Even with the best intentions, to-do lists haven’t been cutting it for me lately. The main reason is because, well, I haven’t been making them. Yah, I know, putting pen to paper is super super hard Adele. What can I say, I can be my own worst enemy at times.
Rather than succumb to my procrastinating ways, I enlisted help. A project manager if you will. And that PM my friends is my oven timer. Yup, you heard correctly, I’m managing my time via my oven. Have your giggle for a second and then keep reading.
I’m sure I’m not the only one that lets life and household chores slip to the wayside. Well, now my oven is reminding me to just get them done rather than scramble at the end of the day. I’ve said before that a messy/disorganized environment crosses over into my thinking, yet quite often, I still surround myself in the messiness and disorganization. See, told you I could be my own worst enemy. Anyway, let me tell you – this method works!
Sure, I’ve only been doing it for the morning, but in 4 short hours my increase in productivity and focus is very noticeable*. Knowing that I have 15-60 minutes (this is the min/max minutes I have for each block of time), my focus is more driven and distractions are less attractive. Oh, and trust me, when the beep goes off, you know. Oh yes… you know. You can’t just close your notebook on your to-do list or exit a computer reminder. You’re getting up to turn that damp beeper off!
And if you think you’ll walk away and sit right back down to work – you won’t – because a little tingle of guilt will eat at you and before you know it, that small task is done. Let the pats on the back commence.
Now please excuse me, I have 15 more minutes before Sergeant Oven reminds me to make the bed.
What about you? Have you enlisted any creative methods to manage your time/procrastination?
*A prime example is this blog post. I can sometimes spend far too long putting together a post and then even more time searching for the right photograph. However, knowing I was on a time constraint (I work best under pressure) I whipped out this post in under 20 minutes.
Photo Credit: csiknor
Pretty good post. I just came by your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
great thought! I’m seriously going to have to try that. It’s the little tasks and checking of email that eats up the day.
Hahahaha, I LOVE your idea! Hope it keeps working! I should really do something similar…
Also, I love oven-timers like the one in the photo, I know it’s silly but I’m the kind of person who likes to follow a recipe to the word and they are perfect companions for that!
I love the idea of the oven timer – I use it for the purpose of time outs and deadlines for the kiddies, but have never thought to use it for myself.
I think I may put it into use for managing my computer time.. I sit down for 5 and sometimes only leave it after an hour.
Thanks for sharing!
Tara
Congrats on the time management!
I was actually considering buying myself an alarm clock to put in my office… because it seems that when I come home from work — I then work from home and can’t seem to stop sitting in front of my home computer at a reasonable time so as to go to bed. I’ve gotten 5 hours of sleep one too many times recently. It’s no good to wake up tired!