Three Kinds of Time

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Last week, as I contemplated getting back into the swing of things as the old year ended and the new year began, I decided that there are three kinds of time. There's peak time -- time when we're awake, alert and motivated. Then there's intermediate time -- we're awake, but alertness and/or motivation are lagging. Finally, there's down time, in which trying to accomplish anything is an uphill battle, at best.

Peak time is, understandably, the best time to get things done. When this occurs each day varies from person to person. (Even though I'm a night person, my best time is late morning and early afternoon). If we aim to be productive, peak time is the time we should protect and the time during which we should schedule our most taxing tasks.

From a productivity perspective, intermediate time holds a lot of promise. Even if concentration and/or motivation aren't at their best, plenty of tasks don't require peak concentration and motivation. Routine household and organizing tasks, for example, like emptying the dishwasher, doing laundry, sorting mail and putting things back where they belong can be allocated to this type of time. Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part and once we get going, we get a second wind. If not, and we run out of steam before completely finishing the task, at least we've made progress.

While it might seem like a waste of time from a productivity perspective, down time is the time that makes productivity possible. We weren't meant to run nonstop 24/7 and, without time to simply relax and regroup, we quickly deplete both peak time and intermediate time. Finding those time slots and stamping them "Mine, all mine!" is key to keeping things in balance.

Next time you look at your to-do list, keep these three kinds of time in mind. What belongs in peak time? Intermediate time? What time slot will you brand as "Mine, all mine"?

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Managing Stuff While Time Works its Magic

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

Yesterday, I posted about the role that time plays in the organization process. While this is a great idea in theory, the practice sometimes gets us into trouble.

Take my pile-up on the step for example. That is not a procedure I'd recommend. If we need to employ time as part of the process, we need to use a few strategies when we set aside our "maybes" to ensure that time is a tool and not simply an excuse.

• Store it intentionally. Whether you box it up and stash it out of sight or leave it where it lives until you make a decision, put your collection of maybes somewhere on purpose and mark it accordingly. Label the box, tag the clothing or use some other method to remind yourself that the item is in limbo. Otherwise, you've made the decision to keep it -- at least until the next time you get to that pile or location.

• Set a deadline. If you box up your maybes and store them out of sight, make sure to mark them with an expiration date. Write it on the box in permanent marker or on a sticky note in pencil -- either way, determine at which point it moves from "maybe" to "keep" or "find a new home for." Or, consider the change of season your decision point. Unless you're a snowbird or going on a tropical vacation, there's no better time to get rid of those clothes you didn't wear all summer than at the beginning of fall.

• Decide whether to view or not to view. I'm a big fan of not viewing things a second time. If they're a maybe when I put them in the box and I haven't opened the box by the time the deadline rolls around, opening the box again is only an invitation to a new dilemma. It's important to make this decision when you put things in the box, however. You need to know you've made a promise to yourself that the box leaves your house with its contents uninvestigated before you put things in the box, especially if your personal style is I love stuff. If you know you shouldn't look, but think you won't be able to help yourself, make a list of the contents and tape it to the outside of the box. Reading a list of contents is much less emotionally evocative than going through the items one last time.

When used strategically, time can be a valuable part of our organizational process. Employed as a thinking tool instead of an excuse to hang on to things past their prime, time allows us to thoughtfully separate trash from treasure. Then, when we are finished, we are left with the things we use and enjoy enough to care for and store appropriately.

The Test of Time

Photo: myrfa via Pixabay

Although my organizing and clutter-busting has come a long way since I started organizing by STYLE, there are almost always hot spots in my house. And, as with anything else we pass by often enough, I don't even see some of them anymore.

One pile in question has been living on the step in my office for longer than I can remember. I can't really even call it a hot spot, as I don't usually drop new things there. It came to be when I was doing one of my attack-the-office sessions, and it was a small price to pay for a neater space overall.

What was supposed to happen was that the stuff in that pile (homeless stuff that had accumulated in my work space) would get put away.

How often have I written about finding homes for things? Piles like this are the reason. Homeless items don't miraculously find themselves a place to live. If your house is anything like mine, they make up the bulk of the clutter.

Last week, for some reason I don't quite know (perhaps it was divine intervention -- and no, that's not sarcasm), that pile began to irk me, and I decided it was time to do one of my low-key stealth attacks, also known as organization games. I realized that if I simply picked up one thing every time I walked by the pile, and made a decision about it, I could make that pile go away. That was, I must admit, a pretty exciting prospect.

Some of the stuff on the top was actually easy. Yay! Progress.

Then it got a little harder, so I decided to dive into the middle of the pile where the older stuff was. One box seemed to be taking up a lot of space. Moving it would yield a substantial payoff. I pulled it out.

The manuscript for my first novel.

Generally speaking, I'm not an I love stuff girl, but I must admit to a sentimental streak. I remember putting this box there, planning to recycle it and its contents. I even picked it up a couple of times, but couldn't quite bring myself to get rid of it, so there it sat, collecting dust and attracting more things to the pile.

I weighed it in my hands. It was time.

Photo: stevepb via Pixabay

One of the organizing strategies I love is the one that allows us to set (some) things aside temporarily, getting rid of them later only if we haven't missed them in the intervening time. Usually, with the odds and ends that make up most piles in a household, packing them away for a month is sufficient. Six months is more than enough for most of the rest, even for I love stuff folks.

My novel came out in 2014.

I'm glad I didn't just stick it in the basement. Although it would have made my office life neater, I can promise you it would still be gathering dust there if I had. Now, one published novel, two works-in-progress and more blog posts than I can count later, I'm ready.

As I've said over and over (and over) again, organizing is a process. Sometimes, time is an important part of the process. While I'm not advocating letting things pile up in your workspace, I am saying that sometimes, the rules don't apply. Sometimes, we need to let time take the lead, and respect our need to do things on the timeline that makes sense to us. It may mean that things are less-than-perfect  in the meantime, but it also means we're less likely to make decisions we regret.

I don't regret keeping those pages, nor do I regret the fact that it took me three years to reach the point where I was ready to let them go because that's how long it took me to reach the point where clearing the space was more important than keeping the stuff in the pile.

All too often it's all too easy to force ourselves into decisions that meet other people's needs. Unless your stuff is interfering with your ability to live your life, cut yourself some slack.

Sometimes, time is the answer.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Strategies for Shaking Up the Schedule

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

When I'm not writing, I teach. Or, more accurately this semester, when I'm not teaching, I write. But lately, with a full course load, I'm finding it difficult to make the writing thing happen. My blogs are getting done, but I'm making little progress on my other writing projects.

And when I don't write, I get cranky.

All of us have those things we want to do that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the list. We set a time, but something more important or urgent rises to the top. We get started, but we get interrupted. Or maybe we just can't find the time to get started in the first place.

And then we give up.

Well, I'm not giving up. I am going to find a way to adjust my schedule.

To do that, I need to take a closer look at not just my schedule, but also my mindset. Am I efficient, or just busy? Am I managing my time, or is my time managing me? Am I setting realistic deadlines, or falling prey to the "more is better" school of thought?

I don't think I want to see those answers in print.

I also don't want to create a schedule so hemmed in that I lose flexibility or the joy of becoming immersed in something I enjoy. But I can...

Rein it in. Sometimes, an activity really needs an inordinate amount of time, but, more often, I let myself get sucked in. Setting a time limit for one thing frees up time for something else. And, when both things are equally important, it just makes sense.

Accept unfinished. This one's a lot harder. Getting partway through a task and then letting it linger unfinished can be tricky. Knowing that a job is sitting there, waiting can create an uncomfortable feeling of pressure -- much like the one I'm trying to resolve right now. I'm going to give it a try, though, reminding myself that spending a little bit of time on two things can be better than finishing one and leaving the other neglected. And, who knows? Maybe that pressure will morph into motivation to get back to the unfinished job.

Shake off the "shoulds." The more I worry about what I should be doing, the less I get done. Lecturing myself about what remains undone just wastes precious energy that could be spent on something else I want to do -- maybe even sleep or relaxation. In addition, worrying and berating myself just makes me feel bad, which does nothing to improve the situation.

Pixabay

It's clear that to make this work, I have to get out of my own way. I may not be able to create more space on my calendar, but I can take some steps toward balance so that I'm spending as much time as possible on the things I love to do.

What would you love to do, if only you could find the time?

Time to Tackle Time

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I've always prided myself on being self-motivated. But lately, days seem to fly by, and I get to the end of too many of them with too many things still lingering on my to-do list and a nagging feeling that I haven't been working very hard at all.

I told my husband the other night that I had a new idea for organizing my time. He laughed and made a joke about how much extra time I have (yes, that was sarcasm). I told him I thought perhaps my goals were a tad too high. He laughed again.

Okay. So maybe I'm onto something.

When I retired nearly four years ago, I resolved not to think of myself as retired. I was barely 50, after all, and decades away from traditional retirement. Instead, I saw retirement as a reset button -- a chance to begin the second half of my life with the optimism of youth, if not the energy. I would write  and I would pursue the goals that had been pushed aside due to a life that was bursting at the seams, in part, due to a full time job that required more than full time hours to be done well.

And here I am, four years after turning in my retirement letter. Life is once again bursting at the seams. And this time, I can't blame my course load (one) or a full-time job (zero).

Apparently I'm more I love to be busy than I care to admit.

But the busyness wasn't always making me happy; often, it was leaving me frustrated. So I decided to view time the way I was advised to view my daughter's food intake when she was a toddler. Instead of looking at what she ate in a day, I looked at what she ate over the space of a week. Through the second lens, her diet always looked more balanced.

I pulled out a dollar store tablet I'd bought years ago and pressed it into service. I replaced the days of the week with the tasks that took up most of my time -- and some that should get a bigger share -- and resolved to keep track of where my time was going when it came to these categories.

It didn't take long at all to see that what I'd suspected was true. Blogging and class planning took the biggest bite out of my time, effectively edging out all the other tasks that made the list, not to mention the slew of others that didn't. And, though I didn't include it, household duties (cooking and laundry mostly) played their role in limiting my time as well.

So now comes the tricky part. Do I use this information to pat myself on the back and say, "See? You were doing more than you thought you were!" Or, do I need to make some hard decisions about how I spend my time?

I suspect it's the latter. Though I can't make a decision based on less than a week's worth of information (perhaps not every week looks like this), I need to look at this information and decide if this is how I want my time expenditures to look, and if not, what I plan to do differently. Some spaces should have less time dedicated to them. If I've got good systems in place, organizing should not take a lot of my time; nevertheless, I want to keep it on my list since staying organized is a priority. Social time is also missing from the list, but that omission was intentional. Unless I feel it's underrepresented, time spent with friends and family should arise naturally, not as part of a carefully balanced plan. Then again, if that's a good way to spend my time, perhaps I should give myself credit for it.

When it comes to commitments, how do you decide what to keep and what to cut?