Another thing Gary talked about in the PINO system was delegating anything we could get someone else to do for less than $50 an hour. Esp all those pesky admin details. I can totally relate to the struggle in letting them go at times. Esp when a number of the experiments in doing so are not terribly successful. when you do find the right person, it can be great.

So interesting, I was curious until I saw the results, and wham-o, instant judgment. I’m slowly working back to it just being information. With lots of opportunities for creative application of new behavior. Sudden in my face awareness has unleashed a fount of ideas from typing classes for the cats to a vacation from new input from surfing. Change is incremental, and there is nothing like a little tattle tale program on your computer to keep you honest about making it.

It’s really nuts! My brand is built so much around me and my personality that it’s hard for me to delegate much. I do delegate a lot of non-work stuff, but I’m having a hard time with some of the work stuff. Okay, nearly all of the work stuff.

Thanks for pointing out the PINO way of looking at things. I’m extremely productive, and I know that everything I do has a purpose, but do *I* need to be doing all of it? Probably not. Can I let go? Errrmmm…

After you congratulate yourself for that, maybe the next step is to exercise a little self-kindness. I think this is where Jen Hofmann would advocate *acceptance* or Havi would suggest *meeting yourself where you are*. Problem-solving is generally easier with a more compassionate mindset of curiosity than judgment. Try being open to the possibility that you are *not* a time disaster. In fact, try not calling yourself names at all. Unless they are names like The Very Brave & Curious Christine.

There is a ton of useful information in here (even without looking at it through the PINO lens). Such as: feeling like your own admin isn’t in your head. And it’s neutral info until *you decide* what it means.

I really like how Kelly identified her must-do priorities first and worked from there. It really does help to be proactive than reactive (as you concluded yourself).

So without trying to fix it all at once (because that *is* overwhelming) – pick the area that ags you the most and experiment with what you can do to change it – to bring it in closer alignment with what feels right, what feels less disastrous. Make it more efficient somehow? Do it at a different time or day? Set a limit on it? Eliminate it? Then move on to the next and so forth.

You are intrepid and amazing! And that’s why I know you *will* figure this out. oxo Cairene

Yea, the measuring has been scary. I’m currently going with the devil you know is better than the one you don’t theory. I’ll keep you posted.

Creating a container, and knowing what the most important things are. I am so not there yet, but its really helpful to define that as a goal. I also like the strategy of clustering into tasks that take a different self. I’ve been trying that with meetings, but finding that I am totally exhausted if I try to pretend I am an extrovert for too long. All about balance? It might also be my blocks are too long. I try to get whole days, it might work better if halves.

What I’m starting to see is there is time with art that is often spacious and flowing, and there is time with computers that isn’t so much. It can cross when I am doing art on the computer, but the flow isn’t as reliable. Then I wonder why so much of my time is on the computer, and so little painting? That opens up another whole can of worms.

Oh yes, its amazing how much time gets used in maintaining the technology. I might be the opposite, I get sucked into anything where I can learn or reflect. Disciplining myself to write is a challenge. Probably because I am spending so much time writing emails!

I LOVE this idea of a formula, some kind of baseline so I know how far off track I am. Bookkeepers have that baseline percentage for expenses to revenue. We should have something like that for time as well!

Here’s what HAS been working for me:
First I listed out exactly what I need to do in a week–the most important stuff that can’t be skipped:
Publish a blog post
Publish a newsletter
Tweet & comment on blogs
Copywriting projects
Proposals
Calls with prospects

Then I listed out how much time those activities would take.
Then I literally scheduled blocked out time on my calendar for them.
Calls, blog posts, and social networking all go together on the same day.
Copywriting and proposals go on the other days. They require different mindsets and states of being. Allows me to be my “internal” person on one day, and my “external” person on the next day.

Anything that’s not scheduled is “nothing time.”
Nothing time has a right to be there.
Since I already know the hours in which I’ll be working productively, it’s easier to allow myself the hours in which to do nothing.
And it’s easier to keep email from dictating my activities.
Having an assistant helps, too!

The trick is to not get carried away with this and try to schedule every single thing I need to do. Otherwise my calendar will start to look ridiculous, with no empty spaces.

So far, this is working for me. Helps to create a container for the most important things. Reduces the overwhelm and the feeling that because I’m doing x, I’m not doing a, b, and c.

Time is such a weird and wild and wonderful thing for me. Sometimes it feels like I have too much of it, but most of the time it feels like I have too little. I ultimately know that’s all about my relationship to it. Which, in many ways, remains a big mystery to me.

The last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about this – how I spend my time and how I can better spend my time. So, if you’ll pardon a bad pun, this post is very timely for me.

Thanks also for mentioning the PINO thing. And thanks to Rebecca for linking to Charlie’s post.