A few weeks ago, I wrote a rather tongue in cheek post on time management.

Time management isn't necessarily one of my strong suits, but as I continue to find personal and professional projects that I want to tackle, growing my blog audience, writing my next book, mowing the lawn- I need some type of system to help me be productive in a way that feels satisfying to me at the end of the day.

Last Saturday, I found myself in the middle of a typical morning - brain dumping all of the tasks I wanted to tackle while I drank my coffee - then feeling paralyzed at the thought of choosing which place to start.

Typically, after this kind of a brain dump, I'd eventually pick one task, work on it for an hour or so, get tired or bored, lay down to take a nap, and that would be the end of it. I often wouldn’t get very far with my list. I would try to tackle the entire project in one go, but when I either got bored or ran out of steam, I would fizzle out and so would the rest of plans. Then I'd get to the end of the day feeling frustrated with myself for not having done more when I had the chance.

But last Saturday, with the idea of the five minute action in mind, I sat down at my desk, set a timer for 10 minutes, and started.

I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I sat down to write with the timer on my desk. It was tough to sit there, but after about five minutes, I started to write. When the timer went off, I’d started to write and so I set the timer again. After 30 minutes, I was getting antsy, so I got up from my desk.

Then I went to the next task. Cleaning out my clothes in the spare room felt like a monumental task, but I took my phone with me, set the timer, and just started. I started. That was the key. (Isn’t that always the key? And yet doesn’t it always feel so hard?) Once again, I reset the timer multiple times before moving on to my next task.

I’ve always joked that I'm a commitment-phobe - not with relationships, but certainly with my time. If you want to see me truly unhappy, lock me into doing one thing for several hours (except for going to a baseball game). I'm not wired like that. I don't think in a linear fashion, and I certainly don't like to work in a linear fashion. I'm scattered. I like variety - a lot of it.

And I found that using a 10 minute timer as my gauge worked with my personality and not against it.

Sure I did several tasks for 30 minutes or more, but I only made 10 minute commitments. Three-10 minute commitments felt more manageable to me than one 30 minute chunk.

For me, life always works better when I embrace my personality and tendencies and work with who I am - not trying to change who I am, but finding subtle ways to be the best version of me. I'll never be Marie Kondo (yes those socks bring me joy!!!), but I can find a way to be more productive in a manner that works and feels good to me.

I don’t know if this 10 minute thing will work for you. Heck, I don’t know how long it will work for me. But I’m going to ride the wave and see how far it takes me.

In the past few weeks I’ve started to track how I spend my time. Not to the minute, but every hour or so during the day, I jot down what I’ve done during the past 60 minutes. Like many of us, I’d like to be more productive, so I thought a time tracker might be a good place to start.

I feel like I’ve learned some important lessons during this process and I want to share those with you today.

You’re welcome in advance (and I apologize for the implied profanity. But poop show doesn’t sound the same…)

1. TRY NOT TO BE A SH*T SHOW

I’m not sure if sh*t show is a technically a personality trait, but if so, that’s my strongest one, behind introversion.

Anyone who has ever witnessed me trying to leave the gym at the end of the night has seen this in person, with my five bags, one coffee mug, one blender bottle, and keys? Where are my keys?

This morning, it took me an hour to get ready for work. I work at a gym, don’t fix my hair, and I’m not really required to do anything but smell better than a sweaty gym sock. Reflecting on the hour it took me to actually get pants on (sweat pants, yes), this is what happened:

*I spent ten minutes in the shower trying to get the pump to work on the new giant bottle of shampoo. That was after I got in the shower, realized the old bottle was empty, and then got out of the shower to get the new bottle. Eventually, I gave up on getting the new pump to work and took the whole damn lid off. That’s when a quarter of the new bottle fell out into the shower. I rubbed my hands in the glob of shampoo on the floor of the tub and lathered what I could manage into my hair.

Then I reached for the razor that conveniently hangs on the shower wall, because Sheila (who is not a sh*t show). The razor fell out of my hands, still slippery from the shampoo excursion, and came apart. My hands pruned as I tried to get the razor blade back on to the razor handle, and then it fell off three more times before I finally cut myself shaving my legs.

Because of course I did.

And I still missed the spot on the back of my legs that I always miss and I now have a Rapunzel like growth of leg hair.

You’re welcome for the image.

*I plucked a gray chin hair and then freaked out because it was A GRAY CHIN HAIR.

So tip number one - don’t be like me.

At all.

2. KEEP YOUR LIDS WITH THE COFFEE MUGS

I spent another 15 minutes trying to find the lid to my Yeti mug. Yes, I have 7 other mugs in the cabinet and I could find lids to go with them. But IT HAD TO BE THE YETI MUG BECAUSE YETI.

This tip also applies to Tupperware and storage containers for food. Matching lids to containers is the bane of my existence.

Side note - when I was a kid, my mom used Country Crock bowls as Tupperware and finding the butter was a sh*t show. Maybe I learned to be a sh*t show from my mom. If you’re reading this mom, I’m sorry I said sh*t…

3. MAYBE TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OUT OF THE DRIER BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO FIND THEM.

After my 45 minute adventure in the shower, I had to find clothes. Which I’d washed. On Sunday. And put in the drier. And that was as far as I got because my laundry cycle includes putting clothes into the washer and then into the drier and then onto my person. 

Which, if you’re curious, is how I finally got pants on.

So I think my advice here is to also not be like me. Put your clothes in a drawer. Maybe fold them too.

Nah….just put them in a drawer.

BONUS TIP

Have bacon and a hair dryer ready to get your 11-year old basset hound out of the yard where he’s been eating dirt and grass in the pouring rain and is pretending that he doesn’t know his name for 25 minutes while you also periodically come out and stand in the pouring rain yelling at him.

Those are just a couple of tips that are not really tips but things you should never, ever do if you’d like to be more productive with your life.

And if you’re tempted to have me watch some Marie Kondo Netflix show, I’d offer this in all honesty:

I wrote this post so that you, reading it, will know that you’re not alone. If you walked out the door with your pants on backwards (I did this Saturday night), forgot to pack socks in your gym bag (at least once a week) or spent 20 minutes looking for the pants that you had in your hand five minutes ago (that was last Thursday for me), it’s ok.

Chances are, if organization isn’t your strong suit, there are so many other things you bring to the table. Creativity, the ability to adapt to any situation, and you probably have a lot of empathy for other people. It’s easy to feel like if we are not more organized we are wrong. That if we don’t plan more, we’re wrong. That if we don’t do things the way we are supposed to, we are wrong.

Well, as I like to tell clients who ask me if they are doing exercises wrong in my classes, my answer is the same.

You’re not doing it wrong.

Just different.