There are two realities about my life that come into conflict with one another on a daily basis.  The first is that I have a wide range of dissimilar responsibilities and activities.  The second is that I have a really sticky clutch that keeps me from shifting gears quickly.  If I do not have a large block of time to ramp up into an activity I have a tendency to procrastinate on that activity.  For example,  my wife got home at 1400 today and I have a guitar class at 1500.  What do I do with that one hour?  I can accomplish a lot in one hour of solid work, but it takes me an hour to get to that hour of productive time.   My day is filled with these sorts of moments.  There is a block of time from when Eleanor goes down for a nap and my wife gets home,  an hour long block between Tracy going to bed and the time that I go to bed, and an hour and a half between my guitar class and my world religion class.  That is about 5 hours in a day that could theoretically  be used for a large amount of productive work. 

At this point many would say that this is time that they use to unwind, whatever that means.  I believe in the need to unwind, but doubt that quality unwinding can be done when a 100 different task are floating around undone.  The greatest periods of relaxation come only when there is a palpable sense of accomplishment.   In addition to these periods of relatively predictable periods of time there are those unexpected extras that you get now and again, like the extra hour I have today because my guitar class was canceled.  How do you shift gears quickly to take advantage of these times?  Here is a list of ideas that I am working to implement.

1.  Have good system to manage and track your responsibilities

I am implementing the Getting Things Done process and being able to quickly establish some hard edges to your projects and take in your landscape quickly is probably one of the greatest advantages to GTD.  Implemented fully, the GTD system allows you to quickly have a list of next actions depending on your context (at the computer, driving around in your car, sitting at your desk, etc.)  If you have to stop and think about what needs to be done, then you lose an important chunk of time and set up resistance in your path.

2.  Be neat and orderly.

I am no neat freak, but there is something to be said for being able to find your stuff when you need it.  Looking for the book you need, the pen that you need, or the documents that you need puts up a path of resistance that you have to overcome.  This resistance is what leads to procrastination.  Yesterday I prepped a bunch of food for healthy meals and snacks and put them neatly in the fridge.  This helps me overcome the resistance of eating healthy (which is hard enough already) lowers the chances I will just grab something quick from McDonalds.  Now, I am trying to deal with the crush of school books that I have, the amazing amount of reading that I have to do and having them in the right place at the right time with the assigned reading in front of me.

3.  Be willing to work in place.

I have traditionally done most of my work in coffeehouses over the years.  I am not disturbed by a house full of children and I have access to unlimited amount of good coffee.  Unfortunately, this sets me up for another path of resistance to overcome.  If I cannot work in my current location, then I have to pack up and drive to a coffeehouse.  This takes time and effort that can be used on the work at hand. During the course of my Army duties,  I might find myself in an armory, in a barracks (with limited power and Internet),  or even in the field where I might even be with out the most basic comforts, like a desk.   In my current situation, having a good workspace at home with a running agreement with my family for some solitude is critical to working in place.

4.   Shut down distractions

If you have a five hour block of time then 10 to 15 minutes of Facebook and email is fairly reasonable and can be used on breaks or to warm up a bit, but when you only have an hour then 25% of your time is down the tubes.  It also means that I might not have the time for my wife's daily debriefing (not that kind!).  She needs to give me the run down of what happened at work.  This is certainly important, but I have to, now and again,  say "I will be happy to hear about what happened at work, but right now I need to get some work in before I have to go to class."     The distraction issue is one reason I did not go with a Blackberry last week when I got my new phone.  I need some sort of firewall between me and the outside of the world or I will just be reacting not acting. 

5.  Forget the priorities

I realize that this is heresy for some devotees of older "time management."  But if you have your mind managed rather than your time, you can work intuitively instead of artificially.  What good is it if I have 1 hour to work on something and I have a list of 15 things marked with an "A"  or "Urgent"   Then I have to subdivide between the "A" list anyway because I can only do one of them in the hour or two that I have.