Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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

4 comments:

  1. Good luck! My problem is getting involved in a new, fun project, and then I forget about things I should be doing, and even posting new things to my shop.

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  2. Interesting idea! Hope it works for you! The computer sucks all my time away too.

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  3. You're singing my song! I constantly obsess about balancing my Etsy business with the rest of my life. That quote you included sort of says it all, though. If you're anxious, then nothing gets done, and then where would any of us be? Must remember that . . .

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