How do you manage your time and priorities as work ebbs and flows during your life as a freelancer? What do you do with your days between big jobs? What portion of your time is spent on paying work, managing your business (taxes, bills, sending invoices, etc.), personal/professional development, trying to find more work, networking, etc.? Do you deal with deluges and droughts, or is your work more steady and consistent, and how much control do you have about this situation? What do you do during lulls? How long did it take you to become comfortable with your workload after you became a freelancer? [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak on Sep 10, 2012 - 5 answers

Time Tracking: So I have this new job where we have to keep track of what we are working on. I have never had to do this before. I want something that will popup every 15 minutes and allow me type a little description and have a timestamp. I'm on a Mac with Lion. [more inside]
posted by sio42 on Jan 25, 2012 - 18 answers

Dear Workaholics, How have you organized your life so that you’re spending maximum time at the office? [more inside]
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear on Jun 19, 2011 - 37 answers

Can anyone recommend a streamlined time tracking app for the iPhone? I'm looking for something that will let me set up a few general categories — desk work, studio work, commute, gym, etc. — and basically lets me pick one and hit a big start/stop button. Export functionality in some way (even dirt-simple) is needed, fancy stuff like invoice generation / project management is not. The goal is to get a rough statistical overview of how I spend my days, not to get obsessive granularity or handle timesheets, so the ideal app would be about two taps to pick a category and start the timer.
posted by sixswitch on Feb 7, 2011 - 2 answers

Can you point me in the direction of materials that indicate how people who would be considered exemplary of their field schedule(d) their time? [more inside]
posted by quadog on Jul 29, 2010 - 5 answers

How can I organize my life when I have no deadlines at all? [more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator on Jul 28, 2010 - 9 answers

I'm starting to exercise some control over my time. Help me make this work. [more inside]
posted by parudox on Mar 13, 2010 - 6 answers

How can I cope with a busy schedule? [more inside]
posted by latch24 on Jan 29, 2009 - 11 answers

I'm trying to get a M.S. in Computer Science, I already have a B.S. in Computer Science. Started last year as a full time student, took a semester off, and now trying to take classes while holding a full time job. My horrible time management skills combined with not knowing how crazy my job gets in August has caused me to do poorly in class. So poorly, that I may be "ineligible to continue graduate study". I'm very de-motivated by the whole situation and wondering what my options are, so I have a couple of questions [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 28, 2007 - 11 answers

What kind of one-day or multi-day session training can I attend to help me improve my time management and organization skills? I need to take this course in the greater Portland, Ore., area. Googling yields a LOT of results, and no easy way to evaluate how good they are. [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak on Oct 11, 2007 - 5 answers

How can I break out of my 27-year-long habit of procrastination? I'm looking for tips to help me mentally as well as specific tools or methods that will help me manage my time better -- especially at work. [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak on Oct 5, 2005 - 35 answers

Ever been so overwhelmed that it paralyzed you? How did figure out what to do first? How did you get it all done? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 24, 2005 - 25 answers

Aside from putting every site I tend to spend too much time on (including this one, shortly) into my hosts file pointing to 127.0.0.1, what are some other good tips on how to stay focused on your work and not get distracted?
posted by Space Coyote on Jan 2, 2004 - 10 answers