Weird Time Management Quirk: I get more done when there's downtime.. (addiction, people)

[ragnarkar]

I've struggled over the years to better manage my time, to basically "waste" less time. But a habit that's been very difficult to break over the years is an "addiction" (for the lack of a better word) to Downtime.

Almost all the Time Management advice out there aim at wasting less time. They all work for me, but only for a short period of time. In the short run, I can self-discipline myself to minimize downtime and not waste time in doing may tasks back to back with short limited breaks in between. Ever since High School, I've successfully disciplined myself to pretty much make the best use of my time as possible usually when there's something critical coming up (i.e. SATs, Final Exam, Job Interview, Job Performance Review, etc.) but this efficient use of time is NEVER sustainable over the long run. Usually, I'll end up lapsing into even less efficient use of time for a while afterwards.

Any suggestions on a better approach to time management rather than budgeting every minute of your living life to something "useful" until your psyche finally collapses some time in the future, whether it's 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 months, or 10 years into the future?

[Billy_J]

I see you are in Orange County aka Los Angeles. When I lived there, I spent 2 1/2 hours commuting to work each way. Basically weekdays was get up, go to work, go home, then just enough time to get something to eat and then go to sleep.

Basically no extra time during the week. Weekend time was therefore *very* valuable!

Not much I could do about that except make certain things a priority on weekends.

[ragnarkar]

Originally Posted by Billy_J

I see you are in Orange County aka Los Angeles. When I lived there, I spent 2 1/2 hours commuting to work each way. Basically weekdays was get up, go to work, go home, then just enough time to get something to eat and then go to sleep.

Basically no extra time during the week. Weekend time was therefore *very* valuable!

Not much I could do about that except make certain things a priority on weekends.

My round trip commute is only 35 miles, almost entirely highway.

On a bad day, I spend around 1 hour in traffic total.

[bouncethelight]

For most people, the point of time management is NOT to make sure you are being productive 24 hours a day - it's to make you are productive enough during some hours, so that you can do as you please during other hours! Don't begrudge yourself some downtime!

That said, if it's the kind of downtime that is really just avoiding work, and isn't spent having real fun, then you might want to take a look at a book called The Now Habit by Neil Fiore. It was published in 1988, so it's been around for a long time, but it's also sold a lot of copies in that time. The book is geared toward Procrastinators, and while most of it may not apply to you, there is one part of the book I think you might find useful - the Un-calendar. Basically you map out everything you are already committed to doing - including sleeping, eating, exercising, commuting to work - if you have a plan to do something at a specific time, you add it. And you schedule some play time in - since we all need time for fun! That leaves you with a realistic look at how much time you actually have to accomplish "work" - and most people invest more focused effort on their work, and get more done, once they do this.

It's an interesting thing, but people who go around saying, "I don't have time to play, all I have time for is work, work, work," end up wasting a lot of time and tend to actually accomplish less than those who allow themselves to take time off, and go have some real fun.