by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas
We’ve had some discussions about time recently. Brother Gilstrap opined about making time for the things that count. Garry laid out a grid of 100 10-minute blocks. Heck, Kay has a whole cozy series centered around time.
Just thinking about time takes time! The trick is not to go crazy about it.
Reminds me of some Dad Jokes:
Why did the woman put a clock under her desk? She wanted to work overtime.
Why shouldn’t you tell secrets when a clock is around? Because time will tell.
What does a wall clock do after it stops ticking? It hangs around.
Ba-dump-bump.
All seriousness aside, I’ve been a lifelong learner about what we call “time management.” There are tons of books out there on the subject, my favorite being the classic How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein.
To me, it all boils down to deciding what you want to do and then prioritizing the list.
I’ve used the A-B-C method. You look at your list and mark all the “must do” tasks with an A, the “want to do” tasks with B, and the “can wait” tasks with C.
Then you prioritize each letter with a number. Thus, A-1 becomes the first thing you tackle, followed by A-2 and so on. If you have time, you start on the Bs. Usually you don’t do anything with the Cs, until they move up to a B or an A.
I find taking a few minutes each morning to write a fresh list extremely helpful.
The other day I was thinking about time again because, well, the sands of time run on and our allotment gets a little less each day. Yet the things I want to do seem to keep expanding. The bucket for my list is a twelve-pound drum.
Pondering the possibilities can be overwhelming. I am reminded of the Donald Fagin song lyric: But tell me what’s to be done, Lord/’bout the weather in my head?
It’s like the static and program bits you hear as you keep changing the channels on a radio.
And that’s when an idea hit me. I needed to find the right station.
So I formed KDRI.
That stands for four columns: Know, Do, Read, Ideas.
Under K, I began to list the things I want know more about. It includes subjects like Alexander the Great, The Mongol Empire, George Orwell, Vikings, and secrets of the grill masters.
The Do list is all my tasks, with writing as top priority. I list here my WIP, my WIP-to-come, Substack posts, blog posts, and miscellaneous other projects. Then there are things I want to do and places I want to go.
Read is for the books and long articles I want to get to. A few of the titles on my TBR list are: Musk by Walter Isaacson, the autobiography of Jim Murray, Jerry West by Roland Lazenby, Nicholas Nickleby, The Raymond Chandler Papers, and The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories.
Ideas is for my creativity time, capturing ideas for later sorting The best way to get good ideas is to come up with lots of ideas, assess, and throw the weak ones out. Mostly these are story ideas that I’ll look at for further development.
Each day I look at the columns and write my priority list, as described above. (And I do mean writing, with a pen on a piece of paper. There’s something empowering about doing so.)
I include exercise time, eating time, a power nap, and leave some time for discretionary goofing around. I start early and go till about 4 p.m. The rest of the day is wife time: dinner, maybe a movie, maybe play a game, or just talk. Of course, that’s subject to change if we have friends over, go out, or life tosses in one of its many intrusions.
Sunday is a day of rest. I usually try to catch up on my reading.
I’m mindful of not getting too obsessive over this. As Sue said in her comment on John’s post, “Balance is key. I learned that lesson the hard way.”
But I also know that a few minutes of planning can pay off in productive dividends.
So next time the static is getting you down, try tuning in to KDRI. It’s free!
What are some things you have in your KDRI columns?
Thanks, James!
Finally! Someone else who loves “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life,” by Alan Lakein.
He got me through a long drawn out PhD thesis – every Saturday while working full time and trying to write about my data from the Wisconsin Levitated Octupole, I’d allow myself one way to procrastinate: read Lakein’s book, after deciding whether the darn thing was more Unpleasant that day, or more Overwhelming.
Then I’d read through his tips for dealing with that kind of procrastination problem until one of his little vignettes sounded doable, put the book down, and get to work. It never failed me, I got the thing written, went back to Madison and defended it, and moved on with my adult life.
I still glance at the summary sheet with all the tips taped to my clipboard whenever I need it.
Procrastination is like Depression – it lies. You are NOT stuck. There are ways out of the maze.That thesis was in 1978.
Now I use it for my writing.
Great to hear from another Laekin fan, Alicia. Those principles really hold up.
I was going to write something about procrastinationi, too, but I put it off until later.
🙂 🙂 🙂
The toughest thing about time management is not having the same energy you did when you were younger. As a result, it feels like the to-do list has gotten huge and the 24 hours have shrunk.
I suspect the KDRI method would depress me. The KNOW/READ columns in particular would be permanently huge. I’ve got 4-5 thick tomes I want to read about a particular time period in history I want to write about, plus I need to find resource material about specific events and persons. I never run out of stuff I want to know/read to help with my writing.
DO Column: This one I should focus on to keep myself sorted out as I’m now at the stage of life where it isn’t just about the actual writing but the business of writing–and I’m finding there are a billion details involved.
IDEAS: For this I already keep a running list.
The biggest time management hurdle for me aside from lack of time is lack of large CHUNKS of time. I like good long chunks of time to dig in and get creative but that just isn’t compatible with my life. So within the last week I’ve given myself a ‘talking to’ and decided even if all I have is 30 minutes a day at lunch break, do some writing or brainstorming.
For motivation, silly as it sounds, I set up a google document and in it, create table representing a calendar for that month, and each day, I write down what creative thing I accomplished during that short lunch break and highlight it in green to show myself that I moved forward a step with my goals. Oddly, I have found it satisfactory to look at that week of green fill ins showing me that I accomplished the task I set out to do. It’s super-slow going working in 30 minute chunks but it’s better than no progress at all.
Writing in “chunks” I call “snatching time.” I used to take my AlphaSmart with me to places I’d have to wait. But poor, loyal Alpha started showing its age. Now I take my Macally keyboard which has a “trough” to hold my phone, so I can work in Google Docs.
I’m wondering where the grocery shopping, cooking, dealing with interruptions, both via phone and electronics, laundry, errands, etc., fit in.
My list would be something like, “Do Stuff, then Do More Stuff.”
One thing: don’t answer the phone, esp. when you’re writing. I figure if it’s important there’ll be a voicemale and I can check it out later. I have special ringtones for the family, so I’ll always answer those calls. Well, almost always. 😉
Jim, you’ve mentioned power naps over the years. Naps and reading used to be way down on my priority list b/c they seemed like guilty pleasures. They were rewards only to be enjoyed after a long day of hard work. Of course, by that time, I’d fall asleep.
Now I realize, even though I remained sitting at the computer, I was actually wasting hours b/c I was too tired and frazzled to concentrate.
I’m starting to take time for an afternoon nap or reading. Afterward, I’m refreshed, energized with a second wind, and actually accomplish more meaningful work than if I’d stayed at the computer spinning my wheels.
Thanks to you, I’ve moved naps into the A column.
When I was practicing law and needed to be sharp in the afternoon, I’d shut the door, have calls held, turn out the lights, put my feet on the desk and lean back in my chair, and sleep for 20 mins. It took a few weeks, but my body caught on. I’ve found if I go longer, I get a little groggy.
I have never been able to do power naps. Whenever I take a nap, it always lasts from 1-3 hours. I do sometimes doze off at my desk, but that doesn’t count because when I wake up, I lie down and take a longer nap. I think it’s because I don’t sleep well at night.
Good morning, Jim, and thanks for the shoutout. Planning what to do with this valuable gift of time helps us spend it more wisely.
I like your idea of a KDRI. I write a weekly to-do list at the beginning of each week, and I have separate docs for overall goals, books to read this year, and ideas. But I haven’t tracked topics I want to know more about. I’m going to add that to the mix.
Thanks for the idea. Have a great week.
Right on, Kay. Planning for the week is an excellent practice.
Great ideas, Jim.
Something that has helped me recently is having different categories on separate days. I’m facing an impossible clean-up job of the family farm, and it’s felt totally overwhelming. I finally came up with categories of work for different days: Mornings are for writing. Mon/Wed/Fri afternoons are for farm cleanup. Tues/Thur/Sat/Sun afternoons are for maintenance and shop work.
Things may change over time, but at least the system is helping preserve my sanity. Those around me may disagree with the previous sentence.
Have a great week!
Good added tip, Steve.
And as for insanity, eye of the beholder. Who wants to be normal and dull?
Count me in for Station KDRI, Jim! I love the idea. Frankly, my time management is something I’d like to improve and this looks to be a great approach.
Knowledge: Currently that includes 1980s espionage gear, chess, the Soviet Union, the Moon, variable stars, one-dish meals, chair yoga (useful while recovering from a foot injury).
Do: First and foremost that’s Meg Booker Librarian mystery #3, followed by blog posts, and of course, more KZB posts, both WoW and original ones. Then there’s decluttering, getting back to the gym after the foot injury, and some travel.
Read: Several Writer’s Digest books on crime from the early 1990s, two books on variable stars, a stack of cozy mysteries and also historical mysteries
Ideas: ideas for two spin off series, a 19th century historical mystery, a cozy science fiction mystery series, and a couple of historical mystery short stories.
Ah, chess! In my acting days I used to love to visit an actor friend of mine, and we’d spend a few hours…hours!…playing chess. Man, I miss having that kind of time. There is computer chess, but it doesn’t drink beer. Just not the same.
Great stuff here, Jim.
Know: I have a weird brain that wants to know inconsequentials, like “why do monarch butterflies lay their eggs almost exclusively on milkweed plants?” Really? There are other weird questions humming in my head, and some of them have found their way into a few stories. I’ve always been curious about stuff.
Do: I have a daily planner I print out for each month, each week on one page. This is where I put my to-do list, which includes life stuff and author stuff. And, where I jot down . . .
Ideas: Like, ideas for TKZ Reader Friday posts, scene ideas for my current WIP, other writing assignments I’ve taken on, etc.
Read: I know, it’s out of order, but sometimes things get out of order in life. My TBR pile includes finishing the LOTR trilogy, finishing Debbie Burke’s Tawny Lindholm series, and a couple of books I’m using for research for my next novel . . . maybe! Then, there are about 10 other books waiting in line in my office.
And I’m with Debbie on naps. This year and last year, I’ve kept a schedule of starting early and knocking off about 2:00 to read and maybe get some shuteye. But somewhere in there, I fit in a visit to my Dad 3 days a week, walks with the man and the dog, and shopping for grub, etc. Gotta have a life…
It’s a bit convoluted, but it works. Happy Sunday to y’all!
LOL, I’ve tried a few times to finish LOTR, but I can’t make it past all the singing and trees. This, I accept, is my flaw, not Tolkien’s. I do love the movies, however, though I usually fast forward during Part II. Too many Orcs!
I’ve taken naps religiously since I was 21 and getting up at 4 a.m. Now I take them to restart my day. Even though I eat low-carb, I still get sleepy after lunch and that’s when I take a timed 23-minute nap. (The 3 minutes is to get settled. lol)
Right now I’m sitting in a hospital room with a friend for a few days, weeks, who knows… so I will get caught up on my reading and hopefully my manuscript!
23 minutes exactly? Love it!
Hospital duty. That’s an honorable use of time. Godspeed.
Early in my career, I read Jeffery Mayer’s book, “If You Haven’t Got the Time to do it Right, When Will You Find Time to do it Over?” I still practice some of the things I learned in it. I have a journal that I call my “To-do Book” rather than a to-do list. I write everything in it that I can. Things to do. Ideas. Reminders…KDRI stuff.
Each morning, I review it and note the things I need to do that day. Sometimes I write them on a post-it note. I’ve learned that if I put more than 5 or 6 things on a post-it note that’s enough. With interruptions, meetings, spontaneous calls and conversations, I usually feel good about my day if I can cross everything off the post-it note.
I agree. It’s so satisfying to cross out line items.
KDRI is a fantastic idea, Jim! I have a to-do list on my phone that sends me reminders, but I’m an avid note-taker with paper and pen for story ideas. Never considered rating the to-do list by priority and writing by hand for that, as well. Think I’ll adopt that method. Thanks!
Glad to help, Sue!