Do you have a minute? Want to make better use of your time? Put on your headphones and check out this one-minute video — do it after 6 p.m. for best results — and put the lesson to immediate use.
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As readers o this blog know, I’m a big fan of time and life planning software Achieve Planner. I reviewed it a couple of months ago.
The developer has announced a “fire sale†available to subscribers to his newsletters and others who learn about the sale from friends. While the lean version sells for $49, the full Productivity Suite sells for $99, with a price increase scheduled for later in the year. It’s on sale for $59 next week. To hype sales, the developer is throwing in some bonuses as incentive, one of which I suspect is worth trying to get—the developer’s e-Book about time management [which I’ve thought about buying, but always turn away at the last moment].
The best deal is on Monday, Aug 27, when the software and the time management e-book are both available. You can read about it at:
http://www.effexis.com/FireSale/
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If you like the process of visualizing blocks of time, you might be interested in the program Achieve Planner. It’s like EssentialPIM [see our Review] on steroids.
Achieve Planner is more than a Personal Information Manager: it is a Life Planner. The program aims to help you sort out all areas of your life, to identify your dreams, goals and priorities, to plot your projects and tasks and to place at your fingertips information about all of your resources. And it emphasizes the results of your efforts and activities. It will certainly clarify where writing fits into your life. In fact, it may even trigger a major re-assessment of what you doing and where you are going.
At the core of Achieve Planner is the “ideal week†planner. One sets aside, in whatever level of detail one chooses, blocks of time for as many aspects of your life that one chooses to monitor: professional, spiritual, family, social, whatever.
Achieve Planner can lay out several different “ideal weeks†– one for a regular work week, for example, another for time spent at the vacation house, yet another for time when the spouse is away. All of these “ideal weeks†are available from a drop down menu, for instant recall. One can also choose to view the schedule blocks by single-day, 3-day, 5-day, 7-day, 10-day, 20-day or monthly views.
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With luck, I will set out tomorrow on a 7-10 day cruise among the islands of the central Philippines, doing research for my current book project and perhaps for a travel article or two. I’m travelling with two recently-acquired “toys” which, I hope, will make interviewing and writing an easy task, even far away from electric plugs.
I’ll give a full report upon my return to Manila. Stay tuned…
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I’ve already posted about EssentialPIM, a personal information manager that I rely on to keep me organized. [READ the review from early January, if such a program interests you.] My brother insists on a paper-based system, even though he frets and fusses about the cost and lack of options offered by such companies as DayTimer.
For writers of similar mind of my brother, there is hope. D*I*Y Planner is a website offering many free, downloadable templates for all kinds of paper-based organizational tools. The site also offers advice about how to keep organized, interesting information even for us computer-crazed writers.
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There is nothing more valuable to a writer than time to write.
Yet daily distractions, family commitments, financial responsibilities intrude in a never-ending stream. Always, it seems, someone is asking for our time. And, usually, we give it away, forgetting its value.
Writers simply must set aside for themselves blocks of time reserved for writing. No one is more important than yourself, as a writer. Put yourself first when making scheduled appointments. Create your sacred time for creativity. Hang out the DO NOT DISTURB sign for all to see.
Easy advice – but difficult to implement. The phone rings, there’s a knock at the door, the TV beckons, the stomach demands a snack.
Fortunately, there are some tools to help you.
Most useful is EssentialPIM, a free program that should be on every writer’s computer – well, at least those with PC’s. Aside from word processing programs, there is perhaps no other tool that can be tailored so perfectly to fit a writer’s needs. Let’s take a look.
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This topic is so common in books for writers that it is almost a cliche. But the problem is, of course, a very real one. Even writers with plenty of time often find it difficult to sit down and to write.
The tools covered here may help. Not only do they encourage you to analyze your use of time, but they also provide you with frequent nudges or even kicks in the pants.
Please share with us your own tricks at mastering time and overcoming procrastination.
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