May 6, 2010

Struggling for Productivity

Like a lot of folks, I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. With a home to maintain, two girls to raise, a book I'm writing, a freelance PR project, and two blogs, it's easy to get nothing of use done while trying to juggle them all.

I've tried dividing my day into segments where I work on housework in the morning and late afternoons and try to cram all my computer work in while the girls are napping. That works well for the housework most of the time and making sure the girls get the attention they need, but it's not so good for my computer based projects. I've tried dividing my week where I concentrate on housework one day, the blogs on another, and so on. This didn't really work at all. The housework piled up throughout the week, and I only made progress on the computer work while the girls were napping. I'm hoping the trick is in balancing the two.

With a toddler and a preschooler, I cannot count on getting any concentration dependent work done while they are awake, even if I station myself in the living room or at the kitchen table. More than five minutes together without interruption is rare most days, but this doesn't seem to bother housework much, unless it's cooking. So I'll keep using the time before and after the girls naps to tend to the house, workouts, errands, and all around being a stay-at-home-mom. For now, I will have to be content doing my work in the two or three hours a day when the girls are asleep while I'm awake. I'll divide my week by project, concentrating on each one for a day or two at a time instead of trying to do a bit of each every day.

For now I'll be compiling and queuing up blog posts for the coming week on Saturday and Sunday. I'll work on "The Cookbook" on Monday and Tuesday, work on the PR project on Wednesday, practice my fiction skills on Thursday, and Fridays will be reserved for anything that's lacking. I'll let you know how it goes.

Any of you out there have multiple project juggling skills to share? I'm all ears.

* Photo is courtesy of Microsoft Clipart.

1 comment:

  1. So far, so good. All this week's posts were written and scheduled by Sunday night, I've gotten more work done on the "Cookbook" than I have in weeks, and I finished off the last touches on the PR client's new website yesterday. I'm looking forward to returning to fiction for the day, though.

    ReplyDelete