of things (from the chair!), but I found it quite refreshing as well. I need to discipline myself to do it more often; I bet I would finish up quite a few projects!
My biggest zapper of my time is the internet and facebook. I’ve set limits before and it is time to do it again!
I struggle with the Internet-Facebook, Twitter, email. It’s just so tempting! Great tips. Thank you for the post:)
As a fellow writer and college instructor, too much wasted time on the computer is the area of time management that I need to work on too! I also have to be careful with too much TV time, as well. But I write fiction and have found that watching movies and one-hour dramas “as a writer” helps me greatly when plotting my fiction projects, so I have a bit more “wiggle room” to call my TV watching “work.”
My solution when at home is to work on my laptop. I had a wifi modem for the laptop for a while, but discovered that the one place it DIDN’T work was… at home! Useful, huh? So, I disconnected the service and rely on Starbucks’ wifi when I have to have it, but work without connectivity at home. It’s very effective for keeping me on task and away from FreeCell and Facebook. I sit at the kitchen table with the laptop, since the desktop in my office still calls to me with great temptation, and listen to praise music while I work. That is so motivating that I usually get more done than I planned for each session.
Yep. It’s like we’re soul sisters, Kathi; I can totally relate. Last September I cut out all gaming on the computer. I just wasn’t able to control it. But I still manage to spend an awful lot of time with Facebook and email. I need to set small goals to accomplish first–then reward myself by seeing what everyone else is up to.
Amen, so true. This all got me in trouble yesterday when I should have focused first on what NEEDED to get done. I am going to put that quote everywhere so it will get in my head. I hate that at times I am such a procrastinator. Being a stay at home mom can be hard because most deadlines are all up to me to complete. No boss looking over my shoulder or client breathing down my neck anymore, just me.
I need to “allow” myself only small chunks of time for the various “overhaul my entire life in January” projects I feel compelled to take on.
Yes, my scrapbooking “stuff” needs to be better organized. But it’s been a wreck for a few years — there’s no sudden urgency to make it all perfect right now! I can set a timer for 10 minutes a day.
Yes, I need to cull some of my books (sob!), but I could do a shelf per week and still be making progress.
Ditto with my clothes closet, the garage, various disaster areas at work, etc.
It’s not that I need to ignore them. I just need to NOT go from ignoring them to letting them take over my entire life, taking up all my time and energy.
I work from home. So I set office hours (usually during nap time). During my office hours, I keep a journal of what I’ve done. I record the business contacts I’ve made and what projects I spent my time on. This holds me accountable! It also helps my attitude. I have a never-ending to-do list. So looking at my to-do list just makes me want to cry. But when I look back over my journal, I can see all that I accomplished and I feel proud.
Thanks so much for this Kathi: I so needed to hear this, AGAIN!
I am a facebook addict and realise the detriment to myself and my children when I spent too long ‘connecting with other people’ when I really need to reconnect with God, spend time connecting with my husband and get down on the floor and reconnect by playing games with my children.
I love the internet, facebook, iphones etc but only when I am in control of them. So I am setting myself some limits: I will only be on the internet if my children are sleeping (i.e nap time or in the evenings). I have already found this rule beneficial but feel like I am having withdrawals and have to stop myself trying to access facebook or update my status!
I need to limit my brainless computer time too. I will start setting a timer to alert me when my time is up. I do that with other activities but I always say “it’ll only take a minute” next thing know its 30 minutes later
I, like kathi, need a time limit for my brainless Facebook, email addictions. Everyone who is important knows my number and can call if it’s important. I need to sort my house work into smaller chunks every day. No more naps with my little boy. That’s two hours I can recharge or get stuff done so we have more time to play.
OUCH! Ok, I’ve been super convicted about wasted time on the computer. It’s like you’re in my head!!! Being an at-home mom and also working on different ministry/missions tasks that require the computer, I find I am constantly re-checking my email (like, over and over and over) AND Facebook, and sometimes I forget what the heck I sat down to do in the first place. Not cool. I like the idea of actually turning the thing OFF.
I may try that. (I may have a panic attack immediately after. And that is so lame.)
Getting disconnected from the internet may be a really excellent way to get more connected to all the other more important stuff, so really, I am going to take this as a challenge and work on it.
I need to spend less time looking at coupon forums… it is a time sucker and I usually don’t even go buy the stuff. 🙂
I need to take control of everything. I need to learn how to delegate tasks to family members and just let it go. I need to rid myself of feeling like everything has to be done perfectly so I can release control over unimportant details. I’ve stopped watching television for the most part but my family does and I forget and sit down and watch, too. I wish I could find more time in my day….