I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been struggling with my time management. After a busy day at work, I’m not coming home with a focused mind ready to achieve the tasks at hand. Part of the problem is due to the fact that I’ve had too many projects on the go at once – and I’m trying to do them all simultaneously.

I’ll start something; I’ll think of something else 20 seconds later, and then I’ll be jumping between different tasks without seeing anything through to completion.   Because I’m tired after the busy day, my short term priorities change and I’ll work on non-crucial tasks (because I’ll end up doing what I feel like doing, not what I should be doing!).

I’ll then look back at the list of things that I wanted to achieve – and realise that I’ve done nothing that was on the list. The end result is a lot of disorganised, half finished projects. At least I’ve identified a problem, now its time to find a solution.

Setting Daily Goals

I think my solution is to start setting specific daily goals, and stick with them. So I’ve decided that I need to start planning, otherwise my progress will suffer.   By implementing this guide, my goal is to have more focus, increase my productivity and be more accountable for my results.

Mind Mapping My Week

Starting on a Sunday I will be planning my week ahead. I’m going to begin with a mind map, creating a branch for every day of the week. I’m going to create a flexible outline that I can expand upon each week. The following activities will become the basis for my template.

My weekly MindMap blueprint - Setting the schedule for the week

Monday

I’m dedicating Monday to reading and research. The idea is start the week with inspiration to spark new ideas.  This will mean reading books, listening to audio material and taking notes – but not acting upon anything.

Tuesday

After giving myself time to think over the new material that I have absorbed, Tuesday will be a content creation day.  This might mean creating blog posts, writing reports and ebooks.

Wednesday

Wednesday will be used for interaction. This means I’ll post and promote any new material that I have created, and engage with my audience using social media. This might mean developing contacts through Twitter, posting on forums, and building upon various Web 2.0 sites.

Thursday

Thursdays are a very busy day for me and my time is limited at the end of the day. But for what time I get – I will devote it to both technical and creative applications. This might include technical development of new niche sites, keeping up to date with WordPress plug-ins and keeping track of any marketing campaigns.

Friday

Friday afternoons I usually don’t get much achieved – so I’m going to leave this open.  This time can be used to sum up my progress so far, build my motivation for setting goals for the weekend.

Weekend

I usually use weekends as a time to unwind from a busy week, (and all motivation goes out the window!). But if I’ve previously identified some things that I would like to achieve, I’m going work on following through.  Weekends are a great time to work on developing creative ideas and turning them into actions.

So that is my new weekly blueprint of what activities I’ll be aiming to work on each day.  Although the idea is to also leave this schedule fairly flexible and changeable when necessary – it also means that if the temptation arises to jump between doing various tasks at once, I’ll know I’ll need to pull myself up to make sure I keep on track.

Although the creative process is something that can not be directly controlled, my aim is to be able to shape it. This has to be better than living in a constant state of creative chaos!