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[swan_tower]

I'm really digging my schedule these last few weeks. I teach MWF, which means my Tuesdays and Thursdays are open, and lately that's led to a pretty high degree of productivity. I go to the gym those days, so I always have to leave the house anyway; it's pretty easy to talk myself into running errands along the way, especially since the gym is a bit of a drive, and it feels wasteful to go all the way to the other side of town just for that.

It reinforces what I've thought before: I'm at my best when I have some structure in my life. Give me nothing but free time and unscheduled tasks, and I end up floundering. Maybe it's just perception, but I feel like I get more done in an average week now that teaching is taking up some of my time than I did this summer, when my schedule was completely open.

The best example of this rule might be the last two months of my senior year. Having finished my thesis, I was taking two classes, one of them pass/fail, and I had a grand total of five hours of class per week. I wrote a novel and six short stories, and had a great social life, too.

Which raises an interesting point. If I ever do end up writing full-time, I'll probably need to find some regular volunteer job or the like -- something that makes me leave the house on a regular basis. Otherwise the lack of structure might hamstring me.

Anyway, I'm almost done with lunch; time to put my money where my mouth is and do the productivity thing.

(I'll admit, though, that I'm looking forward to when the wedding is done, and I can officially declare Screw Productivity Week, when I will do jack-all that Tuesday and Thursday.)

Comments

[unforth.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about the "some structure" - certainly, it's something I've noticed about myself more than once. Give me no structure at all...and I create enough structure to function. Because otherwise I get NOTHING done. A little bit of structure, or even a lot of structure, and I get tons done. Which is why my bills were more likely to get paid on time when I was working two jobs and going to school than they are now.

I don't know why our brains work that way, but I'm kind of glad it's not just me. ;)

As to being hamstrung...volunteering sounds nice! Or even a small part time job somewhere that interests you. :)