Time Management Musings

I wasn’t sure which topic to touch upon in my inaugural post, but I decided to go with time, an obsession of mine that I’ve learned to embrace. I’m posting a photo of part of my home office, where there’s two desks, two chairs, many projects, and one really large clock. When I unpacked my new clock, BK laughed. It was a “what were you thinking” sort of laugh and, for a few minutes, I wondered whether I had made a mistake. The clock was intended as a focal point, but really? Did it need to be so big? Somehow, though, it seemed right.

To better manage the minutes, hours, and days that race by me, I had to figure out a way to be productive in the time that I devote to writing. Deceived, which will be published in May 2014, isn’t the first story that I’ve written. It is the first one that I publish, and I think that’s because last year I had one of THOSE moments . . . things weren’t working and something needed to change. For years, my office had built-in distractions, because my work space was a jumble of writing projects and personal business. Piles of mail, often catalogs, usually sat near my writing, ready to zap my creativity. Unpaid bills in my creative space were definite mood killers. Papers associated with the business of being an author often turned creative time into business time. I had to figure out a better way to make the time that I devote to writing work for me.

Hours and hours of thought went into this project. Ultimately, I placed two desks side by side. One desk is for fiction writing, the other is for everything else. I use two chairs, so that the act of sitting directs my focus to the proper task. I don’t like drawers because I forget what I put in them, but without drawers, there’s too much clutter. Clutter becomes distractions. As a solution, I hung wall pockets, hoping that semi-visibility would be a memory jogger, but the projects would only demand attention when I intend to give it. As you can see from the photo, the end result is ridiculous in its simplicity. BK doesn’t quite understand the need for such clean lines. I really don’t either. All I know is that almost a year after I redesigned my office, and with less then three months before Deceived is published, my space is working. I’ve also decided that the clock is just the right size, an unavoidable reminder that time shouldn’t be wasted on distractions.

Now, my time for writing this blog entry has expired, so I’m signing off. Please let me know your time management tricks . . . especially the ones that work. If you can, revisit my website. I’ll write again, when I have time.

Take care, Stella

March 5, 2014