Art of Doing It All

Someone asked me the other day a question that I have been asked in high school, college, and grad school.  And that question is:

How do you have time to do all that?

What they really want to ask is if I have a life.  But no one is brave enough to word it that way.

Why do I get asked this question?  Because I do a lot.  In high school I was involved (and held officer positions) for various clubs and organizations, was on two varsity teams (tennis in the fall and bowling in the winter), bowled in mutliple leagues and tournaments (yeah, my weekends were shot senior year), was a volunteer assistant coach (again with the weekends), and managed to graduate with a 98 average and earn enough college credit to enter college as a sophmore.  In college I was still a volunteer coach, worked one (and starting sophmore year two) jobs, and was involved in a couple clubs at school.  While taking classes in grad school I worked two jobs, was officer of a campus organization and managed to get work done on time, if not early.  Now I (get this) am working 3 jobs, two of my own research projects, and volunteer for two organizations (one an animal shelter and one a museum).  And I now blog (mostly while waiting for a really big dataset to run on a really long program).

So, yes, I do a lot.  Barely have a social life outside of facebook.  Yes, that counts as a social life for me since the majority of my friends do not live in the same city. And I still manage to cook homemade meals to eat every week.

How do I do it?  I have no idea.  But I will tell you some time management skills I have picked up over the years to help keep me organized and make sure not to miss any deadlines.

Epilogical's Time Management Tips

• Keep a list

I have OCD so I am very organized by nature.  I like lists.  I have a bunch of them throughout my apartment keeping track of various things (groceries to buy, things to do, research ideas, etc.).  The ones that will matter to you are the to-do lists.  At the start of the week, make a list of everything you want to accomplish that week.  It can include things like going grocery shopping, buying furniture, cleaning the living room.  Or, it can be things to accomplish a much larger goal.  For example, a thesis where you include the parts you want to accomplish for that particular week.  Because if you can do an entire thesis in one week, you need to email me NOW.  When you finish a certain thing on the list, check it off.

For tasks that take a long time to do (ie a thesis or writing a book or anything that takes more than a week) spend 20 minutes a day working on it.  Why 20 minutes?  Because it's short enough to be able to squeeze in somewhere during the day, yet long enough to actually be meaningful.  And by all means, if you want to keep working past the 20 minutes, go for it!  By the end of the week, you will have spent at least 2 hours on the task, if not more by taking a little chunk of time daily on it.  And you don't feel as guilty as you may waiting until the weekend to do it and end up having to do something else last minute.

• Have a calendar

I personally use the google calendar and color code each activity (each job has it's own color, volunteer work is all one color regardless of where it is, Dr appointments and vet appointments are another color). Having a calendar also allows you to make sure you don't miss anything important that you may not normally have to do every week (think doctors appointments).

After finishing with scheduling all the things I have to do (work, appointments, meetings, etc) I can then see where I have time to do other things and I make a list for each day of the little things I want to get done (groceries, cooking, laundry, couponing).  By doing that, the little things from the big list mentioned above will slowly be crossed off as each day ends.

• Don't overwhelm yourself

This is something I always come dangerously close to doing.  You do this by taking on too much with the things you're required to do and leave barely enough room for that, let alone other things.  My way of handling this is easy.  I cut down my one job to 1 day a week and don't volunteer to do extra shifts at the shelter or museum.

• Make note of major deadlines and plan accordingly

This can be for work, school, moving, whatever is a big thing that you need done or to do on a certain day that will take time getting for.  Here, I suggest if you can't take off from work or whatnot, to not have anything extra scheduled within a few days prior to the big deadline to allow yourself more time to concentrate on it.  For example, I would take off from work or not volunteer the week before finals to allow more time to freak out, er.....study.

• Multi-task

Some tasks can be combined to do at the same time.  Or meaningless activities like watching tv for example, can be combined with other activities.  I never just watch tv, I get too bored.  Usually, when the tv is on I'm preparing food to cook and once it goes in the oven (or on the stove), I then start to look through the internet, blog, do part of my research that doesn't require full thinking, etc.   Saves time.  Warning, don't leave the stove or oven on unattended (ie, don't go to the store while cooking dinner if no one else is home, big fire hazard.  You want to save time, not cause an even bigger headache.  I don't even leave the crockpot on when I'm not home, though it is safe to leave on if you want a slow cooked meal).