Scheduling, planning and follow-through. Some questions

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 21, 2014 at 07:44 PM

The thoughtful responses in this thread are Exhibit A for why I value this forum and its members so much.

Having said that, my response here probably isn’t going to add to that evidence much if at all. I have been a terrible time manager all my life. I have finally stopped even worrying about it. I just do what I have to do and that seems to work for the type of jobs I’ve had over the years.

One insight I’ve gained that may be of some value for some people who think like I do (I pity them), is that I’ve also stopped bothering to create task lists. That is because they are almost impossible for me to deal with as I get caught up with how reductionist to get. Every task or project can be sub-divided to absurd levels. Where the line is between meaningful and absurd can be kind of blurry to me. Instead of doing that, I now try to make a list of desired outcomes. As a simple example: If I want to bake a cake for my wife’s birthday, instead of making a list of ingredients, and other steps, I will just make note, “Cake for Amy’s birthday.” As long as I remember that, my brain can manage the rest. As a work-related example, I will just write, “Catalog mailed by end of March.” All the many steps that go into that project, I can manage in my head. Sometimes I make lists of steps if I need to think through the process. But I usually don’t bother creating a check list from that.

I guess the gist of what I’m saying is that I used to spend a lot of time and energy trying to manage my time. This turned out to be counter-productive, absorbing time and creating stress.

Steve Z.