Three Ways to Juggle Life and Work
It’s Friday, and I’ve put off posting since Wednesday to work on other projects, including putting some ad space on this blog.
Of course, not all of those projects were paying. One involved Harrison Ford, and another involved Goblins. I’ve been prepping the yard for our Memorial Day cookout, too.
So, with all of this busy-ness, I need your help. Today’s high-quality kick-ass post that you’ve come to expect depends on you.
I want you to tell me the top 3 methods you use to juggle life and work, down there in the comments.
Next time there’s a new Indiana Jones movie, Dungeons and Dragons release and a holiday all in one week, I can put them into practice.
C’mon, faithful readers. Give me the hook-up. When you’re done, make sure to check out the announcement over at Men with Pens today, too. You don’t want to miss this one.
Photo by by morbuto
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8 Responses to “Three Ways to Juggle Life and Work”
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Trick 1. I figure out a way to break my work down into small blocks that add up over the course of the week. That way I can give an hour or two to writing, and hour to housework, and I have the rest of the day to do whatever.
Trick 2. If I want a whole day or two free, I sacrifice some of the free time gained with trick one for a couple of days ahead of time and get it all done in one big chunk. Instead of writing one blog post a day for example, I’ll take a Saturday afternoon and write all the week’s posts, save them in a folder, and then all I have to do is copy and paste them into the posting system, which takes five minutes tops.
Trick 3. The old trade off: I swap out duties or help with certain tasks with Hubby. There are some jobs one or the other of us just does quicker, so it makes more sense to save time by having the quickest worker do it some days. Other times, like the end of semesters, we take to the old, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours,” motto. I’d help him knock out grading 120+ papers in half the time, and then he’d help me tackle big projects around the house or take over entertaining our daughter, so I could get a writing project out of the way distraction free. The end result is one to four more hours for this or that in the afternoon.
Juggle? You mean we’re supposed to juggle? Gee that explains a lot…LOL! Seriously, planning is huge for me. I plan out the month, the week and the night before I review. I keep a very short to do list of the essentials typically 3-5 items, if time permits I tackle other things. I make time for me, workouts, down time, family time as part of my schedule and most importantly I’ve learned that stuff happens. When it does I just don’t sweat it. I make a new plan and roll with it.
I meant each night I review the plan for the next day in case I need to adjust. See, sometimes stuff happens!
Well, it just so happens that Answers.com has three definitions for Juggling. How convenient!
“Juggling… To juggle objects or perform other tricks of manual dexterity.”
Timing is important. I set up a few specific times to perform critical tasks (like writing and exercise). This leaves me free to have fun with the family when I hit the open slots.
“Juggling… To make rapid motions or manipulations: juggled with the controls on the television to improve the picture.”
Keeping things in motion is the real trick to juggling. I leverage technology to keep things moving on multiple fronts. Phone calls, emails, just touching base through the day.
“Juggling… To use trickery; practice deception.”
When all else fails, I lie.
Is your work death? What are you juggling along with life. (This is like that dreadful phrase ‘work life balance’: what exactly do you put into balance up life).
So: focus on, “What do I want to do?”
If I don’t want to spend time with friends and family it is worth knowing why not.
For handling tasks: simple systems save time. Break tasks into manageable chunks.
Find your rhythm and devise a routine that fits it.
Hope this helps.
1. Get up early and get the e-mail out of the way.
2. Work on one of your Most Important Tasks (that you identified at the end of the day yesterday).
3. Do one unpleasant thing, and reward yourself with 10 minutes of RSS reading.
Go back to step 2!
Its a really delicate balancing act and I suspect if I were more skilled, I’d have accomplished more by now.
I only have one trick that works well for me. I use a timer. I set the timer for 20 min to really focus hard and blast through a yucky chore, then 40 min to do whatever I want and then back to 20 min of another chore. The amount of time I set for the chore varies with it’s yuckiness.
I find this process is especially effective if I have a seemingly insurmountable pile of work to do. I just power my way through it in 20 min blasts and get it done faster than if I had tried to do it all in one go.
Also works for cleaning house.
I choose the most urgent. If I have to wake up at five in the morning so I can start working before the theaters open, then so be it.
But that only works when my usual lazy self takes a holiday and the determined overly diligent me takes over.