Recently due to the way things have turned out, I decided that i needed to find some self management techniques. The reason for this is simple. I been rather unproductive these days because of unemployment. I know some people who think it would be cool to be able to work on music and spend time with your family every day. That is nice at first but you can’t do it all the time. It’s impossible to write music all day every day and sometimes I get irritated with my family. It just gets worse as time goes on searching for a job that seems to be elusive. Eventually you end up depressing and stressing over the fact (I’ve been reading about choice theory lately)
After about 2 months I started to get really depressed about looking for work. It felt like things kind of came to a stand still. I was just unhappy, easily irritated and generally an unpleasant person. After sitting around a week and not studying japanese I decided that I needed to modify my studying system. Even though I was unmotivated and down, I wanted to get back in the groove of life and start moving forward. There is nothing wrong with feeling down when something bad happens, but don’t stay that way, you have to move forward. It’s only natural to feel a certain way when certain things happen to you.
Just about that time I started looking for a better way to study I came across a blog posting on twitter or facebook by Derek Sivers saying that he was doing the Pomodoro Technique. I went to the website, dowloaded the book and checked it out. It seemed pretty cool. Here’s a quick summary of it. You work or study in 30 minute blocks called a pomodoro after the tomato shaped kitchen timer. 25 minutes of studying/work and a 5 minute break. After 4 consecutive blocks (pomodoros) a longer break like 15-20 minutes. During these breaks you are a supposed to not think about what you were doing. The free book the author gives from his website mentions how to deal with internal and external distractions during your work time. In addition you are supposed to plan your work schedule.
It seemed like a good time management system. I gave it a try and discovered shortly after that it’s not for me. The reason is that there are some external distractions in my life that I cannot ignore or defer until later such as break time or devoting a whole block of time to. Unfortunately as much as I liked it, I couldn’t really use it.
Just as it happened to fail, I came across “Getting things done.” It’s a book/ system by David Allen . I really like the way it works. It’s not about time management but about action management. What I really like about it is that you write everything down so you can get it out of head and focus on things that are important. Also it stresses the importance of planning your actions by breaking it down into it’s smaller components. Most big things are just a bunch of small tasks lined up.
I found that with Getting Things Done, I am less stressed and more productive. Not to sound cliche, I really am getting things done. However I’m still using the Pomodoro Technique. I do need a time management system for when I am able to devote a big block of time to studying. It helps prevent getting burnt out and tired by taking breaks.
All though things in my life seem stagnant, it has become more productive and less stressful.
