I have demands for my time placed on me every day. Writing editorials, answering posts, responding to emails, editing articles for authors, creating questions, organizing books, coordinating with people at Red Gate, brainstorming or talking about JumpStartTV, finding time to run, and more. That's leaving out the little things like eating, spending time with my kids, enjoying life with my wife, and sleeping.
It seems I get busier every year, and some days I look back and am not sure how I got everything done. Especially for work where it seems I'm constantly behind and racing to catch up. I'm not the most efficient person, and I need to get better at it, but some of the problem is that I work in a creative area and can't be so tightly wound with my day or I'll never think of things like this.
The other day I was sitting around with Andy Warren and we were discussing some of the social networking stuff in the world. We were talking about Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, their features, pros, cons, etc. and whether we should integrate JumpstartTV with them. Along the way, Andy mentioned that he found them to be time sinks, without any real value to him, and couldn't see the point in them. I disagreed a bit and think they enrich lives and provide a nice release for people, though I'm not completely sure of the value myself.
He then reminded me that he has to be ruthless with his time because he has so little. Between trying to run multiple businesses and find time for his family, he's got a busy life as well and can't waste time on things. He is careful about what tasks he takes on and is wary of wasting time on the web. He uses RSS feeds, adding them to his reader, but deleting them if they don't prove to have some value in a few weeks. I thought about that, since I have a few web sites that I still regularly check, but I'm running out of time to get to them. I just cleaned out my Google Reader and added back feeds to those sites that I think have value, giving me a list of things to check on when new content appears, otherwise I'll forgo the temptation to just browse to the site.
We all need distractions and releases, but we have to also keep them in check. It's easy to get caught up in something that you're only vaguely interested in when avoiding work. I think some of what separates the real professionals from the average worker is not that the former doesn't get distracted, it's that they keep it under control.
Probably a lesson for all parts of our lives, from health to money to work. Keep it in moderation and you'll do well.
Steve Jones
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