It’s Virtually Done (IVD) Blog

I’m pleased to announce the launch of my new website: Its Virtually Done! It has new colors, graphics, and a lot of new content. If you miss anything from the old site that I didn’t include, please let me know.

Thanks to my reviewers: Larry and Bev. If you find a typo or a bad link, please let me know, and I’ll be in your debt.

I was channel surfing and landed on PBS for just a few minutes. I caught Julie Morgenstern (Oprah’s organizing expert) talking about her book Time Management from the Inside Out. She made a very important point during my brief viewing: you have to be able to judge how long it takes you to do things, or all your planning won’t do any good. Check out her website and books here: Julie Morgenstern’s website.

Last time in our discussion of Time Management, we talked about how precious a resource time is and how powerful it is to conserve and ration this gift. We discussed learning to say no, making lists, breaking projects down, and scheduling your time. Let’s continue with some more good reminders.

Do your least favorite thing first
This is an extension of the Puritan Ethic of doing work before play. I take this to the next level when I have an onerous project that I don’t want to start. Do it first, and if it is big, do just a part of it. Just think, then you can skate through the rest of the day. If you find yourself procrastinating, set up a great reward for yourself for completing that difficult task. Sometimes the most difficult part of a task is just getting it in front of you. . Once you’ve started, things seem to flow along in sequence.

Allow more time than you think
Under promise, over deliver. Pad everything. Set yourself up for success, not failure. Enough said.

Group similar tasks
Jumping from program to program and task to task is inefficient. Instead of handling each thing as it comes in, save similar transactions, and do them all at once. For example, I save my Quickbooks receipts in a pile and wait until the pile is a week old, and then enter them all. Or set a block of time aside for one client at a time instead of jumping from client to client trying to make each happy on a daily basis.

Work backwards
If you have to be somewhere at 6 p.m., try determining your departure time by working backwards. If it takes 45 minutes to get ready and 30 minutes to get there, then you know that you need you stop what you are doing and start getting ready at 4:45 p.m. It always astounds me when I do this because I’m surprised at how early I need to stop. I’m usually glad when I do, because then I’m not rushing around.

Be Accountable
All of these guidelines are only going to work to the degree that you are accountable to your schedule, yourself, and to others. Remember, being on time is a courtesy to the people who you are meeting. They’ll appreciate it.

Remember how we opened this discussion with a guy racing in his car to the red light? If you are the sort of person who thrives on being late and likes the adrenaline rush that comes from always running from one deadline to another, then we time managers will meet you at that red light, only a few seconds later and with a lot of brake pad and gas left.

Time management is like driving a car. You know the type of driver who drives really fast, and then brakes really hard so as not to hit the guy in front of him at the red light? Either he is in a big hurry, or he just likes wasting gas and brake pads.

Do you aspire to be the person who sees the stale green light, anticipates the yellow light, removes your foot from the accelerator, and coasts to the red light saving gas and brakes the entire way? You can do that because you have plenty of time to get where you are going because of your time management skills.

We all get overwhelmed from time to time. Things get out of our control sometimes and bite us in the rear when we least expect it. When you’ve used good time management principles, however, you have more flexibility in your schedule, so that when the unexpected happens, you’ll be better able to go with the flow. Here are some ideas to improve your time management skills:

Learn to say no
This is really hard for some people. Once you give it a try, though, you may actually find it very empowering. Saying “no” gives you power over your life. Protect your schedule like your belongings, and do things that you want to do to be a good partner, business owner, and human. Allowing enough time for the things already in your schedule will give you a more enriching experience than when you flit from one event to another, not really experiencing any of them.

Make lists and lists
You’ve heard it said before: something becomes real when you write it down (or say it out loud, even to yourself!) When all of your “to-dos” are swirling around in your head driving you crazy and making you feel like you have more to do than you really do, write them down. Often you’ll find that there aren’t as many as you thought. The satisfaction that you’ll enjoy from crossing them off you list will spur you on to tackling the next item.

Prioritize
Not everything on your list has equal value. Top priorities usually emerge, but if they don’t, try comparing all of your items to each other, one at a time, and see which comes on top. The one with the most votes wins and so on.

Break down big things into little things
What if your top priority is a really huge project, the one that you are afraid to start? We’ve all been there, and if we are going to procrastinate, the huge, difficult project will be the one to put aside. Remember how the financial planners tell you that if you start to save your money in your 20’s, a little each month, you’ll be a millionaire in your 50’s? Why not treat your time, your most precious and finite resource, like you do your finances?

Every big project can be broken down into little projects. Consider the undertaking of redoing a website, which is a big job. Break the project into parts: creating the site map–the all important planning portion–writing each page, writing each section on a page, creating the graphics, and so on. Since it is such a big project, think about working on the part that piques your interest most at the time so that you can continue making progress. Making continuous progress is important to keep momentum, interest, and morale up.

Schedule your time
Sometimes when I have a lot of deadlines hanging over my head, I get anxious, and I don’t perform as well on anything. What takes the pressure off of me is to schedule blocks of time in the course of the day or week when I will tackle the other deadlines. This allows me to really concentrate on the task at hand.

You need to be true to yourself, however. Be careful not to schedule your least favorite job for late in the day, and then blow it off time after time. What a great segue way into our next topic. Let’s stop here so as not to take up too much of your time and continue this with the next post.

I live in Lake Oswego, just 10 miles south from Portland, OR. We’ve been here 16 years this month. You’d think we’d know the drill:
1. The weather service says it is going to snow.
2. The meterologists on TV say it is going to snow.
3. People run to the tire shops for studs and snow tires.
4. People race to the grocery store to prepare for a month long hibernation.
5. We ask ourselves, “Do we have enough candles, matches, firewood?”
6. We glue ourselves to the television sets waiting for the first flakes.
7. We go to sleep and can’t wait for the white blanket of snow by morning.
8. We wake up and it’s raining, again.

The morning paper says we will have 2-6 inches of snow. Not maybe. Not probably. Will. BTW, the paper is all wet, and so was the forecast.

Till next frenzy…

Want to save money on printer ink? I’ve tried refills; I’ve tried cheaper brands. For me, the best solution is to buy the manufacturer’s ink, in my case HP, but then print almost everything in draft version. It’s more trouble, but my ink cartridges last forever! And I don’t replace the ink when the printer tells me to. I let it go and go and go, until there’s nothing left in the well to print. Okay, call me the frugal; I’m honored.

Welcome to my blog! I’m Kristy Schnabel, Virtual Assistant with It’s Virtually Done. I’ve been publishing an ezine for nearly 2 years (The Virtual Edge), but I’m ready for this newer technology. I’ll be able to post more often and in a less formal way. So far, I’ve added the categories of Daily Musings, Quick Tips, and The Virtual Edge (for transitioning from the ezine to the blog). I’m glad you stopped by. I hope you’ll come again.