I often end up with a plethora of time. This does not always work in my favor. I’m easily distracted and I tend to procrastinate a lot. Go figure. I have the attention span of a goldfish some days. However, that is not to say that I never get anything done.
For those of you who haven’t read Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k, some of this discussion will be new. I just recently started working on getting my triangle of Knowledge, Time, and Enthusiasm together. Today, we’ll talk about time. I stopped to figure out when I work best about a week ago. Like Rachel, I would have put money on my ability to get work done in the morning. That apparently just isn’t true. I can answer emails in the morning, work social media, but serious heavy lifting writing seems to have to wait until the afternoon. The second thing I learned is I CANNOT deal with distractions. People I know wanting to talk. Various social media dings. Television being on. All of that and more makes me more likely to stop what I’m doing in order to follow some rabbit into the bushes. So I tend to work better away from home where I can put headphones on and just basically ignore humanity in a socially acceptable fashion.
One of the apps I use to do that is Insight Timer. Now Insight Timer is a meditation app but I find it useful for other things as well. The combination of innocuous background sounds and a timer make it so that I can put my headphones in, turn my Insight Timer on, and work until the timer goes off without having to switch from app to app. I have it both on my phone and on my IPad.
Another app I’m in love with is Scrivener for iOS. It syncs with my Windows computer at home via Dropbox, but having it on my IPad has eliminated the need for me to carry a bulky laptop everywhere. My books, Kindle App, are on it. My Scrivener is on it. All I need is the IPad and my trusty Bluetooth keyboard and I’m set to go for the day. I use a Logitech K480 which has three settings, so I can use it with my phone, my IPad, and my computer at home with a flip of a switch. Everything fits in my backpack and off I go.
One last thing I’ve learned not to live without is my Bullet Journal or BuJo. It’s very minimalist, but it allows me to keep track of my to-do list on a daily basis so I know when I’ve completed everything for the day. Granted, I need to get better about actually completing all my daily tasks, but at least this way I know what I didn’t get done yesterday and thus needs some priority today.
These things together allow me to make the most of my time out of the house. No matter what happens, I can get some work done.