How is your time management during “shelter in place”? If projects are still stuck, it’s not too late to use your newly-found time.

A month ago, life threw us a curve. I talked to you about it in a piece called “And Now You Have the Time.” It challenged us all to use the time to tackle some of the things we’ve been putting off. We promise ourselves results “when I have the time.” If you missed that piece, go back and check it out on the blog or podcast. A month later, the question is, how are you doing?

We’ve had the choice to spend our time concentrating on things within our control or worrying about things beyond our control. We’ve seen examples of selfishness and fear in grocery store aisles. We’ve also seen displays of selflessness as overworked people keep the ship afloat. 

So how have you gotten “better” over these last several weeks? Have some of those home-maintenance projects moved forward? Have you learned that new skill? Have you attacked that stack of reading material? 

If you’ve made good use of the time, you’re motivated to keep it going.  If not, it’s not too late to start. After all, we may have a while to go and we might as well make the best of the newly-found time we all have.

It starts with a single step

Fast forward two weeks. What would you like to see as “done”? List those projects. Now pick one. What would be the first step towards moving the project forward? Often, it’s as simple as a phone call to ask someone a question or search for a quick demonstration on YouTube. You may find the toughest part is merely deciding what that step is.

Inertia is a powerful force. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. Sitting in front of CNN or FOX for hours on end leads to more of the same. But an object in motion tends to stay in motion. With time as a friend, you’ll be surprised at how quickly something you’ve put off for ages moves to “doing” and then to “done.”

Obstacles lead to opportunities

So you like to read, but the library is closed. I’ve just discovered the joy of reading books on my tablet with a free Amazon Kindle App. With the “Kindle Unlimited” service, over 1 million titles become available, all for $9.99 a month. In fact, the first month is free. Not only do you have the opportunity to read, but to try out a new way to do an old thing. That’s been the answer for me lately. As digital as I am, I liked to turn pages instead of reading from a screen.  

I found I could highlight text, but to be honest, I have never been a fan of using a highlighter on a book. You don’t see the highlights unless you return to the book, right? Your highlights are scattered all over the place. Plus, highlighting text in a library book doesn’t exactly put you in good standing with the librarian.

But did you know when you highlight Kindle text, it’s all gathered in one place? If you are logged into your Amazon account, go to https://read.amazon.com/notebook to see all your highlights for all your books. You’re then free to copy and paste them anywhere you like. I didn’t know about that. Did you?

I also noticed some passages were already underlined with light, dashed lines. As it turns out, those are passages commonly underlined by other people. Suddenly, it’s like we all become members of one big book club.  I’m enjoying the convenience of having a collection of books on something I can drop in a briefcase. I’m especially enjoying not having to take notes manually. It’s one small way I’ve gotten better. 

If you’ve been waiting until you “had to time,” there’s no better time than now. Sharpen your time management during “shelter in place.” Pick something and let’s get started.

You can also listen to this, and many other posts on the podcast. Come over and catch up. Listen while you are doing other things.

In the video, I promised you a link to get the Bitly link shortener extension for Chrome. Here it is.