Time Management Habits of Creative Minds

When people think about creative people and their working habits, many assume that they live as hermits, closing themselves off from the outside world to finish their latest masterpieces.

This couldn’t be further from the truth for some of the greatest creative minds the world has ever known; Beethoven got eight hours’ sleep per night and spent around four hours prior to that socialising.

Next time you find yourself falling into the trap of working far too long and neglecting everything else, have a look at this great infographic from In Info We Trust.

The work/life balance of some of the greats:

• While writing Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert slept for 7 hours a night, 5.5 hours writing, 5 hours reading and 4.5 hours eating and socialising.

• Thomas Mann definitely believed in the powers of a good night’s sleep, eight hours a night and an hour-long afternoon nap during his average working day. He also spent 6.5 hours per day socialising and eating, with just 3 hours spent writing.

• Beethoven, as mentioned earlier, also slept for 8 hours per night, walked for two hours after dinner and worked for another eight hours. He didn’t skimp on socialising either, spending 4.5 hours reading in a tavern on an average evening.

• Sigmund Freud devoted less of his time to sleeping; indulging in just six hours per night. He spent a massive 12.5 hours per day working, but took breaks regularly to spend time with his family or to take a brisk walk.

• Charles Dickens generally spent 7 hours sleeping, 5 hours writing, 3 hours walking and 9 hours socialising and eating.

If they could achieve such great work without giving up their family time, social life and sleep, so can you!

All you need to do is learn how to manage your time and how not to let one aspect of your life take over. For regular tips, sign up to our blog and newsletter now.

Alternatively, why not book one of Andrea’s individual time management and productivity sessions? Her availability can be found here, just click and select a time that suits you.

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!

Time Management – How to Review Your Time Management Performance

Now that you have been reading our time management and productivity tips and putting them into practise (you have, haven’t you?), you probably feel you’re well on the way to being a new, improved, super-productive individual. Chances are that’s at least partly true, but how can you test how productive you have really become?

You have probably noticed some extra time in your day, but that alone is not proof that you’re doing the best you can. Just like other aspects of your working life, your time management processes need to be reviewed regularly to make sure they’re functioning correctly.

Think of it in the same way you would your annual review or personal development objectives – you know what you’re working towards, but every now and again you need to take a step back and cast a critical eye over your performance.

What’s going well? What could do with a little more tweaking? Here’s how to get another step closer to your full potential.

Reviewing your time management performance

To start the review, ask yourself the following questions:

• What tasks would I do if I only had half the time available?
• Which relationships add most value to my working day?
• Which relationships tend to add stress?
• If I could do one thing today to make tomorrow an excellent day, what would it be?

Now that you have identified some positives and some potential problem areas, it’s time to move on to making them work for you:

• Remember the tasks you ditched when you only had half the working time available? Why not really get rid of them? If they could be forgotten if you ran out of time, why do they need to be done in the first place? If something cannot be completely dropped from your schedule, can you at least reduce the frequency of that task? Why not delegate the tasks if they need to be done but you don’t need to do them

• Give priority to the working relationships that add value to your day and help you in terms of productivity, and simultaneously make a real effort to cut back on those time-wasters and stress generators. This is all about cutting the dead wood from your workload.

• If just one task has a massive effect on your day, get it done! Either at the end of today or first thing tomorrow, complete that all-important task and you’ll be guaranteed a much better day. As long as task #1 is done, the day can throw what it likes at you – your priorities are satisfied and everything else will fall into place.

• Still concerned then spend Wednesday lunchtime taking part in Andrea’s free 1 hour webinar “10 Essential Tips for Getting More Done in 2014”

Now is also a good time to review our previous advice. Have a look at these blogs to get you started; you may be surprised by how much you’ve forgotten or how easily you’ve slipped back into some bad habits. Today is the perfect time to make some changes!

• Stop Wasting Time at Meetings! Inefficient Meeting Habits you Must Break NOW
• How Not to Manage Your Business 
• 5 Rules for Efficient and Effective Emailing
• 4 Quick De-Stressing Tips
• 3 Quick Preparation Tips
• Prioritising Needs Over Wants 
• Subjugate the Seven Time Management Sins 
• Productivity at Work: How The Experts Do It. Part 1 & Part 2

There’s plenty more where they came from too. Sign up now to receive free, weekly productivity emails straight to your inbox,  and don’t forget to keep an eye on our blog for new pearls of wisdom.

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!