Productivity habit

Since I manage a full-time job, a part-time job, a relationship, two children, friends, a cat, volunteer work, singing in the occasional opera, fitness goals, reading many books, and writing a lot, it is only natural that my friends marvel at my ability to keep everything flowing.

It helps that I have an engaged partner in parenting who does his fair share of chores.

However, one of the best tools for keeping my life together has always been an agenda. The digital format is great; I’ll even jot writing notes and other creative reminders to myself a few days in advance. I’ll stack everything into one day and then re-arrange the items into a coherent form. I might have three reminders to buy household goods and that will become my shopping list when I go to the store. I might have a bunch of writing notes that I’ll keep pushing forward until I’ve hit the date I know I’m sitting down to write. I’ll notice when I order an item online on the confirmation gives an estimated date of delivery and I’ll pop that in my calendar so I can follow up if it’s a few days late. In conversation someone might mention a good book and I’ll write that into an upcoming Saturday so I know what to search for at the library.

I don’t like to have the various reminders spread across different programs or memo apps so I put everything into one calendar.

To be honest, the thing that’s suffered the most since I started working these two jobs is my website and personal writing! But I’ve given a time slot to that in a few weeks so I’ll relax about it and focus my efforts when that date comes around.

#writing #organization #organized #worklifebalance #creativity #singing