I have, within the context of my job, things to do that will take various lengths of time and are of various priorities. If I get blocked on one it’d be useful to know what to switch to, and on.

I have, within the context of my personal life, things that I want to do that will take undetermined amounts of time and are of various priorities.

It’d also be nice to have a record to go back and reflect on when I did what. And it’d be nice to plan a little ahead so that I can decide what I hope to do next.

So… how do you do it? I am so bad at time management. Is there a useful software I can use (if so, is it foss)? Is there a way to keep consistent with my planner so that I don’t fall behind on managing my time management, without falling into the trap of spending much effort on creating a time management system that all my time is spent managing my time.

Send help :(

  • eezeebee@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    15 days ago

    I use Outlook at work, and a former co-worker showed me her trick which is to create calendar reminders for time-sensitize things because there is always too much to remember. And you get the benefit of appearing busy (red) in Teams so people are less likely to interrupt. It’s like a meeting but you are the only one invited.

    • Helix 🧬@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      That technique is called timeboxing!

      It’s very effective, but keep in mind that you need at least 10min of pauses every hour. If you have a task which takes 1.5h you might want to plan a 15min buffer and 15min pause time at the end to recover. Else you’ll feel very overwhelmed at some point.

      I’m happy it works for you 😊

      • eezeebee@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        If I took a 10 minute pause every hour I would fall behind in my work and that would be overwhelming. Most of the reminders I’m setting are for super short tasks to check if something is complete because it’s urgent for whatever reason.

        I agree that having a calendar jam-packed all the time would be a recipe for burnout, but in my case it makes it easier to stay on track with certain things, and just work normally the other 95% of the time.

        • Helix 🧬@feddit.org
          1·
          2 days ago

          If I took a 10 minute pause every hour I would fall behind in my work and that would be overwhelming

          Then either your boss or yourself are shit at managing workloads properly. If you can’t take 10min it’s too much work for you.

          I agree that having a calendar jam-packed all the time would be a recipe for burnout, but in my case it makes it easier to stay on track with certain things

          You think you’re special and can’t get burnt out? May I ask if you’re over 30 yet?

          • eezeebee@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            1 day ago

            Then either your boss or yourself are shit at managing workloads properly. If you can’t take 10min it’s too much work for you.

            I mean the whole point is for them to extract value from me which I understand. Where I’m from we have designated break time in the work day. It’s not that I don’t get any breaks, but an additional 10 minutes per hour would certainly have a noticeable impact. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean by a “pause” - I’m not firing on all cylinders the entire time, that’s for sure.

            You think you’re special and can’t get burnt out? May I ask if you’re over 30 yet?

            I didn’t say I was special. I meant that my calendar is not jam-packed, thankfully. It’s maybe 1 or 2 reminders per day at most, for short tasks that I need remember to do at certain times. In fact these tasks tend to be even easier and less taxing than regular work, and using the calendar as a reminder means that I’m not committing any brain power to remember them which helps too. I have experienced burnout at a previous job and this is nowhere close. I do appreciate your concern though.