My goal for this blog is to try to post three times per week. I like to stick to loose schedules and to keep the commitments I’ve made to myself. But I’m a little bit delayed in getting posts up here this week.

There have been some good reasons, though … 10 of them in fact …

1. I recently took on 3 new clients. The first few weeks of working with a new client are always time-consuming because you’re fleshing out the details, figuring out the right formatting, etc. More time was eaten up than I expected.
2. I caught a cold. I did everything I could to fight it off and to get healthy again as quickly as possible. That included resting a lot when I could’ve been working on blog posts instead.
3. My body didn’t want to cooperate. In addition to being sick, I somehow managed to hurt my wrist. It’s tough to type all day with a wrist that isn’t working right. I had to call it a half day that day and let it rest.
4. There was so much sunshine this week. I admit it, I played a little bit of hooky while the sun was shining. I knew we’d be back to rainy days soon and I couldn’t help but want to get outside to do some hiking.
5. I started playing around more with Google Buzz and sharing things in Google Reader. I’ve eased back to a normal level of social networking now but I spent a bit more time on those things at first than I probably had to spend.
6. I had overworked last week. Usually I stick to a good schedule but sometimes I just never get off of my computer. I realize it once I’m cranky and frustrated and feel like I’m always online. I needed time away from the computer.
7. I was finishing up some books I’m planning to review on the blog. I’m still mulling over what I want to write about them so the reviews aren’t ready yet.
8. I started a new class. It’s a wonderful hula hoop dancing class that I’ll tell you more about later. Even adding one new class to my schedule forces me to rearrange some of the things I do and when I can do them.
9. I was back and forth between here and Berkeley a lot. That commute time can be conducive to blog writing … or not.
10. I didn’t have anything that I really wanted to say. One of the things about living a smart life is that you know that sometimes it’s best not to say anything until you’re ready. Otherwise a bunch of dumb drivel just comes out. Safer to wait.

Tags: project management, time management

How many people who work five days per week would love to go down to only a four-day work week? Doing this gives you a three-day weekend every single week. This allows you to really recuperate from your work and get time to do the things that you want to do. But how can you do it?

Here are some ideas for cutting back to a four-day work week:

• Work 10-hour days. The easiest way to maintain your lifestyle while reducing the number of days that you work is to continue to work forty-hour weeks but to do so with ten-hour days.
• Switch to a salaried position. Try to find a job that allows you to get paid based on the amount of work that you do rather than the number of hours that you put in. Be productive during those four days and you can take the fifth day off without compromising your job position.
• Reduce your financial needs. If you can find a way to reduce the amount of money that you need then you can pay your bills with a three-quarter-time job position. Most companies still allow you to retain your health benefits if you work over 30 hours per week.
• Start your own business. It’s a lot easier to make a schedule that works for you when you’re your own boss. If your current job isn’t going to allow you to reduce your work week then maybe you should start a business that will!

Are there other options for taking a three-day weekend every week?

Tags: employment, four-day work week, job, kathryn vercillo, time management, work

People sometimes ask me how I manage to stay on top of all of my work when there isn’t a boss at home telling me to do so. I joke (half-joke, really) that I can’t stomach the idea of having a boss hanging over my shoulder so I’m motivated to stay productive!

The truth, however, is that I’ve learned a lot of little tricks over the years that keep my productivity on track. Here’s a few of those tips:

• Stick to a schedule. One of the things I love about my work is that my schedule is flexible. Despite this, I try to stick to one more often than not because that’s the way to stay productive.
• Set goals. It’s so cliche but setting your own goals really helps you to stay on top of productivity.
• Hold yourself accountable. Do productivity checks throughout the day to make sure you’re meeting your goals. Make a phone appointment with a friend to touch base about how productivity you are (or aren’t) being.
• Use technology in a productive way. Your mobile phone, social networking sites and access to the Internet are all great tools for productivity but only if you’re careful not to let them distract you.
• Cut yourself some slack. Sometimes it’s okay to slack off a little bit. If you beat yourself up when you do, you’ll actually reduce your productivity.

Mostly being productive is about knowing what you want to get done and finding a way to motivate yourself to do it. Do you have any specific productivity tips that have helped you out?

Tags: business, freelance, kathryn vercillo, productivity, time management, tips

I am one of those people who isn’t ever going to be satisfied by doing a single job for the rest of my life. I’m not even particularly satisfied doing only one job at a time now. Instead, I’m one of those people who wants to do a million different things with my life. In addition to work, I want to pursue hobbies and generally just have new experiences.

There are a few things that I’ve found to be really important if you have this type of attitude about life:

• Staying productive. You aren’t going to get a lot done if you can keep your productivity levels high.
• Enjoy downtime. In spite of the fact that I believe in being productive, I also believe that you need to intersperse some downtime into your productivity. You have to relax if you’re going to be able to keep doing lots of things.
• Staying inspired. I read a lot of blogs and books that inspire me to stay productive and to stay creative.
• Enjoy varied activities. It’s too tough to keep going and going at a single type of thing. To enjoy more diversity in your life, you need to immerse yourself in activities that are truly different from one another.
• Accept that you can’t do some things right now. You can pursue every single hobby right this minute. Accept that and enjoy what you can do right now.
• Keep a life list. I have a list of things that I want to do, see and experience throughout my life. I keep it posted where I can see it. I check things off it (and add to it) regularly. When I’m planning out my schedule for the week or month, I check the list to see if I can do any of those things.

Maybe I want to do too much but I’ve found ways to make it possible to do more with my life. I believe in having full days!

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, life, personal growth, productivity, time management

One of the things that I think is most important to learn how to do as an adult is to learn to take time out for yourself on a regular basis. I think it’s important to learn to take a few moments each day to just breathe and to be still with yourself. I think it’s important to learn to take a half day out of your week to do something alone that you truly enjoy. And I think it’s important to learn to take vacations or pursue long-term goals that allow you to take time for yourself in a bigger way throughout the year.

When you take time for yourself, you recharge your batteries. You get in better touch with yourself. You understand your needs and wants and emotions better. Taking time for yourself therefore allows you to give more to the people around you because there is more of you available to give. It allows you to be more productive while simultaneously allowing you to be more creative anmd flexible in your productivity.

Sure, it’s possible to fail to take time for yourself and to give your all to something in a productive way for awhile. Some people can even do this for long stretches of time. But you can’t do it forever. At some point, something’s got to give and then you burn out because your body and mind demand the attention that they need. Instead of doing that, we should take time out every day to be with ourselves and to be kind to ourselves so that we can keep going day after day without sacrificing our positive experience of life.

Tags: business, health, self care, taking time for yourself, time management, wellness

I just finished penning a post over at Real Words about how difficult it can sometimes be to figure out how to work time for personal creative writing projects into your work day when you’re already a full time writer. This got me thinking about the bigger issue of time management for writers and freelancers.

People often think that I have a cushy job which allows me to work from home kind of puttering around and playing on my computer. While it is true that I have a cushy job that lets me work from home on my computer, the reality is that I do anything but putter around. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I put in far more hours of actual work time than do my counterparts in cubicles who have coffee breaks and time to surf the web for reasons that aren’t related to work.

As a freelance web writer, I am always online and every single minute that I spend online is related to my work. Even when I’m just on one of my social networking sites, I’m usually promoting some of my writing or connecting with other web writers or otherwise doing something that’s somewhat related to my writing work. Sometimes I really can’t even tell when my work day ends and the rest of my life begins. It just kind of blends.

For the most part, I like this blending. But there are days when I feel like I’m always at work. It helps to take full days off each week and to make one of those days a computer-free day. This allows me downtime to actually just be with myself and to think about where my time goes and where I want it to go in the week to come. I think freelance writers are always struggling a bit with their time and time management. What do you think?

Tags: creative projects, kathryn vercillo, real words, time management, web writing, writing