Tag Archives: time management

Posted on by

Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 2 – 02 Aug 18 – FOMO?

Hello….

Day 1 has come and gone. I created the graphic above from a gif I came across last night, here. It ironically was timely, and since I like black and white iPhone lock screens, there you have it. It will be my lockscreen for the rest of the month. Now, have I totally disappeared from the network? No, I’m still posting my 100 Days of Code progress and these posts to Twitter, but gone is the activity of hanging out on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I made no major announcement of unplugging, save a public one to the Apple Watch Fitness Fans Facebook group. I have been a very active admin there and was convinced by two members I privately let know about this jump off, that I should tell the group. Other than that, i told the admins of two other Facebook groups I co-admin. Frankly, in general, I think people rarely care if you decide to take a break from social media or not. They are too busy involved with their social media feeds, and other things to notice…most of the time, anyway,

Today was a good day at work with respect to not missing scrolling social media. Had a brief, but good text dialog with DK today on how we are both doing on this sabbatical. With only one official day in, I’m already seeing how much ‘attention residue’ occurs from constantly stopping to check social media throughout the day, even for a few seconds (whether it’s the phone or via other media). I also realized that this habit is not just relegated to the convenience of a mobile device, but to the computer as well, seeing as though most of us are connected to the internet at work.

I was interested to see how soon I’d have withdrawal symptoms from being off of FB and IG….so far, none. The lack thereof (of withdrawal symptoms and not being on these two sites) is telling because it’s showing me, already, that it’s not as necessary as I thought (or subconsciously felt) it was. That said, once the true realization sets in (I’m being realistic in that it’s barely been two days in), I then have to realize how I will truly use the freed ip time to for the better. I’m slowy assessing it, not in what I will use it for but how I will get in the habit of basing my after work time to do so. After all, this whole thing, in the end, is about using time more wisely and productively. Using time not from a productivity gain approach but from an overall value gain approach.

Thanks for the read….I’m out.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Doug

Now Playing…

Posted on by

A DDO Realized (An experiment in virtual abstinence)

Hello Readers…

I hope all is well with you. and that your Memorial Day will be or was spent, to some extent, doing what the holiday was created for – in memory of the men and women in our armed forces. Those that are currently serving and have served for us in all capacities.

Well, it came to fruition this weekend, an experiment I’d been wanting to conduct for about a month now. Yes, the DDO (dedicated day offline) happened yesterday. There are a few of you that I had mentioned this concept to in the last month. I had two particular conversations with Deb Lee, @dallisonlee, professional organizer, on this topic (some of you may know I’ve been a contributing author to her Organize To Revitalize blog on the subject of my adventures in time management and the technology that can aid it). I initially called it a “Digital Day Off”, but thought the term was too broad, broad enough that it would have to included most, if not all, things digital (video games (though I’m not a gamer)), the use of mobile phones, HDTV, etc). My reason for conducting this exercise of “virtual abstinence” was to assess the amount of time I do spend online and how much of it, spent doing certain activities (largely related to social networking), is actually robbing me of time better spent reaching goals. Interestingly enough, the day I had the conversation with Deb, this article appeared in The Post.

My first foray into social networking came back in 2000 via membership to Blackplanet. I actually joined by way of helping a coworker design her site page. I was then that I began to learn the basics of website design (within the HTML code constraints for what Blackplanet would allow). After getting a taste of social networking there, it was basically onto Myspace and Yahoo 360, Vox, blogging from my own website, various IM clients (AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger), then Twitter, and finally FB (the latter I’ve since left about two weekends ago). Along with the social networking, I always used the net for two basic things – work, and as a learning tool for basically five areas of interest – music production, technology, photography, financial literacy, and web design. Let’s now add the mobile web, and there you have it, a communications medium, now in the palm of your hand, deeply woven into the course of our everyday lives. A communications medium, whose benefits (as well as its negative aspects) range far and wide Looking over the last 10 years of being a regular passenger on the information highway, but growing up through college my first two years of college WITHOUT the internet (fancy that, huh?), I began to remember what life was like without it, and how I spent my time without it. While I can only speak for myself, my assessment was that more time was wasted on the info highway than not. This assessment caused me to purposely conduct the experiment during a normal day – not a day or timeframe where I would be away from the net for whatever reasons (vacation, family visits, etc), but during a time where it was always a mouse click (or similar) away. It created a great challenge in overcoming the temptation to connect. As inferred above, it was done as a matter of habit assessment more than anything else, but the correlation to time management is there. In looking back on my regular online activities, I saw that I could have altered them to achieve what always seems more impossible than not (with my busy schedule) – knocking tasks off my to-do list. Was a DDO really necessary to make this assessment of time management? No, I could have just decided to allot only a certain amount of time online of every aspect of my online daily routines (which probably could have been easier).

The outcome of the experiment allowed me to use a good part of my regular online time time to improve my financial budgeting/investment literacy and revamp a financial improvement SPD (systematic plan of development) for savings, investing, debt reduction and retirement . I also got a great nap in during the early hours of the afternoon ;-). In retrospect, it made assess the extent of my habitual behavior and constant temptation to be “connected”. I won’t say that all possess it to an extent (my wife is a good example of one who spends very little time on the internet – but get rid of the TVs in the house and …never mind…you see the point I am generally illustrating – 🙂 ).

Now that I’ve taken my first DDO, purposely, I feel it’ll be something that I’ll regularly do, maybe more than just once a week. Curbing time daily spent online is, of course, something to throw into the mix as well, but it wasn’t until today that I really see how a forced day off (for me) is beneficial. The time is currently 11:44 EST, and this DDO will officially be over in less than 16 mins, but I’ve learned some valuable things on a personal level. That’s always a good thing. Back to the SPD. Forget the government, I want to create a stimulus package for my own economic situation.

peace.
F!

Posted on by

Time Management – The Elusive Continuum

It’s about 11:05 am on the night of the Presidential Inauguration. I took off from work today to take in the events and festivities from home. It was a very good day, historic to say the least. I’m determined to be in bed not to long from now, but wanted to finally get around to completing this post. The topic is one I thought of doing for some time, but have been only mildly energized to do so…until now…mainly due to a question posed to me from a follower on Twitter. One day last week, he posed this question to me:

How do you balance a real job and music career? I’m supposed to audition Tuesday and am thinking of bagging it due to no time!

That question…is one I constantly ask myself as time goes by. I often wonder, simultaneously, get the things done I do…and at the same time, fail to get things done as well (strange huh?). I have a to-do list to do everyday. I keep one because it is the only way I can ever get things done. There have been days where I havent accomplished a thing on that list (I’m sure I am not alone), but suffice it to say, I’m one of those people that can not operate without a daily to do list.

The music career my friend speaks of amounts my musical world – weekly podcaster (as u know), working on a CD project with my partner, playing in a band, being a musician for various music ministries in my church, writing my own material, doing recording session work for other artists as asked, and working on my own material for a future solo release. Add to that fatherhood, husbandhood, Parent/Teacher school board member and a demanding day job and….enuff said, huh?

There are many books written on time management none of which I read. I even wrote a paper on time management as my first ever assignment as a young engineer, my first job as an engineer in my mid-20s. My boss at the time was very impressed on the paper, as well as my presentation of it to my peers and suboardinates. So….(I laugh still), why does it seem so difficult to manage my time. For me, I’ve come to realize it has to do solely with steadfastness and habit, along with the continual dissipation of the sin I call procrastination (LOL). Procrastination is a thorn I have not yet withdrawn from my side, but glad to say I am making strides to realize it’s removal. Since I have always, and still do, enjoy my solitude, gaining it on the regular (even a lil bit), has become incentive to get done what I set to every day. I’ve learned to adopt the mindset try and stick to a to-do list as best as I can…the realization of crossing things of that list regularly is also incentive. Another important aspect is to truly prioritize items. I try to forecast larger things that need to be done, and break them down into smaller items to manage easier. Basically, that is the approach I take to best manage the time I have. It’s been said that each of us get the same amount of time…24 hours in a day….sure doesn’t seem like it at times 🙂

In any event, to my Twitter friend, I hope that helps. Schedule/to-do list/steadfastness. I know that you desire to make time in your life for more creative pursuits. Try these few things I’ve mentioned, if you haven’t already and let me know if they work for you….maybe you can teach me some things along the way….I’m game!

peace…
Fresh!