One thing (maybe two)

30. April 2013 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

As the end of the year approaches, I’m realizing a) how much I have left to do; and b) how much I want to accomplish this summer.  It feels a little overwhelming, so I need a plan to help me focus and feel like I’m making progress without getting stressed out.  On the way home, I came up with a plan.  Every day after school, I’m going to one home thing and one work thing.  Each night I’m going to decide what the things are, so I don’t come home and go, soooo what should I do and then three hours of blog reading goes by.  And here, to keep myself honest, I’m fleshing out what I have to do and posted in the sidebar is my list of things.  I love public accountability!!

The house has descended into a bit of chaos and with Geeky Boy graduating in just a few weeks, we need to get back on top of things.  I’ve asked the whole family to subscribe to the one thing concept as well, so I think that will work out.  Today, I tackled the kitchen.  The kids have slacked a little on keeping up with it, so I just dove in today and made that my one thing.

Work stuff is slightly more complicated.  For what I’m doing at home, I’m mostly focusing on planning for next year.  This year’s remaining work is going to get done during the school day.  I’m trying to be more explicit about my curriculum for both CS I and II, so I’m expanding my existing Google docs, and I’m going to build out some things in a course management system.  I’m trying to basically create a textbook for CS I, thus the Google docs.  I’m also revamping my MS curriculum.  I’m still thinking through what I want to do, but I have a lot of ideas, including adding more hands on, working with things stuff, and some blended learning stuff–which I’m *very* excited about.  Also I have to prep for my new Physical Computing class, which is going to require some learning on my part.

Yes, that’s a lot. But I do think it’s doable. I could see getting most of the CS I stuff done before the end of the school year since it’s basically tweaking what I already have. And since my MS classes only meet a couple of times a week for 10 weeks, there’s not that much material. The physical computing class involves my crazy gps cat tracking idea.  I’m too excited about that one for my own good.

Productivity, Priorities, and Preferences

24. June 2011 · 7 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I’m a failed participant in at least two productivity schemas–GTD and Flylady most recently.  I’ve been trying to think about why I failed at those programs and what would be the best approach for me.  The thing is, in my work life, I’m pretty darn organized.  I make lists.  I plan well in advance.  I keep a good schedule.  I communicate with colleagues when necessary.

On the home front, things are less organized.  I had great plans a year ago.  And while I kept up the pace for a while once school began, all it really took was a couple of longer than normal days to throw me off.  I didn’t stress about the home front, however.  I just let it go.  I kept things at a minimum level I could deal with (which is pretty good).  But now I want to simplify.  I want to purge the stuff that I don’t need.  I want to remember to make those appointments (and remember when they are after I make them).  I don’t want thoughts that I might have forgotten something disrupt the work I need to get done.

There are things from my previous failed attempts that I like, and that I think are doable. Taking 15 minutes to declutter an area is completely doable.  Making lists (sometimes while decluttering) is something I’m good at.  Getting the rest of the family to pitch in? Hit or miss.  So I’m going to try to do just those two things this summer.  Declutter in 15 minute intervals–even if it’s just once a day.  Make lists.  Cross stuff off the lists.  Relax.

Front-loading

24. May 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

My typical approach to a week is to front-load it.  I do more from Monday-Wednesday than I do Thursday or Friday.  I used to lament the fact that I hit Monday with both feet running and that by Thursday, I was worn out.  But then, I thought, who cares.  I get the same amount done, I just don’t spread it out.  This week, and the next couple are packed.  The kids’ birthdays are coming up and we still haven’t really planned what we’re going to do.  So that’s on the list.  I have some house projects I put off while I was in the interview process that I’d like to finish in a week or two.  I’ll be volunteering at Geeky Girl’s school this week for which I need to pick up materials.  I now have job-related stuff to do.  I have summer plans to make and confirm.  I’m also training for the 3-Day (today, 5 miles), and I need to continue fundraising for that. I’m working on a big plan for fundraising that I’m very excited about (because it’s kind of geeky), but that will also take some time.  And things fall out of the sky all the time.  I find out about events or projects for the kids at the last minute. Sigh.  I think I’ll be able to breathe in late June with little breaks on the weekends.  Until then, I’m plugging away.

    Moms and GTD (Warning, kind of grumpy)

    15. March 2010 · 8 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

    Longtime readers know that I was once a big fan of David Allen’s GTD system.  But after a while, the whole thing started to stress me out.  I think there are things about the system that are useful, but they’re sort of common sense–doing one thing at a time, break big tasks into smaller chunks.  But in his books, Allen makes getting stuff done sound like it’s just a matter of clearing out an inbox and checking off things on a list.  The important thing is making the right list. Now that I’m home, both working and doing mom stuff, his system doesn’t really work for me.  For example, the other day, I put on my list “finish laundry.”  Yeah, stop laughing.  Because the laundry, as anyone who’s done it knows, is never finished.  By the time I’ve emptied all the baskets, at least one is full again and the cycle starts all over again.  On any given day, if I wrote down absolutely everything that needed to get done, I’d be completely overwhelmed.  And then, add to that the unexpected crap that comes along very very regularly.  Over the weekend, the basement flooded, which will entail a phone call to the plumber and lots of cleaning.  One kid is sick–Mr. Geeky is retrieving him from school as I type this.  And Mr. Geeky himself was sick starting a week ago, went to a conference last week, and then returned sick and laid in bed all weekend (I think the kid has this illness). We’re currently down to one car because we haven’t had time to repair the other car after the great icicle incident.  The part is in; now it just needs to be put in place.  And then there’s constant bill-paying, school paperwork stuff, managing insurance and wills and other grownup things.

    And that’s just the house stuff.  I’m not even talking about work stuff.  It’s a good thing I’m being very low-key about my work because if I didn’t, nothing around the house would get done.  It’s kind of a catch-22.  I should put more time and effort into working so that it will pay off financially, but if I do, no one’s picking up the slack.  This became clear during the five weeks I taught a while back.  In part, of course, it’s because I didn’t insist on others picking up the slack.  I didn’t ask Mr. Geeky to do a couple of loads of laundry or have the kids straighten the living room.  And I didn’t do that because the class was so short and temporary.  I have a dilemma in my head right now because on the one hand, I’d like to eventually be working more (either full or part time) and on the other, I worry about what will not get done around the house.

    I can’t believe we managed all this when we both had full-time jobs.  It meant, usually, that we either a) crammed it all in over the weekend and/or in snippets in the evenings and/or b) did less of it. We did have a housekeeper back then, which helped, but did not resolved some of the deeper disorganization issues.  She kept the floors and toilets and carpets clean.  But the papers piled up, and laundry didn’t always get put away, and we ordered out a lot more.  And I was pretty stressed about all that.  And I feel like I can’t return to working more until the house is in a position for it to run more smoothly and I’m increasingly feeling like I can’t get it in that position by myself.  No amount of list-making is going to help me to the hard work of getting it done.

    Frankly, and I know I’m not the only one, I get discouraged about the fact that I can’t seem to keep things neat.  And when I got home on Saturday to find the basement filled with 4-5 inches of water, I felt even more discouraged. I stood halfway down the stairs and just said “Oh my God, oh my God” over and over.  And the cat was meowing from her perch in the window across the room, and I went and put on boots and trekked across the water and rescued her.  But then the dog showed up and she ran across the water and all my efforts were wasted. And then I got a broom and poked at a hole in the floor to check if it was clogged (it wasn’t) and then I took off my boots, which weren’t tall enough to keep the water out, so I took off my socks too, and Mr. Geeky was lying in bed, sick.  And I just thought, well fuck.  Yes, I really thought that.  The whole damn thing–the cleaning, the semi-maintenance of financial order, keeping kids and cats and dogs fed and cared for–seemed completely sysyphean.  And if I hadn’t been keeping it all together for the sake of everyone around me and myself, really, I probably would have cried.  Cried. Over housework.  Over the damn basement flooding.  But really, it was kind of the proverbial straw.

    And now here I am writing about it instead of tackling the basement or anything on my list.  Because what’s going on in my head right now is a sort of defeatist mentality.  If I clean up the basement, which will take me all day, all the things on the list that’s been sitting around since Thursday won’t get done.  So it will be Tuesday at the earliest before I can tackle anything.  If I weren’t being defeatist, I might just think, well, maybe you’ll get the basement done and get to the list too!  Realistically (not even defeatistically), I know I can’t get the whole thing done today, and really, I’m planning to start within 10 minutes.  Because it’s a big job.  And somebody’s got to do it, and I am currently hating that that somebody has to be me.  Mr. Geeky? Working until 8 because he has a meeting at 4 at another university.  And this schedule? Typical.

    All that is a long way of saying that yes, I still make lists.  I still try to keep some of the aspects of GTD in mind.  For example, making a plan for what needs to get done first in the basement.  But in reality, such an ordered system doesn’t work for me and makes me feel bad about what’s not getting done, especially when it comes to the “mom” part of my title.  I think that’s true of many moms.  I need something better.  And, then, I need a vacation.

    WoW Wednesday: Learning Time Management

    09. September 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

    This is actually not about managing time in terms of managing play time, but about managing time within the game. When your WoW time is limited, you have to make decisions about what to spend time doing. There are literally thousands of things one could do in game: quests, dungeons, raids, achievements, gathering materials and crafting things from those materials. All those things take time but have certain rewards.

    I now have 3 characters to play with. The one at the left is my main character, the one who’s at the top of her game (though she can always use more gear). Her skills are maxed out. Many of her faction reps are maxed out. With the exception of one top-level raid, she can pretty much do whatever she wants. What I’ve been doing with her lately is simply running her through a few dailies. When a good dungeon run opportunity crops up and I have the time, I will run that as well, since the rewards are tokens for good gear. On any given day, I can spend less than an hour on her and she won’t really suffer much if I don’t play her at all.

    My other max level character is Zamar, who I just moved from another server and who has such bad gear that what she can do is limited. She needs to run dungeons, but she’s not geared enough for some of them. She needs faction rep to obtain gear and that requires quests (some daily, some long series of quests), which can be quite time consuming. And then I have another low-level character that obviously needs a lot of work. So, if I only have an hour or two to play, I have to prioritize what I do, especially with these lower level characters. This occurred to me the other day as I was standing in the middle of a city, trying to decide which direction to go. And then, I thought, hmm, this is a dilemma most people have in real life. How can this transfer?

    When I log into WoW, sometimes of course, I’m just planning to goof around. I play as a respite from work. But sometimes, I have goals, just like I do in my work. I go through a series of questions as I try to determine what to do. And I think this series of decisions might be a good thought process for any decision. So, here it is:

    1. What is most important for this character right now? What is he/she most lacking?
    2. If the character is not lacking anything, what is a good reward for him/her right now?
    3. What task will get the character closer to the need/reward?
    4. How much time will that task take?
    5. If the task time > allowed game time, what is the next priority or can a part of the task be completed in the allotted time? (Then jump to 4).
    6. If the task time < allowed game time, go do task.

    This is pretty much the same decision tree I use in real life. I often have a list of priorities and I simply decide which one gives me the most bang for my buck in the time I have at hand. The hardest decision is the first one, deciding what’s most important. In the game, it doesn’t much matter. In life, there can be some unpleasant consequences. For example, if I were to prioritize gameplay . . . .

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

    Ignoring time

    10. August 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

    I really appreciated seeing this post this morning about not focusing so much on the clock. I have a real tendency to do this, scheduling every minute of every day. Today, for example, Geeky Boy and I had to go to the high school to rework his schedule, so I started my planning from there. I decided I would go to the high school at 10, followed by a trip to the grocery store, lunch, cleaning, and then a trip to the pool, exercising either there or when I got home. I planned free time in the hour before dinner, dinner, and then just open time. Sounds oppressive, doesn’t it? The other thing that happened was that I didn’t wake early enough so a few things I wanted to get done on a writing project didn’t happen until just now. And, though I should be cleaning, that’s not happening now because I wanted to post this and read a few other blogs, which is not quite leisure, not quite work. So, you see, my schedule is easily disrupted and then I feel bad about not getting things done, etc. Bleh.

    Jonathan Mead (author of the above post) echoes this sentiment:

    Trying to constantly manage and monitor my time has only led me to greater anxiety, and always feeling like I’ve not “done enough.” I’m always thinking about how I could have “spent that time more wisely.” But the purpose of life is to enjoy it, is it not? So can’t we perform highly without the anxiety of counting every minute?

    He makes a lot of good recommendations for being productive without feeling pressed for time. My favorite is having a theme for the month. Although I didn’t quite consciously think about it, my theme for this month is about getting organized and eliminating clutter. I wanted to be prepared for the new school year with a house that’s more streamlined and with everything in its rightful place. I think the idea is that, while I might schedule time for cleaning, if that’s the theme, then when I have the time and motivation during each day, I can tackle a cleaning project.

    Next month, I’m going to tackle exercise, something I’ve struggled with forever. I really hate structured exercise–going to the gym, being in an exercise class (except for yoga; I like yoga classes)–but it’s not like I’m a total lump. I don’t mind walking instead of driving places. I’ll play soccer or tennis with the kids. I like gardening. Generally, moving around on occasion, even every day, is not something I’m opposed to. But it’s extremely easy for me to make excuses. It’s too hot, too cold, too wet. I have this that or the other that I need to do. I’d rather read, play games, watch tv. You know the drill. So I’m going to make some effort now, but really focus next month on moving at least a little every day.

    The exercise thing is partly why I’m not as fond of Mead’s advice to follow your rhythms. That’s easy enough for me to do with intellectual activity, but inertia keeps me from doing physical things that I find unpleasant. And that’s where I think a schedule can help. And I suspect some people find the same is true of other kinds of work. Certainly people can schedule those activities for times when they know they’re more motivated, but they might have to semi force themselves to at least getting started.

    I’m trying, then, to find a good flow for myself where I feel productive, but don’t feel anxious. Easier said than done, but I’m giving it a whirl.

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

    Post Vacation Mondays are Rough

    05. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

    We’re all dragging a little around here, having spent the last two weeks staying up late and sleeping in. For whatever reason, Mr. Geeky bounded out of bed and has been dealing with most of the usual morning routine for which I am extremely grateful.

    Toward the end of the break, I started thinking about how I wanted to approach the new year in terms of “productivity.” I had read this article in Wired where Chris Hardwick tries three different productivity systems. I had only read GTD (of course), but had toyed with buying the other two, so I was grateful to Hardwick for having read them for me. I gleaned a few good tidbits from his experience.

    1. Don’t check email in the morning. I had already decided not to check email in the morning. I used to check it, oh, about now, before I’d even finished coffee. This is a bad idea. Email contains stuff other people want you to do and when you’re working for yourself, you should put your own work first. Yes, some of it will be responses to your own queries and from people you really want to hear from, but it will all still be there a couple of hours from now. I managed to not check email at all over the last week. This was hard at first, but got really easy later on.

    2. Take breaks completely away from your work. Go for a walk in the park. Knit. For god’s sake, get away from the computer! Hardwick actually did go for a walk and found it really did clear his head. I’m not sure he’ll keep up with it, but it’s something I definitely want to do. It will go nicely with my resolution to get outside more.

    3. Think in terms of next actions. This is something I got from David Allen, of course, but Hardwick took this message to heart too. It is the one thing that I think is really useful in breaking down tasks. For example, one of my resolutions is to remodel a room in the house. Mr. Geeky and I would both like to work on the bathroom. The first thing we need to do is find potential contractors. So, I put on my list “Search Angie’s List for Contractor for Bathroom.” Simple. When I’m done with that, I’ll put, “Call so-and-so for bathroom consult and estimate.”

    Although this didn’t come from Hardwick, another approach I’m taking is to only focus on three things in any given day. I’m also going to constantly review my tasks and goals to make sure things are balanced. I think in the past I’ve always put too much on my plate because that’s what most of these productivity plans encourage. Even the 4-day workweek book is about starting businesses and making enough money to hire people to do everything for you. The work may be frontloaded, but it’s still a lot of work. Now I have an eye to keep my days as open as possible instead of trying to be “productive.”

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

    Why Productivity is Bad (Sometimes)

    06. November 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

    A couple of months ago, I pretty much quit looking at my to-do list. I quit putting new things on it and I just kind of went with the flow. Although I still think the GTD system that I used has some really good points, I think there are a lot of aspects to the productivity mantra that leave me cold.

    I’ve actually always liked organization systems. Ever since I was in about junior high, I started making lists and schedules. I guess I’ve never quite trusted my head when it came to remember what was on my plate. In college, I didn’t have much of a system, but did feel organized, especially the last year and a half when I was working two jobs and applying to grad schools. I planned a class schedule my last semester that put all my classes on Tues/Thur. I worked and/or wrote on the other days.

    By grad school, I had very little to really organize. I had 3 classes and it was fairly easy to keep up with everything. When I moved into the corporate world and had a kid, suddenly there was a lot more to keep track of. So I followed the 7 Habits system. And that worked for a while and it was nice to think that things I was doing were “things that mattered” and “contributed to my life goals” but still I was just checking stuff off of list.

    When I discovered the GTD system a few years ago, I liked it for its simplicity and its geekiness. I was able to use some technical tools to track my tasks and it was fun to keep tweaking the system. I credit GTD for helping me organize a conference and for helping me finish a Ph.D. while holding down a job and raising a couple of kids. It was really useful for breaking down big projects into smaller tasks and focusing on the next thing that needed to be done rather than being overwhelmed by the hugeness of the end goal. It’s also helpful for going through email and stuff that’s sitting in piles around my house. I can look at an email or pick up an object, ask myself “what is this?” and then figure out what needs to be done with it. Again, it holds back the feelings of being overwhelmed by forcing me to focus on one thing at a time.

    But it started to make me feel like a cog in a machine of my own making. I began to just check things off the list and even reviewing at the end of a week, I just added more stuff to the list. And a lot of that stuff was stuff that was coming in from email and other outside sources. I had little opportunity to step back and look at the big picture. Even though David Allen’s books do talk about thinking at different levels during the review process, I think the system is mechanized to such a degree that it’s really hard just to not do anything. That time has to be scheduled just like any other. I started to feel guilty if I just wanted to read a book or take a bath or sit quietly with a cup of tea. I kept thinking, “Shouldn’t I be doing something right now?”

    So I quit looking at lists. I quit making lists. Instead, every morning, I asked myself, “What do you want or need to do today?” I’d come up with a couple of things and I’d start working. Even though I’d started down this road while I still had a job, I hope to continue it and thensome now that I don’t go to an office every day at 9 a.m.

    I think I will come back to some revised version of GTD eventually. There are still the nitpicky tasks that are better off on a list: forms to return to school, bills to pay, recycling to drop off. Right now, I have a purring cat in my lap and I’m watching the wind blow the leaves in the trees. I may not be productive at the moment, but I feel pretty good about it.

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

    Labor Day, Eve of New School Year

    01. September 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

    This is the first year that classes at my institution haven’t begun (or been held when we start earlier) on Labor Day. I say it’s about time. It’s always frustrated me that a school whose founding was all about helping the underrepresented (women) would ignore a holiday that benefits mostly the underrepresented. It was actually the students who lobbied for this. First, they got MLK Day (second semester classes began on MLK Day). Then, it made sense to have Labor Day. It amazes me how highly intelligent people don’t see the symbolism of making your laborers work on holidays. Sigh.

    Often I make resolutions for the school year, but I’m not going to this year. I’m purposely taking things one day at a time. Today, I know I need to get my kids a few last-minute supplies and I need some clothes. I might putter around the garden (it’s beautiful outside) or just sit outside and read. I might help the kids organize their rooms. I might watch a movie this evening. I’m definitely doing laundry (already have a load in the wash). I might work on a presentation. I’m going with the flow.

    I’ve noticed that the beginning of this year has not been terribly stressful. Yes, I was busy last week and no, I did not get everything done, but you know, it just doesn’t matter that much. The world has never ended simply because a few tasks didn’t get completed. I don’t work for NASA or the DoD. It’s just not that important.

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

    On productivity

    22. August 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

    This has been a busy, busy week, filled with productivity and failure (yes, both). I have to say that the people I work with often rise to the challenge of difficult situations and we really do band together in that goofy, sappy way you think of when the chips are down. So I’m grateful that there are good people in the world and that they happen to work in my building.

    I’ve taken on a new strategy, which flies in the face of GTD, but I think I like it. I only check email twice a day and each time, I only spend 1 hour at most responding. In my line of work, I could spend all day just reading and responding to email. So, what I do is scan email, looking for important things, and respond to those first, and then deal with the more mundane issues. Honestly, I’ve had a lot of people figure out their problems all by themselves. I figure people will either email again or call if they get truly desperate. And this way, I actually get work done, I feel less frustrated (because I’m not constantly seeing messages that make me think, you have a Ph.D. and you can’t figure this out?), and the day goes by pretty quickly. David Allen may not approve, but I think I like this plan so far. I do twitch a little when I realize there are over 300 messages in my inbox, but likely by the time I get to some of the earlier ones, I can delete without reading them.

    Surprisingly, even though this was a post-vacation week, I didn’t have the usual post-vacation slump, where I wish I were still on vacation and kind of flounder around hoping that work will disappear. I guess it was because there was just so much to get done, I didn’t have time for that. The other strategy I developed over the last few weeks (also somewhat anti-GTD) is to just focus on getting 2-3 things done in a day. So often I’m staring at a huge list of things and it seems overwhelming and I get frustrated when only a couple of things get done. But that’s because most everything I do takes several hours and if things don’t go smoothly, well, you know how that goes. So now I write down a couple of things to focus on and it feels better to have accomplished everything on the list. I use post-its, so I don’t even have room for more than a couple.

    So maybe I’m falling out of love with GTD a little. I think I felt that sometimes, it made me focus so much on getting more done that I wasn’t getting the right things done. While my inbox was at zero, I wasn’t getting the more important things done–important both to me and in many cases, a large number of people. I still like having a kind of repository for stuff that needs to get done, but I think looking at it once a week is a better plan than staring at it every day. At least for me.

    Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure
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