Time's Not A' Wastin'!
I returned to work today, after a lovely two weeks of holiday break.
Oh. My. God.
Here's what lies on my plate for the next two weeks:
1) Edits on ABM due Jan. 18.
2) Print galleys for TAC due. . . Jan. 18.
3) Two papers, two discussion postings and follow-ups, two quizzes, all the reading etc. for my graduate courses.
4) Begin teaching The Scarlet Letter.
5) Begin teaching Macbeth.
6) Begin teaching Romeo & Juliet.
7) Begin the Personal Research Project for my 11th graders.
8) Begin the I-search Research Project with my 9th graders.
9) Supervise the transition to semester two of the Senior Project with my 12th graders.
10) Grades due Jan. 8.
Did I mention my house is undergoing eight weeks' worth of intensive renovations?
There are also a pair of Monsters roaming my house who require clean clothes, sustenance and parental attention on a pretty regular basis.
There's no room for wasted time in my life. How do I stay on track? I keep a daily/weekly/monthly planner with me at all times. If it needs to get done, it goes in the planner. I set daily goals -- i.e., if ABM is 280 pages long and I have two weeks to get it edited, I need to do at least 20 pages a day to get it done. Ditto with TAC. So, for the next two weeks . . . 40 pages of editing, daily. No excuses. If I miss a day, it gets made up the next day.
I also set reminders into my Yahoo mail. This runs them along the bottom of my mail when I open it and sends me email reminders. I use this for things like my appointments to blog at my publisher blog, etc.
That's two ways I keep my head above water.
Do you have a full plate? What time management tips do you have to share?
Oh. My. God.
Here's what lies on my plate for the next two weeks:
1) Edits on ABM due Jan. 18.
2) Print galleys for TAC due. . . Jan. 18.
3) Two papers, two discussion postings and follow-ups, two quizzes, all the reading etc. for my graduate courses.
4) Begin teaching The Scarlet Letter.
5) Begin teaching Macbeth.
6) Begin teaching Romeo & Juliet.
7) Begin the Personal Research Project for my 11th graders.
8) Begin the I-search Research Project with my 9th graders.
9) Supervise the transition to semester two of the Senior Project with my 12th graders.
10) Grades due Jan. 8.
Did I mention my house is undergoing eight weeks' worth of intensive renovations?
There are also a pair of Monsters roaming my house who require clean clothes, sustenance and parental attention on a pretty regular basis.
There's no room for wasted time in my life. How do I stay on track? I keep a daily/weekly/monthly planner with me at all times. If it needs to get done, it goes in the planner. I set daily goals -- i.e., if ABM is 280 pages long and I have two weeks to get it edited, I need to do at least 20 pages a day to get it done. Ditto with TAC. So, for the next two weeks . . . 40 pages of editing, daily. No excuses. If I miss a day, it gets made up the next day.
I also set reminders into my Yahoo mail. This runs them along the bottom of my mail when I open it and sends me email reminders. I use this for things like my appointments to blog at my publisher blog, etc.
That's two ways I keep my head above water.
Do you have a full plate? What time management tips do you have to share?
Labels: Linda's Posts
posted by Linda Winfree at 1:07 PM
3Comments:
I've been thinking and reading about that question a lot. One thing I've been doing is handling my email better. I check it only once a day, and I either put it in a folder to deal with tomorrow, or I deal with it then and delete it, or I just delete it.
At the end of every email session, all my inboxes are completely empty.
I can't tell how much time this saves! And I get to do my other tasks with more focus, because I'm not constantly interrupted by the ding of the email.
Oh, I need to try this. I am an email addict, but I'm horrible about follow-up. Then I get intimidated b/c I have literally HUNDREDS of emails in my inbox and I'm too lazy to scroll through them.
Maybe I'll steal this idea. Bwa-ha-ha!
Yowza. My head hurts reading your list, Lin. Good luck! (And I promise to stop complaining about my to-do list because yours puts mine to shame.)
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