Time Boxing

Nope - not a sport. A biz tip from Crissy Herron of Indie Biz Chicks. I have been receiving her weekly biz tips for quite some time now and this one could not have had better timing...no pun intended, well, not too much. *I highly recommend checking the site out*

I have been struggling with time management for a while now. When I first started creating, time was not an issue because it was for fun. Then I started selling and time still was not too much of an issue. I gave myself lots of slack for being a newbie. But now....I need to crack down. I tried a schedule of sorts about one month ago which was okay, but not great.

I have managed to work in my gym time during my youngest's school hours. I am not going to let this one go. I have come to terms with the fact that I may need to give up some crafting in order to keep this up, but it is too important not to. I realize that my crafting is already very part-time and this makes it even more so...health needs to come first. The downside - that time used to be when I sewed. So when do I sew now? Um, good question. Haven't done much of it yet. Today I will sew during his naptime and hope it does not keep him awake.

The computer time...I think that is my biggest downfall. I get so caught up with this new laptop of mine...I mean ours. Really hubby, I know it's the family's :) *think he believed me?* Oh well. I need to limit time spent here. There's e-mail, shops, blogs (which includes lots of browsing for my treasury blog and lots of giveaway checking for the giveaway/finds blog) ...oh, and blog decoration, and home stuff like Quicken, paperwork for the biz, photo editing...etc etc etc. And all the digi scraping/imaging I have been playing with...did ya see the nifty new buttons on my sidebar for my other blogs? That took up a couple hours right there... Yup, lots 'o time.

So this is where time boxing comes in. It's more than merely scheduling. I interpret it as scheduling with a timer.

Crissy describes it like this: "... assigning necessary tasks a certain measure of time in your day. Within those time constraints you accomplish what you can and then move on to something else... Usually a long list brings on the pangs of procrastination.... Time boxing takes care of anxiety that leads to procrastination and perfectionism."

I think it may be the moving on part that will take the most effort on my part.

Here's what I will try to go for...it's a mix of boxing & scheduling:

M, Tu, W, Th: kiddo in school.... 2hr Gym, 1d/wk 2hr shop (after school pick up), 3hr sew (during nap & just before or after), 2hr computer (after school or evening)...possible extra hours sewing depending on the day

Fri: 3hr computer (while kiddo plays & evening), 4hr sewing (naptime & after oldest comes home to keep an eye on little guy for a short bit if needed)

Sat/Sun: willy nilly...try for 4hr sewing blocks and 1hr computer A, 2-3hr computer B
note: computer A will be the "important" things like e-mail, shop upkeep, paperwork (home & biz)....computer B will be the treasury blog posts, giveaway posts & digi stuff (until I do enough to try & do this for others...I hope to make it part of my "wares", starting with freebies - but not for a while yet)

Now let's see if I can stick with it. Wish I had a graphic of fingers crossed :P