Time Management For Dedicated Steemians {Or As I Call It, IDEA Management}

There are lots of ways to get support on Steemit. Some methods focus on gaining popularity while others emphasize being rewarded for value and giving back to the community. I think both work, but the latter will probably last the longest. In many ways, it's a proven business model. The better you treat your employees, the harder they'll work for you. The better service you provide your customers, the more likely it is they'll come back to buy.

Giving back

One way I'd like to give back to the community is through skill-sharing. I mentioned this in an earlier post and @emmyem84 and I are going to try to get it off the ground.

This post is dedicated to her though I hope others can benefit as well.

The struggle

@emmyem84, you've described yourself as obsessive and pessimitic. Others have been surprised that you'd describe yourself as an introvert, but my husband is similar, so I think I understand where you're coming from. Matt prefers to stay at home reading. He can research for hours. However, if he's really interested in something, he becomes enthusiastic. Just by sharing what he's thinking about, he can get people interested in things they hadn't even thought about!

But time management is a struggle for him. I've noticed this in other "obsessive" personalities too. There are those obsessed with perfectionism, who can't move on until something is perfect. Others are obsessed with a thought that they can't let go of. For both, I don't think the traditional "scheduling" approach works very well.

Why traditional scheduling doesn't work

First of all, traditional scheduling requires an individual to track their day and activities by time. But some people don't operate that way. They may be great at guessing the time down to the second, but they always seem to be "losing track of time." Know anyone like that?

Secondly, traditional scheduling doesn't leave much room for thinking. And obsessive personalities tend to be thinkers.

An alternative method

Instead of forcing people to operate in minutes, I think there's another method to help them "manage their time." I call it "idea management." Okay, I may have just made that up, but essentially, this is what it looks like:

Some people move from idea to idea. The time doesn't matter to them if the idea is still unfinished. But that's where the problem happens. One idea leads to another. Pretty soon they don't even remember how they got where they are but they know they didn't get anything done that they'd intended to.

Monitoring your progress by goals instead of time can help keep you on track.

What to do

Download the card above. You can either print it out and fill it in by hand or edit it on your computer and save it as your computer wallpaper.

You can also just do this on a blank piece of paper or notecard.

Today I will ...

Focus on:

Pick one or two things you're going to focus on. Maybe it's an attribute, like patience or diligence. Or maybe it's something like "my health" or "growing my business." Your plans and to-dos should reflect this goal although they may differ slightly.

Plan:

Sometimes we have to plan to plan. Maybe it's planning out a month's worth of blog topics or things to research. Or ways to be healthier. Maybe it's planning out how you're going to grow your business. Try to be specific with how much you're going to plan. Maybe today you'll only plan a week's worth of healthy meals. And then tomorrow you'll plan another week's meals.

Do:

This can include things you're going to make, research, etc. Try to limit the number of things you'll do to the top three to five. Of course, if you finish those to-dos, you can always do more. But the idea is to set achievable goals.

For example, you might prep healthy snacks for the week. Or spend time researching how curation rewards work on Steemit. (Here, it might be helpful to either limit the time you spend if you can do that, or limit what you do. Like, read ONLY three articles on curation rewards. Or upvote 10 posts.)

Completed cards

Here's are some examples of completed "Idea Management" cards with ACHIEVABLE goals. You should complete one per day. I recommend filling them out the night before, but you could also do it the morning of.

Example 1: Lifestyle Focus

Example 2: Business Focus

 

Now maybe you're thinking,

"But I can do so much more than that in a day!"

That's true, but the idea is to give yourself achievable goals. If you've met your goals, then you have some free time to wander about, chasing ideas or being obsessive.

And once you've mastered accomplishing a list like the one above, you can start to make two or more for your day. Maybe you finish one card in the morning (after breakfast) and the other in the afternoon (after lunch). 

Pretty soon you'll be prioritizing your ideas instead of letting them dictate your time.

That's it!

@emmyem84, if you have any questions, please ask away! And if you can, try it out for the next week and see what works and what doesn't. I'd love to hear about your experience so I can keep refining.

#Skill-Share

To keep the skill-share going, would you write a post about bots? Which ones do you use to upvote your posts and why? How can I use them effectively? I tried to use the minnow support system and paid in last July. But now I can't enter their upvote channel on Discord anymore... I'm wondering if I should try again or look for others.

When you post, feel free to tag me back with a question in my skill set and use #skill-share ... maybe we'll make this into something that others will want to be part of! :D

My skill set:

• business (intermediate-advanced)
• design (amateur level)
• personalities
• raising twins (beginner) LOL

To other Steemians: 

If you found this post helpful, please consider giving it an upvote and resteeming for others.

If you'd like to join our skill-share project, please post in the comments with a question you'd like answered and your skill-set that you can share with us.