by Leo Wiles
01 November 2013
If you’ve ever been paid by the hour or written a TV or radio script that had to be exactly thirty seconds long, chances are you know all about time management and understand what your time is worth.
But away from an office environment, it can be too easy to fall into bad time management habits. Such as spending all day writing a feature that could’ve been turned around in a morning – and thinking you have an ideal work/life balance. What you’re really doing is halving your hourly rate.
Back in my hedonistic youth, this wasn’t important – but now with just three child-free days a week (totalling 19 hours maximum), you betcha I have my starter’s pistol at the ready as soon as I pull up at home after the childcare drop off.
Because time isn’t just about deadlines. It’s about efficiency and increasing your hourly rate of pay. A fact worth noting as those lean freelance months loom – you know the ones, when commissioning editors go on holiday over Christmas? So, here are my top tips on getting the most of your day:
Sounds simple, but how many times have you rolled over thinking you’ve got all day?
Free for coffee? Able to pick up the dry-cleaning? Want to enjoy an all day session of horizontal folk dancing? No, no and no. You may be at home, but that’s also where your office is – and once you respect your working day, they will too. (Unless the horizontal folk dancing is the best ever.)
I turn off my email alert and switch my phone to silent, because there’s little worse than being in the flow and having to start over.
On deadline days, I always have the tidiest house as I find essential excuses (like folding washing) to walk away from my desk.
My all-time favourite way of working out my schedule is to prioritise using one of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. SC advocates listing tasks as either: Important/Urgent – DEADLINES! Important/Not Urgent – chasing up new work, Not Important/Urgent – setting up interviews, Not Important /Not Urgent – beating your latest online Sudoku time.
Yes, I’m talking about social media or other distractions. (See aforementioned Sudoku.)
That way, you get it out of the way. If you do that you’ll enjoy the rest of your day so much more.
Do you have specific time-management strategies, or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person who hopes it all gets done in the end?
Love this Leo, especially the ‘do what you hate’ point, although I’m very bad at that, I tend to put the awful tasks off.
The time management strategy I’ve been doing for the past two weeks which (fingers crossed) seems to be working is to carve up my day on a post-it note and stick it to the bottom of my screen.
So, it might look like this:
9-10: Admin, answer emails, schedule social media.
10-11.30: Write blog posts, find pix.
11.30-12.30: Transcribe cardiologist
12.30-1.30: Lunch, answer emails, set up interviews.
1pm-4.30: Write draft of heart health story.
4.30-5: Start on XX story…
The weird thing is, I actually am sticking to it quite closely and getting a LOT done.
I let the housework go to perdition – no-one would expect me to clock off from a regular job and have cleaned the house at the same time, so I don’t expect it from myself! That said I do multi-task my OH&S breaks from the keyboard by doing really quick jobs like empty compost, hang washing,make lunch, pat cat, and pull a weed or two.
Pat cat. I love it.
I would add – play to your biorhythmic strengths. For me, this means doing brain-heavy tasks such as writing, planning or interviewing in the morning. I start early – usually 7am – so this gives me a productive six hours before lunch. I do admin, emails, internet research etc in the afternoons when my energy levels are lower. Works for me.