Carving out computer time for Mama is always a juggle and takes ingenuity. Prior to Bass’ birth the bulk of my computer time was mostly early morning before the family arose. After his birth this time no longer worked, and a ‘quick check’ at 7am leads to a later start. We accomplish far more when we start lessons by 8am. So I have been searching for a more natural time. The afternoon was a time to trial but after we turned off the children’s screen, I wasn’t comfortable with using a time the children were forbidden, wanting to lead by example. I trialled night but find it conflicts with the time I wish to spend with PC; also the children use the computers then and are very excited and noisy. Their noise is manageable for normal computer task but I find it difficult for head space in which to write deeper blog posts.
So when to boot up? .I decided to be very intentional about computer usage and first write down just what tasks I use the computer for and what is needed to meet these tasks efficiently:
Board Moderating/Participating
Blog Writing.
Writing posts means I need time to plan, write and polish.
Reading blogs.
I read in google reader. Quick and efficient.
Commenting on blogs.
Write comments immediately, or I never get back.
Learning Notes blog.
Write Lesson Notes weekly on Learning blog, bulk on Thursday, finalise Friday.
Education Research, Printing etc
Read emails
Answer emails
Really strive to reply within 2 days or the task becomes huge.
Simply by writing it down I was able to ascertain how much time was to be allocated to each task. I then broke my daily computer time into two separate sessions. With a clearer plan I am striving to stay within my time parameters and am wasting less time already by being intentional. I still haven’t found ‘the correct time’ but afternoon/night appear to be the best choices.
I still need inspiration in how to plan my blog posting. I’d love to hear from other bloggers as to how you manage your actual writing time most effectively? Do you have a set plan on what to write on what days? How do you manage when you know what you want to write about but struggle with how to say it? Any tips to share?