How do I adult: time management edition
October 8, 2018 3:32 PM Subscribe
I'm really smart. But I seem to have missed a lot of the "adulting 101" lessons everybody else appears to have a handle on. (I know appearances aren't always realities.) So I ask you, the adultiest adults who ever adulted, how do you manage time? (Snowflakes abound!)
I have health stuff that makes things like time, energy, and cognition limited commodities. I also suffer from pathological overachievement. So even though I know I can't do all the things, I am still driven to do all the things because Adults Do All The Things. (Yes, I am in therapy.)
Other relevant snowflakes: I'm working on being self-employed (I'm working on it, but have no income from it yet). Physical disability curtails a lot of physical movement and physical tasks, but I can do some, to some extent, depending on the day and how many spoons I've used.
I've narrowed activities down into four categories. What percentage of your time do you prefer to, in a perfect world, spend in each category?
First is the home-related activities. Cleaning, maintenance, putting away groceries, organizing the spice rack.
Second is personal activities. Exercise, book club, meditation, mindfulness, hobbies, pets, bathing.
Third is business development. Watching that webinar about the thing, taking the ecourse you signed up for a month ago, learning all the things about SEO, planning out an email funnel.
Fourth is IPAs - Income Producing Activities. Launch your program. Share it on All The Social Medias. Write an ebook. Create your hot new program.
Where do you put your time, and how much of your time goes where?
I have health stuff that makes things like time, energy, and cognition limited commodities. I also suffer from pathological overachievement. So even though I know I can't do all the things, I am still driven to do all the things because Adults Do All The Things. (Yes, I am in therapy.)
Other relevant snowflakes: I'm working on being self-employed (I'm working on it, but have no income from it yet). Physical disability curtails a lot of physical movement and physical tasks, but I can do some, to some extent, depending on the day and how many spoons I've used.
I've narrowed activities down into four categories. What percentage of your time do you prefer to, in a perfect world, spend in each category?
First is the home-related activities. Cleaning, maintenance, putting away groceries, organizing the spice rack.
Second is personal activities. Exercise, book club, meditation, mindfulness, hobbies, pets, bathing.
Third is business development. Watching that webinar about the thing, taking the ecourse you signed up for a month ago, learning all the things about SEO, planning out an email funnel.
Fourth is IPAs - Income Producing Activities. Launch your program. Share it on All The Social Medias. Write an ebook. Create your hot new program.
Where do you put your time, and how much of your time goes where?
Remember Maslow's hierearchy of needs? You need money to pay rent and buy food. You need to eat and sleep.
Organizing the spice rack isn't that important.
Some household stuff can be outsourced if money isn't an object. If it isn't, pay for a cleaner. Get groceries delivered. Pay someone to put away the groceries. Pay someone to cook. Pay someone to do laundry. This isn't an option for many people but there may be times that, especially with your disability, you might be better off paying others to do things.
I'd kindly suggest that getting into good habits about your household adulting is a priority over becoming self-employed. Moreover, self-employment is often very risky and most people would suggest having a good bit of savings to lean on before setting forth on it. Get your food prep and system in order. Make sure that your home is basically clean. Maybe this involves paying others.
Once you're in a good spot, THEN take that online class or whatever.
posted by k8t at 4:39 PM on October 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Organizing the spice rack isn't that important.
Some household stuff can be outsourced if money isn't an object. If it isn't, pay for a cleaner. Get groceries delivered. Pay someone to put away the groceries. Pay someone to cook. Pay someone to do laundry. This isn't an option for many people but there may be times that, especially with your disability, you might be better off paying others to do things.
I'd kindly suggest that getting into good habits about your household adulting is a priority over becoming self-employed. Moreover, self-employment is often very risky and most people would suggest having a good bit of savings to lean on before setting forth on it. Get your food prep and system in order. Make sure that your home is basically clean. Maybe this involves paying others.
Once you're in a good spot, THEN take that online class or whatever.
posted by k8t at 4:39 PM on October 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
For me, column 4, IPA's, is a fixed expense. It's 36 hrs per week, with little variation.
I try to do column 3 during my column 4 time. CE courses, IRL or online; research, networking and so forth. i am fortunate that I can do it this way, but I am self employed, so I wedge these things in to my business day.
Column 2 is what keeps me sane, so it's a much much much bigger priority than column 1, which boils down to "chores", with all the connotations of that word as a given. 2-5 hrs per day. I would include parenting in this column and perhaps stretch the number even further, a;though some parenting is column 1 some days.
I do column 1 on a catch as catch can basis. grocery shopping on the way home from work, clean as I go when i cook, and i outsource some chores like dishes to my teenage son. We share laundry responsibilities. I live in a condo expressly to avoid yard work. 90 mins or less per day.
I have pretty good life/work balance because, in part, I have put a greater emphasis on column 2 than any other.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:53 PM on October 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
I try to do column 3 during my column 4 time. CE courses, IRL or online; research, networking and so forth. i am fortunate that I can do it this way, but I am self employed, so I wedge these things in to my business day.
Column 2 is what keeps me sane, so it's a much much much bigger priority than column 1, which boils down to "chores", with all the connotations of that word as a given. 2-5 hrs per day. I would include parenting in this column and perhaps stretch the number even further, a;though some parenting is column 1 some days.
I do column 1 on a catch as catch can basis. grocery shopping on the way home from work, clean as I go when i cook, and i outsource some chores like dishes to my teenage son. We share laundry responsibilities. I live in a condo expressly to avoid yard work. 90 mins or less per day.
I have pretty good life/work balance because, in part, I have put a greater emphasis on column 2 than any other.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:53 PM on October 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: So sorry, should've mentioned the items I have listed in each grouping are just examples of the types of activities that might fall into those categories. I live with my carers, and haven't so much as set foot in the kitchen since 2016. My income is not essential to the household; bills get paid without me. But my income is helpful to reduce stress. I'm currently bringing in a steady $200-250 a week in click work, but it's killing my hands, so I'm trying to move elsewhere in the self-employed world.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:10 PM on October 8, 2018
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:10 PM on October 8, 2018
With what you have, you should take a page from Dan Sullivan and look at implementing a schedule of 110 free days (midnight to midnight) for rest and relaxation. That gives you 210 days to focus on your entrepreneurship. Divide those days between buffer days, where you prep for work, and focus days, where you are only focusing on your top three money making activities.
posted by parmanparman at 12:42 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by parmanparman at 12:42 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
I do (sort of obsessive) tracking so I can see patterns, because of my own chronic health stuff. I've learned:
- Basically everything goes into my to-do app so I can keep track of it. Stuff with priority gets a date assigned, other things get a 'check these out when you have time' project. This also helps me keep things balanced: my day-job tasks have a project and subprojects, my writing does, my 'maybe a small business' stuff does, my house and medical stuff is a set of projects, etc.
- On a reasonably normal day for me, I have about 5 big tasks in me plus the day's writing (things that take about an hour of effort or focus). On a work day 3-4 of those are at work, and 1 or 2 are at home (or on the way home, errands, doctor appointments, etc.)
- These tasks don't generally include basic self-care stuff (bathing, food, meds and upkeep for medical stuff), but do include more than trivial cleaning (I get a cleaning service monthly for the bigger stuff) or exercise.
- I limit how many times I need to go out and do things besides work, swimming laps, and essential errands (groceries) pretty heavily to one thing during the week, and one thing on the weekend. If I have a doctor's appointment or need to take the car for maintenance, I don't get to do a fun thing.
My breakdown per week is:
- 40 hours a week at work
- 5-8 hours commuting, depending on traffic
- 60-90 minutes swimming or walking (usually 2 swimming sessions, but I often skip if I'm going to be out and walking a lot on the weekend or doing something else physically demanding.)
- 1 hour for errands (groceries, prescriptions, etc.)
- About 7 hours on household stuff (lighter on the weekdays, a bit more on the weekends) for cooking, laundry, dishes, tidying the house, etc.
- 7-10 hours writing
- 2-5 hours on home or data organisational projects (link sorting, book management, etc.)
- 4-7 hours on other projects
- 3-5 hours for religious stuff (small group practice out of my home, online interaction)
- About 20-40 minutes a day reading, depending (I always read before bed, plus whatever other time.)
posted by jenettsilver at 9:14 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
- Basically everything goes into my to-do app so I can keep track of it. Stuff with priority gets a date assigned, other things get a 'check these out when you have time' project. This also helps me keep things balanced: my day-job tasks have a project and subprojects, my writing does, my 'maybe a small business' stuff does, my house and medical stuff is a set of projects, etc.
- On a reasonably normal day for me, I have about 5 big tasks in me plus the day's writing (things that take about an hour of effort or focus). On a work day 3-4 of those are at work, and 1 or 2 are at home (or on the way home, errands, doctor appointments, etc.)
- These tasks don't generally include basic self-care stuff (bathing, food, meds and upkeep for medical stuff), but do include more than trivial cleaning (I get a cleaning service monthly for the bigger stuff) or exercise.
- I limit how many times I need to go out and do things besides work, swimming laps, and essential errands (groceries) pretty heavily to one thing during the week, and one thing on the weekend. If I have a doctor's appointment or need to take the car for maintenance, I don't get to do a fun thing.
My breakdown per week is:
- 40 hours a week at work
- 5-8 hours commuting, depending on traffic
- 60-90 minutes swimming or walking (usually 2 swimming sessions, but I often skip if I'm going to be out and walking a lot on the weekend or doing something else physically demanding.)
- 1 hour for errands (groceries, prescriptions, etc.)
- About 7 hours on household stuff (lighter on the weekdays, a bit more on the weekends) for cooking, laundry, dishes, tidying the house, etc.
- 7-10 hours writing
- 2-5 hours on home or data organisational projects (link sorting, book management, etc.)
- 4-7 hours on other projects
- 3-5 hours for religious stuff (small group practice out of my home, online interaction)
- About 20-40 minutes a day reading, depending (I always read before bed, plus whatever other time.)
posted by jenettsilver at 9:14 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
What is your return on investment on each of these activities?
For example, if you're spending an hour a week on working, and making $250 a presumably working is a pretty high ROI and you should likely spend more time on it.
If you're working 40 hours a week to make that $250, that's another story -- you're making below minimum wage and you probably shouldn't focus on it.
posted by phoenixy at 1:06 PM on October 9, 2018
For example, if you're spending an hour a week on working, and making $250 a presumably working is a pretty high ROI and you should likely spend more time on it.
If you're working 40 hours a week to make that $250, that's another story -- you're making below minimum wage and you probably shouldn't focus on it.
posted by phoenixy at 1:06 PM on October 9, 2018
I only do housework on Sundays. If housework comes up on some other day of the week, I am free to ignore it!
posted by 8603 at 4:14 PM on October 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by 8603 at 4:14 PM on October 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
I try to schedule almost everything on my (google) calendar, which is also sort of my task list. I haven't mastered this, but the most important thing is to be realistic. You might think "send followup email to Jorge" only takes 5 minutes, but it can take 30 if it means looking through your last meeting notes, finding the resource you want to attach, composing the email, looking at your calendar to suggest times for you to meet, etc. For nebulous tasks, identify the first step and set time aside. When that time is up, schedule more time for the next step.
Your calendar might be color coded according to the 4 categories. Mine is color coded for real appointments versus to-do tasks (which I could move if a real appointment were scheduled).
For me, the other component of being realistic is to build in some down time and to give myself some flexibility. I know I want to play with my dog and sit around on the couch for a bit when I get home from work, not do dishes or start the ecourse. If I schedule laundry but don't do it, then I just have to wear that shirt I don't really like, but that's not the end of the world.
I am a procrastinator, so putting things in blocks on my calendar (with my best guess at how long it will actually take me) helps me see how busy I am, which in turn helps me not lie to myself about "oh I'll just do that later" because no, later, I have more/other stuff to do.
posted by kochenta at 1:12 PM on October 10, 2018
Your calendar might be color coded according to the 4 categories. Mine is color coded for real appointments versus to-do tasks (which I could move if a real appointment were scheduled).
For me, the other component of being realistic is to build in some down time and to give myself some flexibility. I know I want to play with my dog and sit around on the couch for a bit when I get home from work, not do dishes or start the ecourse. If I schedule laundry but don't do it, then I just have to wear that shirt I don't really like, but that's not the end of the world.
I am a procrastinator, so putting things in blocks on my calendar (with my best guess at how long it will actually take me) helps me see how busy I am, which in turn helps me not lie to myself about "oh I'll just do that later" because no, later, I have more/other stuff to do.
posted by kochenta at 1:12 PM on October 10, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
This is all about you and your priorities and preferences. If you were/are filthy rich, your IPAs would likely take a back seat to your personal activities. You could hire someone to do a lot of your home activities.
Your priorities are especially important as the spoon theory details how you have to make choices about limited resources. Personal growth is probably everyone's goal, but if you need to have income to put food on the table, you prioritize to IPAs first. I don't think this is about adulting as much as recognizing your limited number of spoons and putting them in an order that works for you.
posted by AugustWest at 4:35 PM on October 8, 2018 [3 favorites]