I am not very good at time management, but who is?
A 30-minute job can be done in a span of 3 hours, but this is not ideal. There are several reasons for this. One problem is that a 30-minute job spread out over 3 hours is an obvious waste of time. But more importantly, it creates bad habits.
When we only need a short span of time but we spread it out over a long period, it creates temptations. One temptation is to divide attention, which is easy since the task needs only a little attention.
Distractions are a huge issue for me. I have found a small army of apps that help me keep the distractions down. But it still takes effort. None of these are silver bullets. You have to be diligent.
Here's the list:
- Be Focused - A variation on the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.
- Momentum - Chrome extension to keep you focused when you open a new tab.
- f.lux - This app will change the color of your screen when it gets dark. It will also remind you about how much time you'll have if you go to sleep right when the notification pops up.
- Uptime Robot - Offers a bunch of tools to monitor servers. Includes an RSS feed. I can point it at the servers I want to monitor, then forget it and only deal with problems if they happen.
- RSS Bot - A simple tool to watch the most important RSS feeds. I use it to keep track of server uptimes and other things. It's a great tool to keep you from checking web sites for activity.
- ARQ Backup - Having a good backup solution is like giving your future self a gift of saved time.
- Quicksilver - A way better version of Spotlight.
- DaisyDisk - The best way to visualize how you've made a mess of your hard drive.
Don't forget the time you spend finding the chart to look up what you save. And the time spent reading this reminder about the time spent. And the time trying to figure out if either of those actually make sense. Remember, every second counts toward your life total, including these right now.