OK. The newsletter is coming out a day late this week–Thursday instead of Wednesday–despite all our good intentions and early workings. I thought I had a solid first draft of the article completed before the weekend. Apparently a foolish belief after my conversation with Lance about it. Don’t get me wrong–it wasn’t bad per se–he just helped me see that it was almost 3 articles in one and that it’d behoove me to separate them out. I did and am grateful for his observation on this.

So why didn’t I work on it over the weekend? Well, I’ll tell ya. 2 bridesmaids and myself, the MOH (”Maiden of Honor” for those not in the know of wedding acronyms), were busy throwing a bridal shower for my sister who will marry an altogether great guy next month. [side note: he works at Google. I still haven't received a call from one of the 400 recruiters. We'll see if that changes after they tie the knot. End side note.] The three of us (2 bridesmaids and a MOH) divided up the duties–shouldn’t be too much, right?

My part was the food. I was thrilled to end up with this part because decorations aren’t really my thing and I preferred to work really hard all at once instead of a little for a long period of time (say, doing the invitations/RSVPs). I had all day Friday to finish the shopping, make 7 quiches, assemble 40 fruit skewers, and generally prepare everything else.

Typical time management bogey: I underestimated prep time and logistics. Who’d have thought I’d need to go to 4 different stores for all the ingredients? Granted, I probably went to #4 needlessly. I couldn’t find the right pie crust in #3, and by the time I did find it in #4, I realized that I didn’t look in the right place in #3. [roll out pie crust is by the pre-made Pillsbury cookie and biscuit dough, and not in the frozen section with the other pie-shells in tin pie plates. Who knew?]

The other unexpected time drain was the logistics of food refrigeration. I hadn’t quite realized how much frig space food for 25 people would require. I had a mostly empty “2nd fridge” available at the shower host’s home and one shelf of space at the bridesmaids house where I’d be doing the food prep, i.e. they were about a mile apart. Between moving, shuffling, and driving between the 2 frig’s quite a bit of time slipped by.

Then there was the issue of my laptop power supply getting knocked off the desk on which it was perched. Gave up the ghost, it did, with that fall. The thought of a dead 2nd brain due to lack of electrical juice caused a “minor” flurry of activity. Thank goodness we were in the Bay Area, i.e. tech civilization. There’s an Apple store right around just about every corner. In my neck of the woods, the nearest store is a good hour’s drive.

Which is all to say that Friday got away from me. Didn’t start making the quiches (2 quiche lorraine (#2 from this page), 2 carmelized onion & gorgonzola, 3 southwest) until about 9pm. Back home on Sunday, I told a friend that I was up until 3am making quiche and skewering fruit for the luncheon. She laughed and said that if it wasn’t for my sister’s shower she’d have teased me mercilessly for pulling an all-nighter.

The luncheon turned out lovely, my sister played a very successful “Nearly Wed Game” (where she had to guess the answers to questions that were previously asked to the groom-to-be), the weather cooperated beautifully, and all the women seemed to have a good time. Yay!

It is now Thursday and I feel like I have finally recovered from the weekend. This plus the fact that Lance, my fabulous newsletter co-editor, is currently dealing with more than a handful in the Life department made it clear that completing the newsletter on Wednesday just wasn’t going to happen.

The meandering ends here. Essential simplification tactic: go with the flow. We didn’t worry about the newsletter being a day late, all things considered, and I trust you didn’t either. :)

I was happy to find this no-cost printable calendar resource: Free Printable Calendars - Download monthly and yearly calendars in PDF format.

Vertex 42 makes other Excel templates as well. I haven’t checked any out yet, but being the Excel geek that I am, I’ll definitely see what they have.

This tip originally appeared in The Simplifier #8.

If you frequently start your day off with a bang, jumping into all the things you need to do, and end the day frazzled and wondering “what just happened?”, then review your daily schedule the night before.

The key here is separating Planning Time from Doing Time. Reviewing your schedule is a Planning Time activity. You review your goals for the week, identify priorities, and considering your scheduled appointments, develop a sense of when you will work on your goals.Then you jump into your day with direction. You aren’t just doing, you are Doing activities that support your goals. At the end of the day, you get the satisfaction of having made progress on your goals.

This tip was originally published in The Simplifier #31.

In a nutshell: Check out Getting Things Done.

Outside the nutshell: To complement the article, I wanted a practical, easy-to-use tip that would directly facilitate simplifying. The one I thought of was identifying the next action for any projects or ToDos that are floating around your head or workspace unfinished. However, just identifying the next action isn’t as powerful as sandwiching it in a comprehensive system.

Enter the “Getting Things Done” workflow management system (simply laid out in a book of the same name). Developed by the primary advocate of Next Actions, David Allen, this system aims to be an air-tight capture system of your responsibilities. The general premise is to free your mind of tracking unfinished business so you can better enjoy your life and get things done.

The system is easy to use. I’ve found it does provide relief to my over-active mind that would otherwise wonder what happened with this, that, or the other piece of information. Interestingly, it has achieved something akin to a cult-like following, including major online support forums and numerous blogs unconnected with Allen’s site.

The only grain of salt I’ll sprinkle on the Getting Things Done system is the awareness that it’s a workflow management system, not a motivational system. Nor does it assist you in incorporating your values into your workflow. This means that you continue to take responsibility for ensuring your work reflects what you want to be doing.

For more info, check out this CNN article on David Allen.

I like to get out of my office and work/write in cafes. Laptop in front of me, the music & voices around me become a lively backdrop for writing and thinking. However, working in a café in a small town is practically inviting conversation–and really, I do come here to work :)

This morning I saw someone in the café who is in one of my workshops. He was barely willing to say hello to me! “It’s your writing time—I don’t want to interrupt!” I appreciated his sensitivity and realized that I hadn’t emphasized the fact that it’s my responsibility to protect my work time (when working in a public place). Besides, maybe I’d like a break and would like to talk! Or perhaps we had a few things to discuss that take priority to what I was currently working on.

It’s my job to be clear on what my priorities and to convey, gracefully, if it isn’t time for me to chit-chat. I can say, “I’m in the middle of a project.” Or if it looks like he has something to discuss, “can I call you later to talk about that?”

What makes this easy is having a phrase or two that you are comfortable saying, for ex. the ones I just mentioned.

And when you see a friend or acquaintance working in a public place, be sensitive to whether they look like they are wanting to converse or continue on their task at hand!

How many time have you geared up to work on an important project…. and then someone walks in and starts chatting? Do you ask them to leave? Why aren’t they reading your body language? Maybe you are actually glad for the distraction?

Here is a page of easy to use tips to keep distractions, of the people variety, to a minimum when trying to get your work done. It’s from the website GetMoreDone.com.

I particularly like the 5th one in the first section:
“Inform co-workers or subordinates that you generally like to come in at perhaps 8:00 am, and work on your own until 9:30 am. Only then do you accept meetings.”

By setting a policy like this you are encouraging discipline in yourself and providing a great example for your colleagues. It shows you are taking your work seriously and recognize that some times are good for collaboration and some are not.

These techniques can be used to protect your personal Daily Time sessions as well.

Hello, hello! Posting has been few and far between these last few weeks. The timing seems to correspond with a major schedule shift experiment, namely, get up at 4:30-5am and go to bed by 9:30-10pm.

The early morning hours are mine for yoga, meditation, shower, breakfast, and some writing/planning time. Then it’s time for everybody else by about 8:30am.

While it’s been working well for the most part, there are still a few wrinkles wanting ironing out. Last week the shake up came from morning meetings–Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday–that started at 6:30, 6:45, and 7:30am. Something had to give and it was typically the writing/planning time. Not having enough planning time is one of the most sneaky trains that shoots me straight into feeling overwhelmed.

The other is a pattern I’ve seen emerge involves time for ToDo/admin stuff. Ex. my own bookkeeping, non-urgent email correspondence, processing incoming info, and then all the tasky things that are easy to brush off like flies.

Once the day gets going at 8:30am, priorities lean towards client work & networking. Before the schedule shift, ToDo work happened late into the night–now it just isn’t happening. Hmmm, not good.

So what’s a girl who is committed to a success, balance, & a healthy life to do? For the ToDo/admin work, I can schedule appointments with myself, and then hold those as sacred as client appointments. I’ll see if 45 minutes two times a week suffices.

For the loss of morning writing/planning time… this one is a little tougher because even without somewhat regular early morning meetings, I’m not creating enough space for this Important-Non Urgent time. I should actually be spending about four times as much because of the Project Simplify program in development. [side note: this program has not been announced yet and I'm leaving it in the realm of mystery just a little bit longer... suffice to say I am excited!!!!]

Again, the solution will lie in my scheduling. Back to Covey’s First Things First–schedule in the “Rocks” first, rather than try to make this crucial activity squish within the spaces that never seem to appear. Choices can be tough, but the more I check in with the vision of my successful, balanced, healthy life, the easier those choices become.