Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

August 25, 2008 16:02 +0000 | Ideas Personal Life Self Reflection 6

As those of you who have been sending me occasional emails may have noticed, I've not been doing a very good job in replying to them. In fact, if you were to go back through this blog only a few months, I'm sure you'd find a few posts talking about how overwhelmed I am with stuff I have to do and specifically, emails to which I want to respond. The problem, at least as I've seen it, is that I just don't have enough hours in a day to get everything done. I work long hours, come home burnt and only wanting to veg out and do nothing... and even then I spend hours at home writing code for the office some nights.

Donat Group is a big fan of "work/life balance" a concept I'm familiar with, yet have not really taken advantage of lately. To remedy this though, I've decided to try something that may sound insane to some (hell, I'm not even a big fan of it): I'm going to schedule everything.

The plan is to schedule my work hours so I'm not inclined to stay as late as I usually do, then schedule making dinner and yes, even responding to all those emails. The theory being that if my laptop tells me that it's time for "x", it'll help me focus on the job at hand.

Maybe it's insane, but at the moment, I'm approaching desperation. Nothing in my life is working lately and frankly, I want my life back. I just wish my mind didn't keep drifting back to Seven of Nine scheduling "fun".

Comments

Taavi
25 Aug 2008, 4:15 p.m. |

There's a book "Getting Things Done" that talks about (at least) having lists of things to do. It's not quite as much about scheduling them, as having everything listed out so you can consciously choose what you're going to do.

Also, I highly recommend making time to watch Randy Pausch's video on time management: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758

(of course, if you haven't seen his lecture on achieving your childhood dreams... http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/multimedia/randy-pausch-lecture.shtml )

poesy
26 Aug 2008, 8:15 p.m. |

I'd like to be scheduled under "fun" sometime soon!

Daniel
26 Aug 2008, 9:26 p.m. |

Well work has me 'till 9pm every night this week, so "fun" will likely have to wait. Taavi, I'm watching your videos tonight.

theresa
28 Aug 2008, 12:30 p.m. |

i think that people just need to work less. like, 40 hours a week maximum. then we'd all be happier. :)

Daniel
28 Aug 2008, 7:53 p.m. |

It's funny, but in terms of legislation, 40hrs is the maximum. A lot of companies (mine included) however, have found a way around it and pretty much everyone I know who doesn't own a company of their own hates this.