Defining Moments

Yesterday, one of my students came up to me and told me that he really wants to pass my class, but sometimes he has a hard time finding motivation to do assignments. I told him I'm glad to hear about his enthusiasm, but ultimately, it has to translate into action in order for it to count.

I'm in this mad race to finish all my stuff before conference season. I literally had a dream last night that the woman who runs my favorite ice cream store also happened to be an editor. I pitched her my book while she made my milkshake.

Talk about my subconscious trying to say something...

In any event, I want to encourage you while you also put the finishing touches on your books, or perhaps even race to finish them in time to pitch them. Remember that things in life, particularly large projects like books, are not accomplished suddenly, but by a lot of small steps.

Today has been my "focus on writing" day, and let me tell you, I am already exhausted. I get so jittery when I try to write for a long time! I start finding all sorts of things to look up on the internet or work on around the house. But sometimes, I just have to tell myself a firm, "no," and keep going.

Be encouraged that the finish line is not as far off as it seems, especially if it feels ever-evasive. All of your decisions to work toward a project are forward-moving decisions that will eventually get you to your goal.

Be blessed in your work today.

Finding More Time

As I write this, I'm in a time crunch.

Sound like your life?

If you're anything like me, it's always a struggle to organize your time so that you have enough to commit appropriate amounts to the various things in your life.

I'm a teacher, so at different parts of the year, my busy-ness schedule looks a lot different, but not matter how much free time I have, it somehow never seems to be enough. Whenever I'm bogged down with a giant stack of papers waiting to be graded, I feel like there's hardly even enough time to vacuum. Whenever I'm out of school, I somehow manage to come up with a long list of various out-of-school projects, ranging from working on my manuscript to learning how to quilt. And no, in case you are wondering, I don't know how to quilt. That one's on the list next to "paint the bathroom" and "catch up on scrapbooking" (aka the not done list).

In other words, my commitment level always seems out of sync with the amount of time I have to actually work on stuff.

So yesterday, I was thinking to myself... how can I be more efficient? I obviously don't have some secret answer to time travel, so the best I can do is try to become better organized with the time I have. I thought to myself, if I got up an hour earlier each day during the week, that would be a total of five hours more productivity available to me. If you have a busy schedule or are raising kids, you can apply the same principle in smaller, more frequent segments as well. For instance, four fifteen minute segments a day during the week will also total five hours. Those fifteen minutes on Facebook might not seem like a lot at the time, but they add up.

What strategies have you found helpful in organizing and making good use of your time?