COMMENTS
Routines are great. Except when you are a girl and you go for a run at the same time every day and there is a serial rapist waiting for you in the bushes. I digress. In all seriousness, do you suggest taking it a step further and actually blocking it out in time intervals in your calendar? I have been trying to get better at this, but am curious to know if it actually works. Probably just a personal issue. Maybe you should write an article on how to efficiently block out time? There ya go...
Thx.
Heather, the military taught us to take a different route to the base every day so we'd lessen our chances of being a target, so the same could apply to that runner. But now I digress. ;-D
I absolutely agree with this, it's a great strategy- especially if one works from one's own home as I do. Distractions at a home-based office or studio can overcome you very easily if you let them.
Blocking out time is very effective, at least for me. It keeps me on track and on schedule, and helps me maximize use of my time. Without a routine it's easy to postpone things, and then little tasks quickly grow into big ones, lessening my chances of success and reducing such things as email enquiries becoming clients.
I keep my social marketing and client communication mainly to mornings, as I've found I'm most effective in this area at this time. Afternoons are reserved for studio time, with quick checks on messages when I'm waiting for paint to dry. I need a lot of improvement in blogging and website updates however. I'm sure it's a matter of better discipline and slotting a specific time dedicated to those areas.
If you'd like to keep track of your repetitive tasks you can use the Checklists feature from:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com It will create a series of checkboxes for each day, and you check them off one by one.
And it's available on the mobile phone too, so you can access them wherever you are.