The Problem with Sticking to a Time-Management Plan…

Last night I made a plan to be extremely efficient and productive today. And every day, really, but I would start with today. That said, I tucked my energy into bed last night with the care of a doting mother, pulled the blanket up high and patted it tight around the edges. Had to make sure my energy was fully rested and ready to go this morning.

And sure enough, it seemed to be. Crossed the first thing off my list at 6 AM – have coffee. By 6:30 I was at the computer, answered a couple emails, then put my eyes to the first paragraph of last week’s work. That went smooth. The second paragraph wasn’t bad either. An alien must’ve come in and traded third paragraphs with me, but no problem, I said. With so much bright-eyed energy at the ready, I could stick an hour into that paragraph and not get behind schedule, or I could simply highlight it and save it for another day.

I chose the latter and checked out paragraph four.

Oops. Seems like aliens not only took over that paragraph, they inserted a few characters or words from another planet and left it as some sort of puzzle for me to decipher. That called for another coffee break.

Recharged and on to paragraph five. Good heavens.

On to paragraph six. Forget it.

On to paragraph seven. I’ll just highlight that one with paragraph six, five, four, and three.

On to paragraph eight – lately my lucky number (I won $15 at bingo last week with my last number being B8.) But the Irish gods were not with me today, because eight was actually worse than seven, which was worse than six, but honestly not quite as bad as five. And I’m not looking any further.

Time for another cup of coffee to calm my writer’s nerves.

I guess number nine must be my lucky charm this week, because paragraph nine had a little zing to it. There was a sequential order to the thought process, too. And no alien words!

I zipped along with reborn confidence, paragraphs 9, 10, and 11 hitting me like a sunny day. To my surprise, paragraph 12 practically waved at me with a pleasant greeting, and paragraph 13 put to rest all my suspicions about how nasty the number 13 could be.

Then came paragraph 14. Ugh.

Paragraph 15. Double-ugh.

Paragraph 16. Geez, seriously? What was I thinking? Too many donuts that day? Too much grease in my system, clogging any thought waves from coming out of my brain?

Paragraph 17. Thank God for coffee. Mug in hand, I answered a few more emails. Checked Facebook, “liked” a thing or two while sipping my coffee as though it were my last cup, then diligently set myself back at the computer.

Was that the noon whistle? By gosh, it’s lunchtime.

An hour later, whining to myself that so much of the day was gone already, I remembered I have a class at 1:30. Time to get ready for that––would hate to waste it by being unprepared. But first, my schedule says I was supposed to post a blog article this morning on Time Management and Productivity. But I don’t really have time to write anything unique other than to recount how my first day went on my new schedule, after lovingly tucking my energy into bed early last night so that I could conquer the world of writing today.

That’s it! Happy writing! It’s class time for me.