Thank you so much to everyone who took my time perception survey! We closed the survey with a little over 900 completed responses. I was blown away with how quickly we surpassed the tally goal. Anyway, I look forward to digging into the data and the open-ended responses, but for those who were curious about the non-profit split, it was 33 percent for Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 22 percent for the Nature Conservancy, and 45 percent for Doctors without Borders. I don’t know if I would have predicted that, but there we go. It held pretty steady – looking at the first 500 responses (my original goal) it was 43 percent Doctors without Borders, 23 percent Nature Conservancy, and 34 percent Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Also, just a quick read of the time management tips people shared, a number suggested bullet journaling. I’m not quite sure what this entails, and it’s possible I already do something similar with my notebooks and lists, but I will have to delve into that a bit more given the interest.
In other news… I finished A Moveable Feast yesterday (the reading streak continues). I found this affirmation from Hemingway very comforting: “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Love it.
Speaking of great quotes, novelist Carol Weston sent me one yesterday from her new YA novel (out next week!) called Speed of Life:
“In science that day, Dr. Pavlica had mentioned the speed of light, and I’d heard ‘the speed of life.’ While he was going on about E = mc², I was thinking again about how crazy it is that life just speeds along, sunrise after sunrise, season after season. Whether you’re totally miserable or insanely happy, the months keep coming, crashing like waves. There are no do-overs, no backsies, and bad stuff happens. But then I thought, Wait. Good stuff happens too. And sometimes, even a kiss can slow time down.”
I love that one as well.
Finally, next week I’m going to be exploring the idea of a List of 100 Dreams here on this blog. The List of 100 Dreams is a bucket list of sorts — a completely unedited list of anything you might want to do or have in life. Most people making bucket lists don’t make it all the way to 100. You’re kind of reaching by the end of it! But that’s the point. You really have to think, and you wind up with some small stuff too. You can read my List of 100 Dreams from 2015 here. Next week, I’ll have a challenge for people to either scratch something off their lists, or make a specific date when they will (e.g. schedule a future vacation or get tickets to a show or something). I will do a giveaway for people who post comments on that particular thread. Most likely it’s going to be a signed copy of Cork Dork, by Bianca Bosker. It’s getting great reviews, including this one from the New York Times.
Now off to read more time logs and time management tips!
Ha-bullet journaling! I couldn’t help but laugh at that as a time management technique, because I definitely spend MORE time on it than my old planner. But it is time well spent in my opinion because it brings me joy. I totally get sucked into (and enjoy) viewing different layouts and collection pages; time spent filling out my gratitude pages and other collection pages; time spent creating each weekly and monthly layout by hand. Yep, definitely spend more time on it, but I guess time management is more than just number of hours spent!
I do the same, but because I think it’s fun 🙂 However, the original intent of Bullet Journaling is very bare-bones and functional. People have turned it into something… else 🙂
Laura – the videos at http://www.bulletjournal.com are super helpful in understanding the “system”. If you look on Pinterest or Buzzfeed it will show you some crazy stuff, none of which are time-saving 🙂
Bullet journals!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! If you Google them, be prepared! If you do it the original way, yeah, it may help with the time management, but…! Some people go crazy with them. They can be very beautiful and creative, but it sure looks time-intensive to me!
Laura – Do you write a new List of 100 Dreams each year or just continue with the same one? Mine tend to change over time, but I also struggle with getting all the way to 100 so it may take me the whole year to figure out 100 things 🙂
I sent your survey to the Parents discussion email list at work, so hopefully they helped you out 🙂
Laura, thank you so much for the informative information on the Seven Time Management Strategies. As you mentioned, many of us know these strategies; however, we fail to utilize them. I particularly, like “Move Time Around” – think in 168 hours rather than 24 hours.
I’m definitely one who bullet journals, but mine are very sparse! Lately, it’s been great for keeping a close accounting of my planned work time vs. my actual — I referred back to it to fill out the survey, too 🙂
Our friend Modern Mrs Darcy is a huge fan of bullet journaling: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/bullet-journaling-book-lovers/