Bringing It All Together - Focused Productivity

I don't recommend getting into this position, but I have a shed load of work to do.  I have a very viable business idea that needs some cash and some effort to get it going.   And to fund it and to live while I am at it I have a reasonable consulting business operating.  So my problem is clocking up the billable hours while also keeping up pressure on the more lucrative in the long run project.

Working against the clock.

I have found that the Most Dangerous Writing App has led to me creating a lot more writing than I used to before I used it. I have also found that it has improved both my writing skills and my typing speed in the process.

The trouble with people is they have needs.  If you are going to have people in your life you are going to have to take that into account.  I might have regarded a bank holiday in early spring while the days are getting longer and things are getting warmer as the perfect time to get some work done at organising my priorities and doing a bit of much needed spring cleaning.  However other members of my family had other ideas.  They contrived to have me driving around the country and sitting in living rooms watching television.

The question is what can be done about this kind of thing?  It is very hard to say no to people who want to see you, and even harder to say no when they are dependent on you to make sure that the elderly, infirm and indigent members of your extended family can make it at all.   So there is no choice but to sacrifice one’s own goals and to do so with as much grace as it is possible to muster.

The key thing is that you shouldn’t allow resentment to fester.  They have a perfect right to your time - it is all part of the package of being a human.

My strategy has been to be slightly detached and to do what I can to do some of the stuff I want to do in my head.  It turns out that the conversation can proceed quite well even if I make only a minor contribution to it, and that nobody is too put out if they don’t hear what I am up to.

There is also a lot to be said for being forced to leave what you are doing aside for a period and to come back to it with fresh eyes.  So I made a point of completely closing down my office and even moving the furniture for a really thorough bit of hoovering.  So although I haven’t had the holiday I wanted to have, I have had a holiday and hopefully it will do me some good.

Oh, and if you are interested everyone is doing fine.


photo credit: Family Group/Wedding via photopin (license)

Why Do I Always Leave Things To The Last Moment?

I have 5 minutes to kill right now because I have scheduled my time exceptionally well for this afternoon.  I had some work to get done, and have got it done.  This enabled me to study form for the Grand National and make my investments.  I fancied watching it with my son, and have got him to pick a horse too. And I got some tins of beer in, so I have something to drink while I am watching it.

Productivity Porn Procrastination

If there is one bad habit I just can't seem to overcome it is what I call productivity porn procrastination.  I love to spend time on sites like Lifehacker looking for ways to improve my productivity.  Now, this is not a total time waster.  I do from time to time come up with tips that save me a lot of time.  For example I am writing this blog post using the Most Dangerous Writing App.  This is something I found on Lifehacker which is greatly increasing the amount of writing I get done and also improving the quality of my writing and speeding up my typing.

Only An Hour A Week On Twitter

I might as well be honest and confess that I joined Twitter to promote my blog that reviews books about history.  This was back when social media was still a fairly new thing and the prospect of creating an audience via a new platform like Twitter seemed at least plausible, even if not likely.  Well that was 2009, and now Twitter isn’t the bright new transformative agent of the future.  It is a time sink.