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One. Six. Eight. What are YOU doing with your time?
One. Six. Eight. What are YOU doing with your time?

One. Six. Eight. What are YOU doing with your time?

The terrible irony about this post on time management is that it has taken at least five days to get it written and several hours today. For someone who wants to be a writer when she grows up, a two week absence here is inexcusable. In my defense, as weak as it may be, things have been a little crazy around here:

  • Driven across four states to get home from Chicago
  • Volunteered at Camp Invention
  • Endured a quick bout of the flu
  • Endured a quick bout of my son’s stomach flu
  • Unpacked from aforementioned trip for four, on the road for 11 days
  • Unpacked from my scrapbooking trip of two months ago
  • Broke my blog (nothing you can see, but I can)
  • Cleaned my office
  • May have found gainful employment that doesn’t involve peeing in a cup, hunting down administrators from ten years ago, or turning tricks on Colfax.
  • Broke my email…sigh…and still broken…Up next, the whole Interwebz!

While it appears that things have been accomplished, I don’t think a whole lot has, and it certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve done a whole lot. There are a lot of unaccounted hours there, even with the whole “running a household” thing. Time management has always been my bugaboo, and I’m rather tired of it. I finally got my energy levels back to the place where I thought I could get more accomplished every day and yet daily contentment eludes me.

Enter Laura Vanderkam. She is a freelance writer in New York; I know her as a co-author of the book “Genius Denied” and from her blog Gifted Exchange. Her newest book is “168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.” I love the title of the book because I totally agree that I do have more time than I think, I just have a hard time finding it. The number refers to the number of hours in a week. I had originally planned to give a little run-down on the book, but um, I haven’t finished reading it yet. Right there is the second terrible irony of this post: I haven’t had the time to read the book on time management for the post on time management that has taken me five days and several hours to write.

This week Laura is hosting a 168 Hours Challenge at her 168 Hours blog. Seven days of logging where the time goes. Because I have a little issue with perfectionism (sigh…), I have a clipboard at my side all day and I’m just tallying away. I plan to post every night where my time went, hopefully with little or no comment; I don’t want to analyze anything until the very end. No point in beating myself up right before going to bed.

So come join me. I know, I know, it’s the end of the day and who can remember what they did all day? I dunno, guesstimate. You don’t have to be as crazy organized as me. Swing over to the Manage Your Time part of Laura’s website and download a log sheet. Fill it in. Then join the conversation on Facebook, on Twitter, or post to your own blog.

I know where my time so far today has gone, and I’m pretty sure I know where it’s going tonight. So if you hear loud and heartfelt profanity, it’s just me trying to fix my email or blog without wine because I’m a good wifey and doing a detox diet with Tom.

There. Forty-five minutes for the log.

5 Comments

  1. Pingback: #168Hours Challenge: Day One

  2. I think, as we pick up more & more responsibilities, we are getting a lot more done than it appears. When I feel like CRAP about the state of my house or checkbook (unbalanced for months, receipts hanging out of it) I no longer compare myself to my mother…she didn’t work full time, she didn’t have kids in multiple activities, she didn’t try to have a web hobby, and she didn’t volunteer for her kids activities like I do.

  3. Pingback: Write what you know

  4. Pingback: Time after time

  5. Pingback: Homeschooling in the House of Chaos - Laughing at Chaos

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