Question:
Time Management Stress ?
Answer:
I'd like to know how you guys manage (or try to manage) your time so as to
do as much (of required and desired) as possible, how you adapt and change
things round you in order to have the maximum of time for what you want and
need and minimize time for the least desired and pleasant things yet not
ruining everything.
You may share on each and every aspect of such time optimization and it may
include all the activity you perform daily, which of course takes
significant time or helps. So, you're open to discuss transportation,
eating, sleeping, sports, health, the working place/desktop, whatever.
I'm asking not just of the curiosity or to humiliate someone for his
methods, it just happens that many of us seem wasting lots of the precious
time doing all kinds of silly things or doing normal things ineffiiently
thereby limiting the amount of the things ever done from the set of those
we'd really like to do.
To make the ball rolling, a few comments from me:
1. both public and personal transport take me almost the same time to get to
work/home: 1...1.5 hours in each direction daily, totalling 2 to 3 hours
lost.
2. the work and transport take a lot of time every day. 9+2...3=11...12
hours a day. There's no problem with the breakfast and lunch, but the
dinner/supper isn't served at the place I work and the room, where we eat
gets closed after the lunch and cleanup. Nor that I know of a good place
nearby where I can eat quickly (not waiting for lengthy preparation),
healthy (McDonalds, I'm sorry), and not expensive. Eating late at home close
to the night time isn't any good (because no sleep comes and there's little
desire to do anything after the meal). Not eating isn't either -- how about
going to bed when starving? :)
3. the work and transportation make me so tired that there's not a big
desire to do something after work at home and significant time of the
weekend is also spent in rest, housekeeping, etc, although something could
be done
4. if the work (better say job) doesn't inspire/encourage too much, which
often happens here (even with good salaries, what makes it more odd :), I
tend to do something of my own after work, to get that desired joy and
feeling of satisfaction from the done. I can't do it for just 30 minutes or
2 hours daily because little time amounts to little progress, insignificant
things being done. For this reason a lot of stuff is done till the moment
when I absolutely must switch everything off and go to bed in order to be
able to do anything at work the next day. Clearly, this affects the sleep
and adds more tiredness as well.
5. slightly different topic, but very related. I've had so many illnesses
(all kinds of cold, flu and pneumonias) in the past 3 years (i.e. since
getting employed), that I'm afraid of doing many things, especially outside.
In part, because of that I've started learning Spanish. While I know it's
probably not easy to get to warm Spain for a good software engineering
position, I'm doing that because I may keep visiting it on my vacations
(been there 2 times already)...
I'm trying to get out of IT, but I've kind of gotten used to the
income, or at least, my mortgage has.
Having a partner helps. My boyfriend does the cooking and house work
and lets me be a nerd when I want. At the moment though, I'm trying to
get him to get a full time job (or more part-time jobs) so that I can
quit IT and get a job with more free time and less stress (and less
income).
Swearing off TV helps. I decided a long time ago that being 'addicted'
to a TV show is a waste of time. I'll watch TV now and then, but I'll
never religiously watch a show. When it comes to time management, I
resent having someone else dictate what I should do and when, including
the TV. (I have a lot of DVDs, though, including TV series- I can watch
them when *I* want).
I just don't do things that don't fulfil me in some way. So housework
and shopping are waaaaaay down the list - although I live alone, so
there comes a point where not doing them is worse than doing them!
I don't worry about scheduling or efficiency - there's just too much
that I want to do and I'll never fit it all in, so I just do whatever
feels most rewarding right now. Whatever doesn't get done obviously
wasn't important enough.
