Time Management and the Importance of Down Time

I mentioned in my weekly goals post that last week was a really busy, rough week, and that at the end of it I canceled my plans for Sunday so I could just stay home and write.

I'm not always good at balancing that need, but I try.  In this case, I had a super busy, in-my-face Friday and Saturday, and desperately needed that break on Sunday.  It took me a couple of hours to realize Sunday, basically until I realized I was going to procrastinate getting going until it was too late and then feel bad about it.  Instead, I recognized what was happening, canceled my plans so that I would feel less bad about it, 

And yes, sitting on the couch writing for four hours is a break.  A lovely one, in fact!  I made tremendous progress on my novel, catching up from a decided slump.  And I ended the day feeling much less stressed and overwhelmed, despite the general busyness of the week.

It's so difficult to recognize when we need to slow down and give ourselves a break, yet it's so important to make sure we're doing this when it's needed.  everyone needs a break periodically!

When I'm not writing for a break, reading is another big contender.  We also like to go to movies occasionally, since we have A-List subscriptions with AMC.

What about you?  Are you able to recognize when you need a break, and how do you handle it when you realize?

Four Thousand Weeks: A Review and a Reset

In my post about my goals for this week, I blogged about a book I was reading at the time, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.

Well, I finally finished the book, and I have lots of thoughts.

The book has had an immediate impact on how I view my time and my to-do list.  On Monday when I planned out my week, I took a bunch of unimportant tasks off my calendar, where they'd been languishing for weeks and sometimes months, rolled over from week to week as they remained unfinished.  It felt good to recognize that I probably would never get to them, and that that was okay, because they weren't all that important to do.

Perversely, I got a ton done on Monday, probably at least partly because I was feeling energized by this new way of looking at things.  There were also a lot of things I had to get done, after 10 days of house sitting and 4 days of Fan Expo.  Basically, I'd had two weeks' worth of stuff to put away and two weeks' worth of basic tasks to catch up on.

Today, I'm finding that my desire for productivity is shot, perhaps because Four Thousand Weeks has given me permission to focus on what matters to me.  Turns out that eliminates quite a few things from my task list, and all I want to do now is read, write, and do doll stuff.

I suppose the fact that writing makes the short list should tell me something, though.

As I mentioned in Monday's post, the message of Four Thousand Weeks is that we have a limited amount of time, and there is no possible way we can ever hope to accomplish everything.  Rather than how the productivity self-help industry has focused on finding ways for us to get progressively more and more done, Four Thousand Weeks coaches you to forget about trying to do everything, and instead focus on doing what matters most to us.

In other words, quit trying to fit it all in and feeling guilty when we can't.  Instead, give ourselves permission to not accomplish everything.

One of the things the book talks about is the idea of limiting yourself to only three to-do items at a time.  I've always thought that was ridiculous because who has only three items on their list?!  Of course, as someone who is self-employed, I have work items on my list, whereas someone with a traditional job probably wouldn't.  But still!

The way the book discusses it, though, I started thinking: how about only having three active projects on my list at a time?  I've definitely noticed that I do better if I keep my weekly goals to just three, when I write that post every week.  So maybe limiting my big projects to three would be helpful.

But then in the appendix, the author suggests keeping two to-do lists: one with active items that you limit to only ten, and another with all the things you hope to do, with the understanding that you will not get through all of those.  And every time you accomplish one of the ten things, you can cross that off and move something else over.

He also suggested keeping a third list, a "Done" list, which I like for the purpose of reminding myself that I have been doing things.  Too often I look at the things I didn't accomplish and feel like a failure, no matter how much I actually did accomplish.

A final note: One of the things the book addresses quite a bit is distractions that keep us from doing things we need to do, or rather, that enable us to procrastinate on things we should be doing.  Social media is, of course, at the top of that list.  While there's no way I can eliminate social media from my life entirely, as it does serve some very real purposes for me, I definitely should look at how to limit its ability to distract me when I'm doing something important.

After pondering Four Thousand Weeks and the meaning of life all week, I feel like I'm even more lost as ever, although maybe that's just my new hierarchy of priorities taking shape.  Or, perhaps, it's me trying to figure out what I actually need to do (clearing the clutter in the kitchen, for instance), and how to balance those with the things that matter to me (just reading, writing, and dolls, really).

In any case, I'll accept my current feeling of aimlessness as growing pangs and part of the process of resetting my priorities, if it will eventually lead to more satisfaction with what I do and less guilt over what I don't.

How Many Projects Are Too Many?

It hasn't escaped my notice that the last few weeks I've been better at achieving my goals.

There are a few possible reasons why.  One could be that I'm doing better lately with managing my time.  I could also be benefiting from instituting a daily routine with a strict goal of writing every day; it's not a stretch to think that discipline could be spilling over into other goals as well.

But I've also been thinking about the general advice of only having three items on your to-do list.  I've never given it any credence (I have way too much to do for that) but I find myself wondering if perhaps it's more applicable to larger and more involved projects.

Because while I've been making good progress on two of my projects, my novel and organizing in the doll room, I also have been tightly focused on both of those goals.  I have had a few other goals cluttering things up on occasion, but for the most part I've been focusing on just these two things.

What if, when I feel I'm not being productive enough, it's just because I'm overextending myself?  So rather than getting a lot done on a couple of things, I'm only able to get a little done on everything... and even that doesn't represent the maximum effort I have to give, because there is a limited amount of time and energy you can divvy up before you run out of spoons, so to speak.

It's food for thought, especially since my entire nature is to overextend myself.  I have so many things I want to do.  But it looks like may need to focus my efforts on what I most want to do, or else settle for accomplishing very little of all the things I want to do.

What would you do?

Motivation and Time Management When There Are No Deadlines

In my last post, I talked about taking a hiatus from freelancing and my plans to work on my own writing projects.  That was almost three weeks ago, so I thought I'd look at where I've come since then.

Spoiler alert: It's not far.

I'm finding that one of the toughest things to manage is ensuring I make the time to get things done when I don't have deadlines to make me do it.  I'm not even great at meeting deadlines, admittedly, as I tend to do things at the last minute and I don't always leave enough time to complete the work.  But I at least do try to do the work before the deadline.

My habit with my own projects is to push things back to the next day, day after day after day, when it becomes obvious I haven't left enough time in the day to do them.  I'm not great at managing my time, and I have really too many things to do, which makes managing my time even harder.

On the flip side, when I do get motivated to do something, I tend to work on it for hours without losing focus.  I just wish I could harness that motivation and focus the rest of the time.

So as you might imagine from this lead-in, I haven't gotten a lot done on my own projects.  I've worked on some of my writing projects here and there, but a lot of my time lately has been spent procrastinating on a house cleanup and reorganization project that I really want to do, and feel like I can't do anything else until I get it done, but which is also completely and totally overwhelming me to the point where I shut down and browse Facebook instead.  No, I'm not proud of it.  Yes, it happens anyway.

I am reasonably sure that I can do better, but it's going to take some time.  Some things that I'm trying to help with this include:

• Taking a good, hard look at my to-do list: When I have too much on my plate, it gets extra overwhelming, and makes it harder to focus on any one thing.  When I'm trying to decide what to work on, I get paralyzed by worrying about what I should be doing first, and end up doing nothing at all.  I'm trying to be realistic and eliminate tasks that aren't important or that I know I won't do, instead of rescheduling them each week.
• Scheduling out tasks (instead of making a to-do list): I've been using my calendar instead of a to-do list, and I find it's more effective as it forces me to be more realistic about how much time I have in a day.  Sometimes I still underestimate how long things will take, but I'm getting better at this.
• Doing a little instead of doing nothing: When I find it really hard to get started on something, sometimes I'll try to do just a small part of it.  Sometimes this helps me get some small part of it done that was acting as a mental block and preventing me from doing the rest, the idea being that it'll be easier to pick up again later even if I need a brain break after getting it done.  Other times doing a few things gets me motivated and I end up getting more done than just the small part I'd originally set out to do.

The hardest part of all of this is remembering not to be unfair to myself.  I have a tendency to think of myself as lazy and to blame myself for not getting enough done, even when I did get things done.  The reality is that my daily expectations for myself are usually far more optimistic than what I can realistically manage, and then I feel bad for not accomplishing all of it.  Feeling like I'm lazy tends to demotivate me, which exacerbates the problem.  I'm trying to be better about this, but it's still a work in progress.

I think I'm going to start a series of posts tracking what I accomplish each week, both to remind myself of what I am getting done, and to stay accountable for what I want to get done.  Stay tuned!

Google Calender x Toggl for Productivity

I blogged a little while back about using Google Calendar for time management and my to-do list.  As a quick update to my previous methods, I'm still using my calendar to block out time for things, still using tasks to supplement the calendar entries (and give me something to cross off), and still trying to plan out my upcoming week on Sundays.

Sometimes it goes to plan, sometimes it doesn't.  I nearly always overschedule myself and have to put off tasks.  I tend to underestimate the amount of time things will take, and also tend to neglect to schedule enough leisure time for myself, so I end up taking that when I had something else scheduled (and rescheduling the worky work).

Recently I discovered a new supplement to my calendar method: Toggl.  I'd used Toggl before, years ago, and stopped using it because it didn't really help me as much as I wanted it to.  But now it has a calendar view and integrates with Google Calendar, which has made the app much more functional for me.

I still rearrange my calendar constantly to reflect changes I have to make on the fly throughout the day, but Toggl gives me a way to track things as I do them.  For instance, I am tracking the time I spend blogging right now.  I can track the time I spend working on different projects, such as blogging on my various different websites, or working on different novels or short stories.  I can track freelance work according to client and project, and see how much time I spend total on a project.  I also use it to track my time doing chores at the barn, and it'll give me an easy way to tally my hours at the end of the month.

Because of the integration with my calendar, Toggle also allows me to easily start a time entry for something in my calendar, or even copy a calendar entry over as a time entry.  I like how easy this makes it to use, and also the at-a-glance visual representation of my time logs, side-by-side with my calendar for the day.

In addition, it acts as a record of work time for billing or tax purposes, which is especially useful for determining how much my computer is used for work purposes (almost all, honestly).

Do you use Toggl?  Have you found the integrations to be helpful?

Time Management via Google Calendar: A Week in the Life

In my last two posts, I explained a new time management approach that I've been using to try to corral my busy life and chaotic to-do list.  The approach combines scheduling Google calendar events instead of keeping a to-do list, with planning everything a week or two in advance.

I always used to plan my to-do list the night before, so it was pretty natural to start planning my week Sunday nights.  The webinar I originally watched claimed that it would only take 30 minutes each week, but with the complexity of my schedule I find that it takes more like an hour.  And then, of course, it's not "plan and done," since I find that I have to adjust my plans throughout the week and sometimes throughout the day when unexpected things come up.

This week, though, I planned out the week Saturday night.  I changed it because a whole bunch of our plans for the weekend changed, and it meant that some things got pushed back until later in the week.  I decided that while I was making those adjustments, I might as well plan the rest of the week too.

I mentioned already that I've been doing a hybrid approach where I have to-do list tasks, but I also schedule out the time to work on those things.  Maybe in time when I get through some of the tasks that have gotten stacked up, I'll start depending on the task feature less and the calendar blocking of time more.  But for now, I've found I still need those task reminders.

I'm also hoping that as time goes on, I'll get better at anticipating my time requirements when scheduling things.  For instance, I totally underestimated my need for down time on Sunday, and as a result I didn't get done all of what I had planned.  I also routinely underestimate the amount of time it will take me to do tasks or transition from one thing to another, although I'm already getting a little better now that I'm presented with a visual of my day with time blocked out for everything.

Of course, there are other times when I just need to allow myself some leeway to change the plan as needed.  I really struggled on Monday, partly because things didn't go as planned and partly because I struggled with motivation. I think it's important to give myself grace at times like that and remember that I'm only human.

I also really like that by changing the schedule in real time, I can look back at a day and see what I spent my time on.  It has been useful for determining hours spent on different things, and also helps me to see that it is not just that I'm not getting enough done - I can see for myself that I'm working on things, I just have too much to do!

Overall I think there are a lot of reasons to like this combined approach to scheduling and planning in advance, and I'm hoping it continues to work well for me.

Upping My Google Calendar Game: Part 2

I recently blogged about my new time management approach using Google Calendar.  The approach requires blocking out time for tasks rather than making an actual task list.  I've been doing kind of a hybrid approach, and blocking out time for my task list.

There's another, equally important idea I've been using in conjunction with the Google calendar, and that is to plan out your week in advance.

Another webinar I listed to basically suggested planning out the coming week or two over the weekend.  The idea is to do the most important tasks early in the week.  I'm assuming because the webinar teacher recognizes that things come up and you might not get everything done, but that if you plan the most important tasks early in the week, you'll have plenty of time to reschedule them even if something comes up.

What's working:

I'm finding that it really helps to look at the entire week, and even into the following week, in advance.  It's helping me to not try to put all the tasks on my to-do list all on the next day, because I'm recognizing that I have time to do all of those things.

What's not:

In theory, planning an entire week in advance sounds doable.  In practice, it doesn't work all that well for me.  Clients will assign me work that is supposed to be done within a few days, and families I babysit for contact me with last-minute requests.  I ride with a friend once a week, but it tends to be whatever day our schedules and the weather can agree on.  And the rest of my life tends to be constantly in flux as well.  It's not like I go to an office, work reliably for eight hours, and go home.

Additionally, I'm still learning what's reasonable to expect of myself and what's not.  So while my scheduling has gotten better and I have fewer changes now than I used to, I still have to adjust my schedule accordingly when I've failed to plan a reasonable amount of time, anticipate hurdles, or allow myself down time between things.

In my next post, I'll go into more detail about how I'm making all of this work for me, and what a typical week looks like for me so far.  Remember that I only just recently started using this combination of techniques, so I'm sure I have a lot of learning still to do about how to make it work for me - and, honestly, how to schedule my life so that I'm more likely to follow through with the original plan.

Upping my Google Calendar Game: Part 1

I mentioned in a post last month that I've been utilizing a new method of managing my time, but I haven't had a chance recently to revisit that topic and post about it.  I also feel like I've been still working on perfecting the approach, at least for my own personal uses, so I haven't felt ready to post about it.

It's ironic that I've felt too busy to post about it, considering this method is supposed to be helping me better manage my time, but I got really busy in November with NaNoWriMo, and it hasn't really let up much in December, even with NaNoWriMo over.  We no longer have write-ins to go to nearly every day, but I am still working on my novel every night, plus we've had a myriad of other things come up in recent weeks.

A few weeks ago, I went on a flurry of listening to free webinars for tips and ideas for growing my various businesses.  I did get some ideas (as well as a ton of marketing emails) and some of them were quite helpful.

One of the ideas I got has helped to revolutionize my to-do list.  Remember recently, when I said I'd been using the task feature in Google Calendar to replace my written to-do list?

Well, this productivity idea basically built off of that thing I was already doing.  Instead of setting tasks, however, the idea is to set calendar events.  Rather than having tasks to cross off your to-do list, you schedule your day around the concept of working on things.

Part of the idea behind this approach is that having a task list becomes demoralizing when you routinely don't accomplish everything you wanted to do.  We all have a tendency to make lists for more than we can actually get done, especially small business owners.  Even knowing that you've put too much on your list, it can make you feel like you're not good enough or productive enough when you don't cross everything off on your to-do list, day after day after day.

So the idea of using calendar events instead of tasks means that instead of having a bunch of (and likely too many) tasks to complete, you're just scheduling time into your day to work on the things you want to work on.  Nothing to cross off, nothing to make you feel bad about yourself.

Unfortunately, I felt like it's not really entirely practical for me to do it that way.  I still need that satisfaction of crossing something off, for one thing - but also, I need that list to remind me of what I'm supposed to do.  So instead of using only calendar events, I decide to use a mixture of calendar events and tasks.  That way I still have my to-do list, but I'm also scheduling out time to do the things on that list.

What's working:

I'm finding it's actually helping me to realize how much time I spend on things, and to build more realistic expectations into my day.  I'm still routinely overloading myself, because a habit like that is difficult to break, but it's no longer by as much.  Instead, I'm spreading out my task list throughout the week in a much more reasonable fashion, and by creating events for what I want to work on, I'm also able to see a visual representation of how long things take to do.

In addition, I also love the fact that my calendar is color coded according to my different businesses and personal endeavors, so I know just by seeing the color of a time block what I intended to work on during that time.

What's not:

I'm not a rigid, stick-to-the-plan kind of person, so even with my day scheduled out, and even with some flex time built into it, I'm routinely re-planning as I go.  I'm not sure that's how the technique is meant to be used, especially since it does often mean that I don't get done everything I intended to get done.

On the flip side, since it's easy to move around events even after they've passed, I can rearrange to reflect what I'm actually working on or what I did work on.  It requires a lot of involvement with my calendar throughout my day, but it also means that I'm able to look back at a day and see what I worked on and for how long.  And, more importantly, I'm learning as I go: learning to be more realistic about my expectations, to plan more time for tasks, and to leave time for things like coffee, lunch, dinner, and personal or flex time.

And actually, when it comes down to it, I'm not sure that changing my plans and rearranging my calendar on the go is a bad thing.  It may just mean that I've taken a technique and adapted it to be more usable by me.  I also think it's good that I am flexible with my time and can change my plans accordingly when I don't feel like doing one thing... assuming that I can get things done when I really need to, of course.

I've combined this approach with another technique that I think is equally important.  I'll address the second part of my new approach in a future post, and then sum up where I'm currently at with it.

The Simon Memory Game of Life

I feel like, ever since Panama started getting better, I've been playing one of those games where you add something every round.  You know, like the Simon memory game.  Remember the lighted button/tone correctly, and next time it adds a new one to the sequence.  And on and on, until you mess up.

That's what I'm doing right now.  Every time I master making time for something in my schedule, I add something new.  And on and on... except I don't get to exit this crazy game, I just have to make it keep working!

Juggling several businesses and projects can require a lot of schedule compartmentalization.  In the months while Panama was gradually getting better and requiring less care, I made a habit of blogging and working on my websites regularly, in addition to my client work.  And as I got a little more time back, I added some doll and photography stuff to my schedule.  Then he went back to his corral (requiring a lot less work) and I added novel writing to my daily schedule for NaNoWriMo.

Now NaNoWriMo is almost over, and I'm planning on continuing to work on my novel daily after November ends.  I do want to try to get this book published in 2023, so I need to keep working on it until it's finished.

But at the same time, I'm planning on adding another new daily thing to my life in December: I want to ramp up my work on dolls and start getting some of these projects done and out the door.  I also need to do better about taking pictures regularly, as that's part of the marketing for my doll business.

I have a lot that I do, and I don't really want to give up any of it, so that means I need to optimize my schedule so that I have time for everything when it needs to be done.  I don't always succeed, but I think I do pretty well.  I've learned some approaches recently that have made it easier, too, which I'll share in a future post!

I hope all of my US readers had a good Thanksgiving and are able to enjoy a long holiday weekend.  Back to work on Monday!

Is Time Management Really Ruining Our Lives?

Despite all of my blog posts on productivity and getting things done, there's an alternative mode of thought that we're actually making our lives busier and more stressful by focusing so much on productivity all the time.  It's the subject of a book I've mentioned before, Do Nothing, and pops up occasionally in articles, such as this one by Pocket: Why Time Management Is Ruining Our Lives.

I've discussed Taylorism before in my series about the corporate pushback about working from home that has occurred in the wake of the pandemic: What Happened to Working from Home and Freelancers Prove that Working from Home Works.  Over a hundred years ago, Taylorism or "scientific management" was a novel way for factories to make the most of the money they paid their employees.  But as this article argues, it has seeped into our personal outlooks, too, bringing that more-work-for-less mania into our daily lives.

But as the century progressed, something important changed: we all became Frederick Winslow Taylors, presiding ruthlessly over our own lives. As the doctrine of efficiency grew entrenched – as the ethos of the market spread to more and more aspects of society, and life became more individualistic – we internalised it. In Taylor’s day, efficiency had been primarily a way to persuade (or bully) other people to do more work in the same amount of time; now it is a regimen that we impose on ourselves.

The introduction of Taylorism into our personal lives has created this myth that if we're more efficient, we'll have more time, somehow.  But as factory workers are constantly reminded, our bosses are greedy, and will always demand more, and more, and more.  The same goes for us with our own lives: When we achieve our desired levels of productivity, it's not enough.  We're always pushing for more productivity over more hours, until we're more stressed and busier than ever.

So what's the answer?  I think there's two levels we need to discuss this one: personal, and societal.  As far as the personal level, books like Do Nothing recommend letting go of our need for perfect productivity all the time.  I actually don't think the concept of productivity is a bad one; we just forgot to come up with boundaries to go with it.  If you can prioritize and draw a protective boundary around your personal life so that Taylorism doesn't cross over into leisure time as well, you may actually be able to reap the benefits of the extra time that being productive affords you.

Then there's the societal implications.  This is important, because as often is the case, it's the lower classes that suffer the most.  While the effects of Taylorism are felt across all levels of society, it's those who work lower wage jobs that suffer the most, because those are the jobs where employers push the hardest and pay the least.  So on a societal level, it's important that we start emphasizing the importance of the quality of work over quantity.

Unfortunately, there's no getting around the importance of time management as a freelance writer or small business owner.  Time is literally money when you work for yourself and don't get luxuries such as paid breaks or sick days.  Fortunately, as freelancers we are also in charge of our own boundaries, so it's important to establish strong ones that will protect our leisure time from the goal of perfect productivity.

Down time

I guess you can probably tell by the mood of my last post -- which I actually wrote Friday and scheduled to run on Saturday -- that I was getting overwhelmed and burning out a little.  The burnout actually culminated on Saturday, and after I got done babysitting that morning, I actually went home and took the rest of the day off.  I read, napped, watched TV, and worked a little on my dolls.  It was a lovely break.

I had intended just to nap and then have a productive later afternoon and evening, but after reading and napping I just couldn't get my engines started again.  I often have trouble with breaks for that reason -- it's always hard to get back to work again afterward -- but I think this time, I just really needed the break.

Career decisions

I have a problem, and I don't know how to solve it.  Or rather, I do know how to solve it, but I don't know if the solution is feasible for me.

Lately I've been feeling pretty overworked and stressed.  Between freelancing, babysitting, nannying, barn chores, administrating a busy Facebook group, and my other hobbies, I'm busy all the time.  It's rare I have time that's not scheduled at least once over.  So my secret wish coming up to Thanksgiving was to turn down all the invitations, stay home, and spend the day sleeping and reading.  It's just been so long since I've had a real day off, especially a day to read.

Of course, I didn't get that.  I had so many invitations and felt obligated to pick one of them.  And the rest of my day filled up too, predictably.  I don't regret it, as part of my plans answered the birthday wish of a friend's little girl who wanted to ride my horses and the other part meant I got to spend some time with family, but it still means, as usual, very little time to myself.

The solution is, obviously, to schedule less for myself, but I don't know if I can.  Alternatively, I could try to manage my time better, but I'm already cramming everything in so tight, I'm not sure how much more efficient I can get.

One step at a time

I've been thinking a lot about how to change one's habits.  I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about a few changes I was making to my time management plan, such as working on my novel first each day and doing financials every Monday.

So far it's working fairly well, on days that I work from home anyway.  When I have to wake up and go to a job somewhere there's no way I'll get up early enough to get anything else done beforehand, and the weekends are so busy and just plain different in how I schedule things that it doesn't work then either.

Unfortunately, that can prove a problem at times.  For instance, last week I had a very busy week where I didn't work from home during the day all that much.  As a result, Monday was my only day all week where my plan actually worked.  This week will be easier, luckily, since I'm working from home half the week instead of just one day.

My new plan has me thinking a little more about how habits are actually changed.  I've always made these grandiose posts about changing my habits, and inevitably nothing really happens.  Yet without even thinking about it, I've been changing my habits in some other areas of my life without even really thinking about it.  Why is that working, and my efforts at better time management as a freelancer never succeed?

My long-term goals

It occurred to me after my last post, about weeding unnecessary and unhelpful things from my life, that I should probably ask myself the question, What ARE my long-term goals?

Of course, as I'm sure is the case with everyone, that's not a simple question -- nor does it have a simple answer.  But I'll take a crack at answering it, because I think it'll help me do more weeding.

Busy summer

My apologies for neglecting my blog this summer.  Even though I was no longer nannying regularly, I had picked up a couple of new families on an as-needed basis.  In addition, halfway through the summer V. and A.'s parents started asking for my help here and there.  And in the gaps in between, I was freelancing, working at the barn, doing projects around the house, and trying to carve out some free time here and there.

As a result, I was fairly busy until the kids went back to school this week.  Not as busy as I've been in previous summers -- not as busy as last summer -- but still busy enough that I completely forgot to blog all summer.

TGIF, upcoming birthday, and other thoughts...

Today was my first week back to my regular schedule -- that is, regular since January, getting up early and taking the preschooler back and forth to school.  While it was nice to get back to that schedule, I also really did like my time off.

I had a hard time readjusting to getting up early again.  I stayed up far too late Sunday and Monday nights because I was enjoying a really good book (The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls), and being tired affected my entire week, so I'm now pretty relieved that it's Friday.

My birthday is also on Sunday, so I'm glad to be starting the weekend.  I have the weekend off to celebrate.

Six weeks left until summer...

Today I went back to my "normal" schedule -- with my morning job as well as my afternoon job, that is.  I do like my morning job, as it forces me to get up early and get some work done while the kiddo is at preschool and I'm at Starbucks waiting to pick him up.

I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that I have only six weeks left of this schedule, though.  Come summer I'll be working nearly full-time while the nanny kids are out of school.  It'll no doubt be a busy summer, the busiest I've had in a long while.

Breaking bad habits

Sometimes when you've fallen into a routine of bad habits, the best thing is to change things up so that it forces you to break out of the routine.

A good example is my workweek and related procrastination.  One of my clients assigns weekly work.  They had been assigning it on Monday and Tuesday, and making it due toward the end of the week.  I was frequently doing the work over the weekend, and from there I started rolling it over into the beginning of the following week.  A clever suggestion from my client might have fixed this problem, though.

The freelance writer and the art of saying no

I have a hard time saying no, and I suspect I'm not the only writer out there with this problem.  We are stereotyped as being procrastinators and chronically late on deadlines, but often the problem is something else entirely: We find it too difficult to say no, even when we know saying yes is going to overload us.

Over the past year, since I made some changes to my life and started freelancing seriously again, I've come to realize how important it is for me to get better at saying no.  I don't say yes because I'm afraid of saying no; I just fail to be honest with myself about whether I want to say yes.

Cyclical habits

As writers, we all have habits that we wish we were better at fixing, habits that interfere with some aspect of our careers and our lives.

Mine is, lately, getting behind on the week's writing assignments.  It means that I end up playing catch up over the weekend -- or, more dangerously, on Monday -- and as a result, I end up feeling burnt out by the time I'm ready to start on the current week's work.