When you're juggling a day job and family responsibilities it can be easy to get overwhelmed and find yourself with no time left over for writing or your other creative endeavors. Peter Bregman, who writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review, recently came up with a plan for what to do when you are overwhelmed. Here's the gist of it:
1. Make a handwritten list of everything you need to do. He claims writing tasks down on paper and then crossing them off creates momentum. (It's also a method I use.)
2. Spend exactly 15 minutes doing the easiest and fastest one. Use a timer. Don't worry that these are not necessarily the highest priority tasks.
3. After that 15 minutes, isolate yourself--no phone, no open windows on your desktop, etc. Find the highest priority task and work on it for 35 minutes without interruption. Again, use a timer.
4. Take a ten minute break, then repeat steps 2 and 3.
Sounds good to me--I'm a convert to using a timer to keep track of time and maintain focus.
(You'll find lots more time management tips in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." And to get my free report, "Seven Things that Stop You From Writing and How to Overcome Them," click here: http://goo.gl/bWjb)
