Unschedule

The Unschedule is the second tool that I want to recommend from Neil Fiore's The Now Habit. I can't quite do it justice in a little post, but I'll do my best to explain how it works for me.

It's called an unschedule because you don't schedule in the projects. Instead, you schedule in meals, pre-arranged appointments and meetings, sleeping time, exercise classes, leisure activities (these are a must). The rest of the blank space is available for working on the projects. For that, you log as you go, in 30 minute increments (I usually do 45 minute increments -- that's "advanced unscheduling," when you finetune and customize it for your own character). The one at the top is my unschedule from the week leading up to the last MFA submission. I colour code mine so I can see how I spend my time. Green is MFA time, mostly creative writing. Yellow is anything "routine" like meals, grocery shopping, commuting. Pink is teaching and prep for teaching. Blue is anything having to do with health and well-being: yoga, meditation, morning pages, exercise. Orange is leisure. I used to us purple for my book when I was writing it last year, but now I use it for other creative activities -- either way, there is not much room for purple these days. I also have different colours and patterns for research and for admin commitments at work. The other one is the current week.

Anyway, the point is that you can only log in time on your priority projects once you've put in 30 minutes of quality, uninterrupted (no phone calls or e-mails) time. After that, you can keep going (this is what usually happens) or take a break (I like to put in more than 30 minutes before a break). The incentive to find uninterrupted time increases as you start filling it in. It's also great for maximizing the use of deadspace -- yesterday, in that half hour before dinner, I graded two papers. What I like about this unscheduling is that it helps me to have a balanced life and to see, realistically, how much time I have to give to my projects. I prioritize each week (see that list along the bottom?). I also keep a little post-it list of things that need attending to but aren't high on the list of priorities. I do not want these to become urgent, because it messes everything up when little things push the bigger ones out of the way.

Repeater, this also has appeal for the "overly project-oriented" among us because it forces scheduled leisure time. Maybe we can BOTH make it through this month without crying.