![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Striving for efficiency
I got home from work last night, and the week of much less sleep than usual combined with no down time at all caught up with me. I tried to take a nap around 18:00, only to wake up this morning at 04:00 which is when I have to get up for work anyway. That meant I accidentally left poor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tcaptain in the lurch, as we were supposed to have a writing jam at 20:00. Bad Phnee, no biscuit. :P
Still, I was exhausted after the last few weeks of lots of extra driving, lots of extra errands, and a whole lot less sleep (due to the aforementioned driving and errands, among other things), so getting one night of nearly 10 hours of sleep seems to have done me some good. And yes, I realise that not everyone has the luxury of getting enough sleep, and a lot of people have trouble sleeping/insomnia, but I'm trying not to feel guilty about getting those few extra hours in.
I was amused byelanya's comment in a recent post about having a day that seemed full but also involved a lot of sitting on the sofa doing not much (by which I suspect she meant "doing quiet things on the sofa" rather than nothing at all).
I seem to have the opposite problem. I suspect my days look very empty to anyone who glances at my schedule. A workday typically looks like "Get up, eat, go to work, go home, eat, go to bed." I broke it down in more detail in my unschedule the other day, so I now know exactly where that time ends up going, but I sometimes wonder if people don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I'm busy and can't find the time to get everything done, no matter how hard I try. Or else that I'm generally kind of useless and/or incompetent. :P
It must seem as though, whenever I leave Montreal to go to my job in Ottawa, I'm leaving on a mini-vacation, since I don't have to clean the house or help with Bean or run any of the household errands. I get 5 or so days of time in which I have absolutely no responsibilities, right?
Anyway, since that's not the case, I've been working on ways to make myself more efficient, to make use of the time I do have at my disposal. I've been having problems with finding myself too rushed in the mornings these days, when I have to be at work for 05:30. I am unwilling to get up any earlier than 04:00, because I find that hour brutal enough as it is, so I'm trying to implement a few time-saving measures into my morning routine. It's proving a little difficult, though. Here's what I've come up with on my own:
1- Pack my lunch the night before. The trouble with this is that I often have frozen meals, which I can't pack ahead of time, lest they thaw. The rest of my stuff can't go in the freezer. So I can partially pack the night before, but not entirely.
2- Prep my coffee the night before so all I have to do is turn on the coffee maker in the morning. This might work, provided my landlady stops putting my coffee maker away in the cupboard every day.
3- Shower the night before. I should just nut up and do this, even though I find it all kinds of awkward because the shower is right next to the landlords' bedroom on the third floor (my bedroom is on the ground floor). I can do this if I am willing to get dressed again in the bathroom before going back to my room. I'm just squeamish.
4- Set out my clothes for work the night before. I keep meaning to do this and I just forget because it's not a habit yet. I'll have to work harder on remembering this.
So, friends, what do you do in the morning so as not to feel totally rushed? Any tips or tricks for me?
tcaptain in the lurch, as we were supposed to have a writing jam at 20:00. Bad Phnee, no biscuit. :PStill, I was exhausted after the last few weeks of lots of extra driving, lots of extra errands, and a whole lot less sleep (due to the aforementioned driving and errands, among other things), so getting one night of nearly 10 hours of sleep seems to have done me some good. And yes, I realise that not everyone has the luxury of getting enough sleep, and a lot of people have trouble sleeping/insomnia, but I'm trying not to feel guilty about getting those few extra hours in.
I was amused by
elanya's comment in a recent post about having a day that seemed full but also involved a lot of sitting on the sofa doing not much (by which I suspect she meant "doing quiet things on the sofa" rather than nothing at all).I seem to have the opposite problem. I suspect my days look very empty to anyone who glances at my schedule. A workday typically looks like "Get up, eat, go to work, go home, eat, go to bed." I broke it down in more detail in my unschedule the other day, so I now know exactly where that time ends up going, but I sometimes wonder if people don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I'm busy and can't find the time to get everything done, no matter how hard I try. Or else that I'm generally kind of useless and/or incompetent. :P
It must seem as though, whenever I leave Montreal to go to my job in Ottawa, I'm leaving on a mini-vacation, since I don't have to clean the house or help with Bean or run any of the household errands. I get 5 or so days of time in which I have absolutely no responsibilities, right?
Anyway, since that's not the case, I've been working on ways to make myself more efficient, to make use of the time I do have at my disposal. I've been having problems with finding myself too rushed in the mornings these days, when I have to be at work for 05:30. I am unwilling to get up any earlier than 04:00, because I find that hour brutal enough as it is, so I'm trying to implement a few time-saving measures into my morning routine. It's proving a little difficult, though. Here's what I've come up with on my own:
1- Pack my lunch the night before. The trouble with this is that I often have frozen meals, which I can't pack ahead of time, lest they thaw. The rest of my stuff can't go in the freezer. So I can partially pack the night before, but not entirely.
2- Prep my coffee the night before so all I have to do is turn on the coffee maker in the morning. This might work, provided my landlady stops putting my coffee maker away in the cupboard every day.
3- Shower the night before. I should just nut up and do this, even though I find it all kinds of awkward because the shower is right next to the landlords' bedroom on the third floor (my bedroom is on the ground floor). I can do this if I am willing to get dressed again in the bathroom before going back to my room. I'm just squeamish.
4- Set out my clothes for work the night before. I keep meaning to do this and I just forget because it's not a habit yet. I'll have to work harder on remembering this.
So, friends, what do you do in the morning so as not to feel totally rushed? Any tips or tricks for me?
no subject
Taking a page from my last roomate, would it be possible for you to set up the coffee maker in your room instead of in the kitchen? he cleared some dresser space and set it up there, because the kitchen counter space here was already at a premium.
Also, not really, my day did involve a lot of just sitting on the couch chatting with people on the internet. I.... picked a Sith name for a character in a one shot? But really, most of the things I did didn't take me very lone. Even the vet trip was probably less than half an hour roundtrip >.> I think I pretty much have the opposite problem that you do - I was thinking about that when I was making my post. I have another friend on LJ who has crazy busy days - not with the homelife stuff, but she has a long daily commute, a physically demanding job, another part time job, and an internship, plus coursework... I wind up feeling very lazy, between the two of you :p
no subject
That's a thought. It would mean being very organised about cleaning it in the bathroom sink and getting a trash can with a liner/bag for the coffee grounds, but it might be doable. I shall investigate. Thank you for the suggestion!
no subject
THIS WILL NOT DO. I've started listening to that anti-procrastination podcast you suggested, and I hope it will do me some good!
Writing wise, I'm not nearly as prolific as I would like to be. At the very least, you have to get something on the page in order to edit it! So I really need to work on that. I find that I don't discovery write very well at all. I tend to have to outline, but I leave room to create within those outlines. They're not very specific.
Mostly, I need to decide to JUST DO IT. I find I do best if I am held accountable to another person. I never thought I could do writing binges with another person, say "Hey, let's get together for writing from 8 to 8:30", but so far it's working. I use the time up until 8 o'clock to think of something to write, then when 8 rolls around, I just slam it out. It may not be great writing, but that's what editing is for.
Probably not helpful advice, but it's something!
no subject
I still need to work on finding writing time. So far almost everything else is getting done unless I physically run out of time in the day (due to unforeseen circumstances or there being not enough hours in the day), but the writing has still not really happened.
Mostly it's because I can't justify taking time during the day to write. That time isn't mine to spend on a hobby, which is what my writing is. It doesn't make me money, therefore it's a hobby. The days need to be devoted to work, errands or chores.
The trouble is that I can't write at night, either. I either need to sleep for work, or if I'm home going to bed late or waking up early inevitably wrecks my girlfriend's sleep, and I'm not quite willing to sleep in a separate room just yet. So, yeah. Still working on that part. :/
no subject
Let me suggest a specific podcast for you: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2013/12/29/writing-excuses-8-52-you-think-you-dont-have-time-to-write-with-mette-ivie-harrison/ I absolutely adore this podcast. It's short and so chock full of brilliant advice on writing, especially in genre. You simply must check it out, the whole series. All of the award-winning authors involved have begun as 'hobbyists' with day jobs. There is nothing wrong with needing/using a day job; in fact, I'd offer that having the security of a job that makes certain money in an unrelated field leaves you in a stable place to write from, and doesn't burn up your creative juices so you can apply them to your 'hobby'.
Truth? I write at night (insomniac, here) but I am FAR more fresh and productive in the morning, so when the kids are in school, I can get up early with them and squeeze it in. Unless, of course, I've been up until 4 am, which I must actively curb. It's tough to carve out a writing niche. Dictation programs might work for 'writing' on your commute. Monicawoe writes on the subway on the way home from work. She's a master at making time for writing. When it all comes down to it, it's about prioritizing. Says the woman who can't manage to do it for shit, but I'm optimistic!
no subject
On my days off, I can't write at night without wrecking my girlfriend's sleep. Ditto for getting up earlier, because she's a light sleeper and the slightest thing will wake her and then she can't get back to sleep. It's not fair of me to impose that on her.
If I didn't have to take my car to work, I could write on public transit. Alas, my work schedule takes me outside of available public transit hours.
So I try to write when I have lunch breaks at work (I don't get those about half the time), and I have about 3-5 "free" hours a week in which I try to write when I don't have more pressing commitments like groceries or car repairs or whatever else.
I don't understand how dictation programs work. How do they take punctuation into account? Sentence fragments? IDK. Maybe if someone explained it to me better...
no subject
You're in a tough spot. My hubs is a heavy sleeper, but my computer is not in the bedroom. Are you an outliner or a discovery writer? Preparation might be key. If you have an outline or solid idea to explore, when that sudden free half-an-hour pops up, you might be able to take advantage. But that's not a regular thing. Hmm.
no subject
I'm trying to be an outliner, but with little success so far. Outlining may be the only way to get things done from here on out, though.
no subject
no subject
no subject
From my experience with it (which is perhaps more limited than it should be), it does accept commands like "comma", "exclamation point", "question mark", "new line" and so on. And of course you can always edit by hand later. The main thing is to write, right? :-)
no subject
no subject
I actually wouldn't recommend dictating while driving a car, since that sounds dangerous; but I don't think it would be a problem to free up your hands for doing something else that doesn't require intense concentration - perhaps knitting or something. And it can speed up the writing process anyway...
Let us talk at/after the annual Goatstravanza...
no subject
If I were home with spare time, I wouldn't need a dictation program. I need something that can fill in the "wasted" time when I'm out and about.
no subject
You have to be fair to yourself, as well as the other people in your life.
no subject
"Oh, sorry, the kitchen didn't get cleaned after all because that was the time I set aside for writing," feels like a pretty shitty thing to say, you know?
no subject
It is one thing to say "Oh I should finish cleaning up after dinner before I go relax for an hour" versus "The kitchen hasn't been cleaned in a while so I should sacrifice the time I set aside for myself to deal with that."
I'm not saying you need to viciously defend all of your unscheduled time, but I do think you need to actively make time to do things for yourself that are hobbies or are relaxing. It won't hurt the household - if it is that dependent on you, there is already a problem.
no subject
AHAHAHAHAHAHA... no. I'm pretty sure we all realize that isn't how it works. :-P
So, friends, what do you do in the morning so as not to feel totally rushed? Any tips or tricks for me?
Usually I just let chores slide to a point beyond what most human beings would consider to be tolerable. ^_^
But I imagine that isn't the kind of tip or trick you were after.
no subject