That is great if you can do that, Devon. I am jealous. The alarm and lists (yes, there are more than one) help me to be more productive. I rotate my day(s) off, as well, but always try to take at least one day “off” a week.

I work best with large swaths of unstructured time.

I keep track of deadlines and meet them, but I do much better without a structured day — and I can get a HUGE amount of work accomplished without structure — than with it.

The more structured my day is, the more lists, bells, etc. are involved, the more I resent it. And then I start to procrastinate.

I’m glad you found something that works for you, but what works for me is the exact opposite.

I focus, I complete, I move on.

Of course there are bad days, but then I have the option to change things around, take off a few hours, do something that refreshes me.

I have a “floating” day off — I don’t stick to a regularly scheduled non-work day. I see how my week goes and pick my day off as to how my energy and focus are running.

And yes, for the record, I am a full-time freelance writer.

Thanks for the advice, AC. I really should keep track of it. It will be good to know how much I have spent on something, and who knows – I might be happily surprised!

It can be a little disheartening sometimes to see how much time is spent on a given piece – BUT I must say that it’s great motivation to streamline your practices and techniques. I find that when the stopwatch is running, I am less inclined to take phone calls from friends, thus allowing me to stay on task. If the caller ID shows a familiar number, and it’s not one I know I need to talk to, I just let the call roll to voice mail and keep on working.

Thanks for this bit of motivation. I freelance on top of working full-time (the freelance money’s going straight to my upcoming wedding!) so I can relate to the urge to just hang out with my beau and play with the dogs instead of hunkering down. It’s all for a great cause though. Love the Yahoo reminder idea!

WAHMBrenda – That is good willpower. I can’t help myself.

Thanks, Arlette. If only we didn’t have to eat or sleep, right?!?

Forgetful and often purusing 12 or more projects at a time, I am meticulous about note keeping. I may only be actively working on 1-3 projects during any week but it helps not to forget about the other projects.

Hey, thanks for the website. I’ve been trying to move away from roleplaying into novels and other works and this has openned my eyes to a few more possibilities. I’ve made 3 applications in the last couple of days since finding your site. A fellow over on RPGnet mentioned the site.

Mark Charke
http://www.Charke.ca
Thinking Outside the Box

Great timing, eh, Sara?

I hope the alarm can help you, Ern.

AC – I notice the emails I get distract me, as well. When I have an important deadline, I do have to turn them off. I *love* the stopwatch idea to track your hours. I am afraid to add up how long I spend on certain things. I will realize I am getting paid, like 50 cents an hour!! lol

Why thank you, Kimberly.

Those task reminders have saved me a few times from getting to the end of the day and remembering “one more thing” I had to do. I am jealous, Kari. I WISH I could listen to music. It distracts me and I just wanna dance!

That is great discipline, Lori. I check email WAY too much throughout the day.

Bleeding Espresso – wasted time? Who, me?? Billing hours would be great, if I got paid by the hour!! I’ll just have to get me one of those gigs, eh??

It’s great for keeping track of billing hours too (I’m still a lawyer at heart)

An amazingly simple but amazingly useful thing I taught myself to do: I use the stopwatch function on my cell phone to keep track of how long I’ve spent on any given task. I write for a local paper that pays by the hour, so I time my interviews as well as the time I spend writing and editing my articles. My phone also has an alarm function, which takes the place of a timer when I’m out on an interview. I tend to use that function when I’m out doing an interview and I know I have someplace else I need to be at a certain time.