One of my favorite working tools is actually an iPod.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not that I like to listen to music or an audiobook while I\u2019m doing something (thought I do), but that it has a sleep timer. \u00a0It has intervals from fifteen to one hundred twenty minutes, though I only use the fifteen minute option.<\/p>\n
I love that thing.\u00a0 I love it because I\u2019m a busy woman.\u00a0 I have a lot going on \u2013 I\u2019m self-employed, have a part-time job, have a household with people going in and out, and a schedule that\u2019s always changing.<\/p>\n
There are times when I look at a task and I feel overwhelmed with it.\u00a0 At those times, it\u2019s really hard<\/em> to get myself going.\u00a0 I am a champion procrastinator.\u00a0 Remember that self-employed bit?\u00a0 I can only procrastinate so much before I\u2019m procrastinating my son out of food[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when the timer comes in.\u00a0 You\u2019d be amazed at how much you can get done in fifteen minutes of focus.\u00a0 Now while I got the idea from Flylady<\/a>[2]<\/a>, I don\u2019t only use it for housework.\u00a0 I use the idea to work.\u00a0 When I\u2019m feeling daunted, I just set my timer for fifteen minutes and work.\u00a0 That sounds goofy, trivial and dumb, but there\u2019s many a project I\u2019ve gotten done fifteen minutes at a time.\u00a0 The time sounds like such a small amount, I know.\u00a0 That\u2019s the beauty of it.\u00a0 You can force yourself to do almost anything for fifteen mintues.\u00a0 If you do that a few times a day, you\u2019re actually accomplishing a great deal.\u00a0\u00a0 Things often don\u2019t take as much time as we think they will when we focu\u2014<\/p>\n Ah, music stopped.\u00a0 Break\u2019s over and I have to get back to work.\u00a0 For those of you writers who go for word count, I\u2019d written 320 words before the music went off.\u00a0 Now imagine four or five sessions of fifteen minutes while writing.\u00a0 That\u2019s an adequate word count for a day\u2019s work, innit?<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> And I have a teenaged boy with a teenaged appetite.\u00a0 Oy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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