scheduling of days

This week, I tried -- well, not to do GTD, certainly. I looked at all I want to do with my time, and I tried to break up the time I have available in my working day to give me two concentrated sections of working on projects, split by dealing with stuff like e-mail, forums I frequent, and reading blogs. Then I roughed out what I thought I could fit into those slots each day.

It didn't work, of course.

The first day went okay, but I quickly realized I could either follow my time divisions *or* get the amount done on my projects that I wanted each day, but not both. The crit I'm working on is detailed enough that it's not 3 minutes a page, and the paying work (updating an index this week) took some time to find the most efficient method of working on it. So none of those blocks of time got used for writing.

By the end of the week, I was a bit cranky.

I still like this idea in principle, but the blogs and social networking and such -- that's going to have to be either early morning (before I'm dealing with getting kids out the door) or evening (while dinner simmers). That will give me larger chunks of time, in which I will be able to get more done. And I might have to discard the blog-reading on some days entirely to use that time for writing. Because as much as I want to know what's going on in publishing and with my friends and the people I find interesting in life, getting the writing actually done is more important.

Thus, there will be adjustments made. This week? Scheduling isn't going to work at all. Monday is going to be Christmas shopping. Tuesday, I've got stuff at my son's school. Wednesday, the next proofreading gig arrives. Oh, and I've agreed to beta read a book for another friend. So maybe next week, I'll give it a stab again.

I may wind up realizing I just can't do all I want to. If so, family, writing, and paying work take precedence.