Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Multiple Balls in the Air, Or Why Multi-Tasking is Essential

If y'all happen to follow me anywhere on the Internet, then you've probably seen the dozens of announcements I've been making about Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders moving from being a web-only ezine to also having a print edition. Along with that, I'm moving house this week to a larger place that HHTM are hoping to stay in for a few years. And then there's also the freelance writing I've been getting deeper into what with publications in The Maine Sunday Telegram, The Salem News, my column in Independent Publisher magazine and a whole bunch of other stuff as well.

So yeah, the life of Matthew. It is busy.

All that said, I find myself extremely invigorated (and yes a tad overwhelmed) will all the craziness going on in my life. My days are pretty much chock-full of stuff to do after I get out of the dayjob, and even on weekends I find that I can't really spend the time to lay about the house because OMG THERE'S SO MUCH TO DO!!

I'm trying to fit in working on my fiction (so far I'm failing in that regard), and I find that managing to get everything done I need to get done becomes harder and harder on more days than others. My answer to this is quickly becoming developing a schedule around my dayjob, cleaning, and spending time with HHTM during the evening hours.

Of course I also luck out because dayjob has some dead time during the day where I can work on editing, writing, and whatever other random tasks I need a computer for. Having a netbook as a secondary computer also helps in that regard, because when I'm doing laundry at home I can sit on the couch downstairs and do some work while I'm waiting for the washer or dryer to finish. I also tend to have the netbook powered on and in the kitchen while I'm cooking dinner -- yes, I'm tied to my computer I know.

It's quickly coming to the point where I need to actually write a schedule out for my time when I get home from work. That'll probably end up seeing me get more done, but I'll see how that works out after HHTM and I move this weekend.

How do you handle your to-do list?

2 comments:

Linda G. said...

I handle my to-do list with leather gloves and tongs; otherwise, it might bite me. ;)

dolorah said...

yep, sounds like my life. And I feel permanently attached to the netbook too :)

.....dhole