New Time Management

I hit a small animal on my way home tonight. I was driving along on a back road and I saw it moving slowly across the street, coming from the other lane. I braked immediately, but I still hit it. The noise was horrible. It is such a shock when something like that happens and such a reminder of how delicate life is and how things change in an instance. One minute I'm driving merrily along, thinking of the play that i went to tonight and making plans for tomorrow- then in a second, things change and I've killed an innocent animal. There was something even worse because it was moving so slowly across the road and I saw it coming, but couldn't do enough to avoid it. If it had moved faster or maybe if I had sped up, instead of hitting the brakes, it might not have happened.

Anyways, enough on that sad topic. What's new? Well, I've started a new time management system today. I've noticed that I can get distracted sometimes and not get enough accomplished. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give myself a 15 minute time limit on a task- I was going to move really quickly and get as much done as possible in a short period of time. So I did that and it worked out great and I thought to myself that I should get a timer and do these short bursts of really concentrated activity more often. Something like interval training, but for the brain. Interval training is supposed to be one of the most effective ways to work out. For some unknown reason, I didn't follow through. Then yesterday I was reading the Wall Street Journal and they had an article about time management systems. The writer had tested 3 different methods- and there was one that was almost the same as my timer idea. It is called the Pomodoro method- you get a tomato shaped timer (honestly, it doesn't matter what kind of timer you get) and you give yourself 25 minutes to work on a task without any interruption at all. Then you take a 2-3 minute break and start another 25 minute session. I was so excited to read that. This afternoon, I broke out my cell phone timer and started doing it. My first task was cleaning 2 desks in my office. I worked very effectively and got a lot done. Then I did 25 minutes of email, that worked well, but I added in a bit more desk clearing which I probably shouldn't have done. But all in all, I think this is a system that I could really use- especially since it is almost the same thing that I thought of on my own. I don't remember what the other 2 time management systems were- one was too complicated and I didn't have time to finish reading the other, but it also seemed complicated.

What else is new? Not a heck of a lot- calendar sales are still going slowly. Hopefully we will be able to move a lot of them at the Santa and Stilettos event with the Shoe Club- which is less than 2 weeks away. There was some good news though- remember the grant application that I lost? Well, I received an invitation for their annual grant awards dinner next month (the day after shoe party)- that is very good because it means that you'll be getting a grant. Unless they suddenly decided to be very cruel and invite us to a dinner to watch OTHER people receive their grants! How dreadful would that be? A few days ago, I found the missing grant application neatly folded on my bedside table. See how much I love my work- I take it to bed with me!

Well friends, I'm getting tired. I've been getting to bed a bit earlier these last few days and it has helped me in the mornings. I am feeling less tired than I was, but still not back to my usual night time energy. I didn't blog last night because I wanted to read more of a thriller, but then I ended up opening the book, reading a paragraph and then fell asleep- definitely not the way I should be. Until next time friends..