This week I tested whether keeping an interruptions log and making related changes could improve my productivity. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for details.
How an Interrupters Log Saved My Sanity This Week
Helped me give myself grace. I am interrupted A LOT. Like really a lot. Between the door bell ringing (with delivery people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and neighborhood kids), my husband’s secretarial needs, and my kids’ homework and other requests for assistance, it’s a miracle I get anything done. I’m going to be much nicer to myself where productivity is concerned. Speaking of grace, please forgive the misspelling on the graphic.
Helped me recognize parenting issues. We do most of our homeschooling in the basement near a closet stocked with blankets. It does not matter if it’s toasty warm or that we have two blankets per person; fights over blankets constantly rage. Believe me, I didn’t wait until I had a week’s worth of blanket fights on my log to make a change. Blankets are no longer allowed in school! The funny thing was every time someone interrupted me, I wrote it down and the kids found my silent writing ominous.
Pointed out the need for order. My entire family likes to interrupt me, because I haven’t set limits. My husband is needing me to help him with his work frequently now, which is fine–but not on a right-this-minute basis. I need a set time to handle his office work. I also need to make sure my children understand not to rudely butt in when I am working with their siblings and not to pepper me with questions during time I’ve set apart for writing.
How an Interrupters Log Made Me Crazy This Week
It’s an interruption to keep a log. I really dislike logging things all day. However, the process really focused my attention on interruptions.
Not all interruptions are bad. I was running around in a tizzy preparing for a day of scrapbooking with friends. I planned to make a fabulous new dessert and to organize a huge project to scrapbook in one evening. My husband then declared that he really wanted to spend time with me. I was at the grocery store shopping for the fabulous dessert when I realized what I needed to do. I bought a dessert to bring and decided to work on a project that required no prep time. I spent the evening with my husband and thanked God for the interruption.
Didn’t use it for self interruptions. The ways we interrupt ourselves are probably the most harmful to our productivity — when we decide to take a quick peek at Facebook that turns into an hour. The log is supposed to be used to note these times, but I would have really been crazy trying to track all that. Tracking others’ interruptions was time-consuming enough.
Did an Interrupters Log Help Me Get More Done?
Yes. Doing away with the blankets in school helped us get more done. Taking steps to eliminate other interruptions by establishing office hours and a no-interrupt rule will help even more.
**UPDATE**
I don’t use a log and I don’t need one as much because I am completing critical work in the morning before the interrupters are up! But I think it’s a great exercise to point out problems.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 39
This week I’ll be testing project management. I will be using the Christmas Countdown Planner to get more done in preparation for the holidays.
The concept. Managing individual tasks is sometimes ineffective. I realized that where Christmas is concerned, I can benefit from a project management approach. Toolkit argues that you can’t manage what you can’t see. Having all my to-do’s and information related to Christmas in one place should help me manage my time better and get a head start on this busy season.
I’m all about saner living, especially at Christmas time.
Too often, the season that should be the most peaceful and joyful can become stressful and unhappy. One reason we may experience less than the best at Christmas is because we don’t treat the holiday like the project it is. With cooking, cleaning, decorating, entertaining, church activities, gift making or buying, budgeting, work parties, and travel, it’s easy to see how we can become overwhelmed.
I have discovered some time savers for this time of year, including Send Out Cards and the mGifts iPhone app. But I have not thought of Christmas as one big project before now.
When I was given the opportunity to review The Simple Christmas Countdown Planner from The Sassy Slowcooker, I realized that I was not only making Christmas more stressful, but I was missing out on some of the possibilities the season offers. Here’s why.
The Christmas Countdown Planner offers some forms you would expect to make this project manageable– like Christmas card and gift lists. But it offers a lot more! There are spaces for tracking decorations needed, favorite traditions, and cleaning chores to be done. Using this planner can help me pick up some end-of-the-season bargains on decorations, help me delegate chores to the kids, and can ensure that we do the things that are most important to us this Christmas.
My favorite form is the daily list that will help me stay focused on the reason for the season. I love that it includes a gratitude reminder, prayer requests, a memory verse, a to-do list, cleaning tasks, and a menu. I could use this form all year!
There are also page dividers for storing favorite recipes and family devotions. (Click here for a list of all the forms that are part of the planner.) Why didn’t I think of keeping all of these things in one place? Because I wasn’t thinking of Christmas as a project.
You could absolutely create your own Christmas planner, but why take the time when this planner is so cute, thorough, and ready to download now? For just $3.99, you’ll be organized for a saner Christmas this year and next.
P.S. It’s not accidental that I’m writing about this planner now. Get a head start on Christmas today!
School is a lot more fun when you have everything you need in front of you. Homeschool Creations provides this ingenious way of keeping critical information in front of a first grader. But you could do this for each of your students.
Magic School Bus videos (available on Netflix and YouTube) can be a fun way to change up your science curriculum. Homeschool Belle provides lesson plans to go along with each video.
Buggy and Buddy has created this printable calendar that can not only teach younger students about the calendar, but can be used to plan fun learning activities for the month.
What’s more fun than a scavenger hunt? The truth is, it isn’t always fun for mom if she has to plan it. Rachel Wojo has made it fun for everyone by providing the clues and using Bible verses, too!
After teaching all day, you may be fresh out of creative ideas. My Kids Adventures is a website to the rescue! They offer easy ideas for having fun with the kids that are designed for dads, too.
This week I tested whether using computer shortcuts could help me get more done. I used the keyboard shortcuts app, added a browser extension, and started using a WordPress plugin to save time. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for details.
How Computer Shortcuts Saved My Sanity This Week
Saved me from stupid time wasters. The Chrome extension to email webpages saved me lots of time. I do this on Chrome all the time on my phone, yet was copying and pasting URLs I wanted to email on my desktop. Dumb. I’ve used the email extension many times since adding it. The other dumb waste of time I was saved from was approving pings back to my own blog. I knew I was being ridiculous to put up with that, but had never taken the time to get a plugin that stopped self-pinging.
Serious fun. I recognized quite a while ago that productivity is a hobby for me. Learning new ways to save time on the computer is not only fun, but addicting! I really love the Brainscape app and am looking forward to mastering all the shortcuts.
How Computer Shortcuts Made Me Crazy This Week
Hard to break old habits. It’s been a challenge not to reach for the mouse as much. It’s kind of like changing to a car with a new location for shifting with lots of wasted movements.
Not all time savers yet. Because I keep reaching for the mouse, some time savers really aren’t. Opening a new tab with Control/Command T for example, takes more time for me than clicking the new tab button on Chrome because I have to stop and think. My hand automatically goes to the mouse.
Take time to find. The shortcuts that will save me the most time take time to research. For example, I had to find a new plugin to turn off self-pings because the old one hadn’t been updated. As with most hacks, you have to take time to save it.
Did Computer Shortcuts Help Me Get More Done?
Yes! The real benefits will take time to be realized, however. I need more time to change my mouse-loving ways and to find the right time savers for the way I work.
**UPDATE**
While I use the browser tab closing and a few other common keystrokes, I have to admit I haven’t continued to add keystroke habits to save time. That is probably because it takes time to create the habits.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 38
This week I’ll be testing an interruptions log. By recording the when, who, and what of the interruptions to my work, I can prevent unnecessary interruptions. Okay, I can hear you laughing. I might be able to prevent some interruptions. Maybe.
The concept. Many interruptions we have to our work flow are internal and can be prevented by eliminating distractions like the phone, alerts, and websites. Internal interruptions can also be prevented by having systems in place for coping with them — a list of things to check out later, a Pomodoro timer, using Do it Tomorrow, etc.
Other interruptions occur because we haven’t scheduled focus work at the right times, haven’t discussed them with family or co-workers, or haven’t established boundaries (like phone being on Do Not Disturb or closing the office door).
Recovering from interruptions wastes valuable time.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read this Mind Tools article and download the free form for tracking your interruptions. Then implement the ways to handle interruptions based on what you learn.
To see if the Interrupters Log worked for me, click here.
Homeschoolers spend a lot of time planning curriculum, but don’t necessarily have a parenting plan.
Because I was a psychologist before I became a mom, I thought I had all the answers. Wrong! How I wish I had had a mentor like Dr. Ruth Ann Brinkmann. She is an educational psychologist, but more importantly, she’s a godly mother and grandmother with years of experience.
I loved chatting with her and getting her advice for:
coming to agreements on parenting with your spouse
changing your child’s unwanted behavior
understanding God’s unique design for your child and more!
I hope you’ll listen to the interview on the web or on iTunes and will share the podcast with your friends.
The show goes live at 4:00 p.m. Central time today (10/22/13). I love listening to podcasts via the podcasts app while I get ready in the morning or at the gym. Listening while cooking and cleaning is a great idea, too.
You’ll love Dr. Brinkmann’s book, A Walk through Parenting. It’s a guide to understanding and parenting your child with a form for creating a personal parenting plan for each child.
What advice do you wish someone had given you when you became a parent?
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
