Comments on: Monday: Time and insights

By: Omar ElNaggar

Omar ElNaggar — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 17:48:06 +0000

It’s a bit meta, but my goal right now is to complete a round of fundraising for https://mana.ai , an app that is made for making this time tracking challenge easier! I didn’t receive the Emails earlier this week for the challenge, but it’s actually good for this particular post, since yesterday I got distracted pretty hard with the political situation in the US. Thankfully I was able to timebox my time with everything to 1hr, enough to understand the key events and be able to speak to them intelligently, but not getting lost in what I’m sure would have been a dark rat hole. All agreed with both @nicole and @laura that accountability is one of the key benefits of time mindfulness, I hate having to see those numbers at the end of the week and realize that I got lost from what I’d intended to do!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 21:18:27 +0000

In reply to Kristin. @Kristin- sandwiches for dinner are totally OK. So are bagged salad with a quick protein on top. Eggs + veggies makes a meal. Soup from a box + bread from bakery + salad is also lovely. No need to overthink any of this!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 21:15:02 +0000

In reply to Kara.

@Kara – it’s just at least 100 words of whatever I’m thinking about. Sometimes description. Sometimes a thought. An idea for a story. There is zero structure to it whatsoever. It’s just to get in the habit of writing more.

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 21:14:03 +0000

In reply to Elisa.

@Elisa – it is totally readable! I don’t know why Tolstoy gets lumped in with “hard” authors like James Joyce. It’s just that they both write long books. Tolstoy loves his readers. And I’m also finding that the one chapter a day (and no more!) pace is really nice because I don’t feel any pressure to read more. I think I kind of raced through it the first time I read the book because it seemed so big and I had so much ground to cover.

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 21:12:46 +0000

In reply to Nicole Vinson.

@Nicole – happy to be an online mentor. And yes, I think half the benefit of time tracking is accountability…

By: Kristin

Kristin — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 17:44:35 +0000

In reply to Ana. This is my life too! I've cut my grocery shopping to two weeks or less, but it does take more time (though not twice as much!) I've thought a lot about this over the years and here are some things I've adopted: Batch cook as much possible! I make kid lunches two at a time, prepare my lunch for the week all at once, and when I have a pot or appliance out, I try to think if there is anything else I can make before washing, like cooking some chicken in my instant pot after cooking hard boiled eggs. I started doing a 6 week meal rotation and that has taken a lot of the thinking out of the process. My goal for 2021 is to come up with some quick and easy but healthful (contain veggies) meals. I tend to make things more elaborate than they need to be! Nice sandwiches for dinner is OK. Good Luck!

By: Kara

Kara — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:49:02 +0000

I like the idea of the “free writing file” that you add to just a bit each day. I’m curious if you use it to write short, unrelated pieces or are stringing them together into something longer?

I use morning pages (from the book The Artist’s Way) as a means to try to get my thoughts flowing. My time tracking from yesterday showed a lot of busy work, but not much deep work. I’ll be attempting to rein that in more today!

By: Elisa

Elisa — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:24:53 +0000

I’m doing The Big Read/War and Peace too, after reading about it here. I’m surprised by how readable it is, and the one-chapter-a-day pace has been forcing me to think much more deeply about the material.

By: Nicole Vinson

Nicole Vinson — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 13:16:05 +0000

I realized that since I was time tracking I stayed off the phone for scrolling! What an accountability partner that excel can be… at least for day 1. I also did the split shift of hopping back on my computer after the baby went down. Not that I ended early, but I had to handle some of our own personal admin stuff during the day so it was all day computer work, but normally I would have just said, I worked allll day and half the evening. This must be why we all think we work more than we probably really do. I made a note to batch some of the more simple personal admin tasks for Friday afternoon since Before Breakfast tells me that is a pretty good time slot! Thanks Laura for being my online mentor!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 13:12:31 +0000

In reply to Alba. @Alba - happy to share! And yes, the guest room is a total necessity some nights. I got enough sleep last night which was great.