Time Management

[Scott]

How do you busy people out there manage your time?

(I'd especially like to know how Amelia and Forrest do it)

I try to plan out every hour of the day so that I know exactly what I will be working on and for how long. But it doesn't work very well because I fall behind, or I sleep too long... I need a better system.

[athenahollow]

It's a total pain in the ass. I really can't manage my time like you do, because if I do, it never works out for one reason or another.
I just do things as I need to, so that they still get completed, but I'm not trying to cram every hour of every day full of shite.

[ForrestBlack]

I'm not super great at it when I'm between projects, but once it gets busy and the to-do lists get long, good prioritization and knowledge of the big picture goals can help, particularly if you have an understanding of critical path (CPM).

The trick is to plan for the tasks efficiently, not plan how to just be busy all the time.

[ForrestBlack]

This reminds me that I really should stop playing Sworbs

[Raza]

I don't, I completely suck at it. Almost every time we'll feel like getting to work on something or another we'll run into a step that requires something other than direct attention - materials or tools we don't have around, time spent waiting for paint or glue to dry, stuff like that - and grind to a halt.

We make up for it by having like, dozens of ongoing projects at once, so there's always something else we can pick up. Although sometimes this costs us in motivation, since it can be a letdown to have to stop working on something you just got properly enthousiastic about.

I dunno. We're very chaotic, ADD-ish types. Only thing we found that we can do about it is drug up, which isn't very healthy if you need it for everything.

[Ubiquitress]

never enough time in the day...too many projects too many projected schedules at once, at least right now that is. Donkey and I are always running on or behind a production schedule. It always revolves around a due date or in this months case, several due dates but right now got to run yet again notenough time .....

[Amelia G]

I like to make really long lists in a file and then move stuff around to be ordered by priority (how urgent and deadline-critical it is) and dependency (whether it is a roadblock to other things getting done) and I am also a fan of putting stickies with the next day's most urgent action items on my monitor before I go to bed at night.

I also fret a lot about not getting done everything I want and need to.

Sometimes things with deadlines which are not so important get done and things which are much more important but lack deadlines do not.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Prioritize...Prioritize...Prioritize. Always know that tomorrow's another day. Another day to get more shit done. And above all...If at all possiblle, do not multi-task. To me, multi-tasking is just another word for finishing shit half-assed. One thing at a time...The best you can.

You can schedule every hour of the day, but it never works out. List all of the shit that needs to get done and do the most important shit first...Priortize. Of course if there's a certain meeting or such with a certain "client" pencil it in on the certain time and follow through. Don't screw your client and follow through with something else that seems more important. "Face to face" clients...At least to me are always more important on my list ESPECIALLY when they have an appointment.

[Scott]

I am also a fan of putting stickies with the next day's most urgent action items on my monitor before I go to bed at night.

I have so many stickies on my desk... I have to make other notes to remind me to look at particular stickies

[Amelia G]

I have so many stickies on my desk... I have to make other notes to remind me to look at particular stickies

I totally do that too. Those are the master stickies for a given time period.

[Ubiquitress]

sorry about the incomplete thought above ,had to run to work and didnt finish.
I agree implicitly in the power of the list, in fact i almost had an empty to do list tatooed on my fore arm just to keep track of things. a big calendar and in and out boxes are also helpful as is the clipboard,one for each job,with all drawings,measurements,communications etc.
for the kind of work we do having seperate tool boxes for different kinds of jobs already prepared helps alot;ie all electrics tools on a belt, all on site sculpture tools in a bin.this way you can grab a box and go and have some confidence that no matter what curve balls you are thrown on site you can at least have the right tools to handle it.

[DonkeyMoses]

I was going to resond to that, but I don't have time.

[Buster Friendly]

David Allen's "Getting Things Done" is considered the gold standard in time management these days I believe.

Haven't finished the book yet myself LOL.

[Mr Karl]

I use the force

[Ubiquitress]

I use the force

send some our way Mr. Karl oh boy do we need it right now!!!

[Bikerpunk]

Amelia has STAFF. That's how she gets things done.

Her bevvy of lightly oiled skinny tattooed beautiful boys do what's on the sticky notes, or they get the BELT.

[DonkeyMoses]

A good method of time management for me right now is limiting how long I sit in front of my computer in the morning conversing with a lot of people I've never met face to face. That's why I've been posting less. I could spend all day here and have, but we're in the season.
It seems an important element of time management is to make the best use of your down time. We have to have a production schedule and callendar and prioritize everything on the list (efficiancy of motion and order of operations), but we always include down time on the list so we can be in a better state to hit it running the next day. When our work is in our studio like it is right now, we used to work like dogs until bedtime, then get up and do it again. After a few days of this, productivity slows down, you reach a point of diminishing returns. Now I have to go and glue fake stallactites to a lot of metal mesh and spray it with foam. My life is weird.

[Mr Karl]

This reminds me that I really should stop playing Sworbs

now that's a time vampire there

[KilLAtomiK]

where i work i have various projects with diferent due dates so i have a notebook and i organize what needs to be done along with its due date. once that is sorted i work on what needs to be done ASAP and what i can do in a short amount of time to have it taken care of.Like sometimes il work on something i can have done in an hour or two even if its not a top priority just to have it taken off my list of things to do. its kind of a weird system but it works for me

[soma_stardust]

i'm very bad at time management. therefore i get nothing done. ever.
i do stuff when i want to do it.
my only policy for time management is that i know it takes me about 2-3 hours to get ready for a photo shoot and then add travel time.
^_^;
i need to be more efficient.
hey, at least i stopped getting up at noon! now i'm out of bed by 11!

~soma~

[Vix]

Hmmm , This is easy... just do the things you ENJOY first, everything else will fall into place... yes... it will work