The Writer’s Coin

A lot of people complain (and I’m one of them) about not getting enough things done — that’s why there are so many productivity books out there that people scoop up. It all comes down to this: we want to get a lot of things done but we rarely do.

Why is that? Is it because we don’t have enough time? Maybe. I mean, if you’re trying to get your own business off the ground, write a book, hold down a full-time job, freelance on the weekends, and be an active participant in a relationship, you’ve got your hands full.

But for most of us, it’s just bad time-management skills, and that’s why books like Getting Things Done have become so popular. But I’m here to tell you that, if you really want to become more productive and get more things checked off your list, you should give yourself less time to do them.

Huh?

When I was in grad school, I lived the life we all dream of achieving some day: go to class two or three times a week for a couple hours at a time, read my favorite books, work out, eat, hang out with friends, go to the beach, lounge around at a Borders for hours at a time, and worry only about handing in my next assignment on time. I had a LOT of time and only one responsibility: my schoolwork. Towards the end of the program I realized that, once I got a job, I wouldn’t have this kind of free time and that I should take advantage of it. “I should write more,” I told myself. “I should work out every day. I should read more. I should freelance or do something to bring in a little money. I should…”

And so on.

In the end, I got very little done because I had way too much time on my hands (that and I was pretty immature). I could wake up at 10am and decide not to work out because I didn’t feel like it. Instead, I’d watch Jerry Springer or something.

Fast forward a few years and I’m married, I have a full-time job, I write for this blog, I try to write fiction and send it out for publication, I have the occasional freelance job, I’m working out for an Urbanathlon, and I read as much good stuff as I can. What’s the difference? How come I can do all of that now when I couldn’t even go to the gym before?

Now that my calendar is pretty full, I have to figure out when to do certain things and then I have to actually execute. If I don’t, one project might bump into the time slot I have set aside for a different project. Some of these “projects” are of critical importance, like my job. So I can’t fiddle with that. Having a lot on my plate means I get less distracted and actually get stuff done within the time I have allotted for it.

Granted, sometimes I’ll wake up to write fiction, feel lazy, and just work on this blog instead. Other times I have a long run “scheduled” and I’ll wind up going to the gym instead. But in the end, I’m still getting some writing done and I’m still working out. But I’m still getting something done either way.

Anyone else ever feel like the more they HAVE to do, the more stuff eventually gets done?

Tags: Getting Things Done, productivity, Time