{"id":55,"date":"2012-04-26T10:42:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T10:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/?p=55"},"modified":"2012-04-26T10:42:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T10:42:38","slug":"time-management-deadtime-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/time-management-deadtime-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Management &#8211; deadtime tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We ran a half day workshop session recently on Time Management &#8211; and many of the usual issues came up&#8230; There\u2019s no magic bullet and it\u2019s about self discipline&#8230; any system for time management works better than no system so stop prevaricating and pick one&#8230;Pomodoro, JDI, whatever feels right for you is more right for you than random nothingness! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" title=\"stopwatch\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thebodyplanner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/time-management.jpg\" alt=\"StopWatch\" width=\"168\" height=\"155\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But one slightly unusual question did make its way to the top of the pile: how do I best use my downtime? The answer is, of course, that you don\u2019t. Downtime is downtime for a reason and if you try and work for too long without downtime you\u2019ll become inefficient and your work will be more and more error-prone.<\/p>\n<p>The reason is simple &#8211; downtime is not the same as \u2018dead time\u2019 and the real question should be \u2018How do I use my dead time?\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Dead time is time when you\u2019ve got enough energy (or whatever) to be productive but some logistical problem is stopping you. It might be that your laptop battery has died so you can\u2019t access the local cafe\u2019s wifi or it might be that your phone has no signal on the train you\u2019re on or&#8230; you get the idea. The issue is simply a logistical one, whatever the cause of the problem.<\/p>\n<p>First things first &#8211; check whether you aren\u2019t confusing downtime with deadtime. It might be simply better to stop, rest and take downtime. In fact, if you don\u2019t you might end up with your \u2018doing-time\u2019 being so unproductive it becomes deadtime!<\/p>\n<p>Given that deadtime is 99% of the time a logistical issue, the solutions lie in simply being organised enough to keep on top of your logistics. I can\u2019t promise these ideas will make every single moment of deadtime massively productive, but they work for me&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A kindle &#8211; mine has a cover with a built in light so no matter where I am, I\u2019ve always got something useful to read. If you\u2019re traveling with it a lot, I turn of my wifi connection to save on the battery life. The life\u2019s fine but if I\u2019m away for a week, every little helps.<\/li>\n<li>A laptop &#8211; I\u2019m meeting someone for a coffee\/meeting in a cafe; I\u2019m ten minutes early &#8211; where do you think I\u2019m writing this!? Again, battery life can be an issue, but my Macbook lasts for ages. I make a point of charging it while I\u2019m packing, if I\u2019m going away, so that I know it\u2019s fully charged as I leave the house &#8211; a simple trick but one that\u2019s saved my a lots hour or two over the last few weeks as I travel up and down the country by train.<\/li>\n<li>iTunesU (and podcasts) &#8211; subscribe and they\u2019re on your phone. Pack headphones and you\u2019ve got the possibility of a lecture from some of the world\u2019s leading experts in your ear as you\u2019re sitting on a buss! If you\u2019re not familiar with iTunesU, it\u2019s hidden at the back of the iStore but it\u2019s a massively useful resource of some amazing material (and some dross too, of course!). Take a while to check it out and you\u2019ll see what I mean. By the way, comfy headphones are a must if you\u2019re trying to understand tricky stuff! \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Your phone &#8211; personally mine\u2019s an iPhone but whatever you\u2019re using, learn how to use it! You don\u2019t need a notepad an pencil with you any more to jot down those moments of genius you have! There are plenty of apps that will record your voice so you can just talk to it, set the time and have it speak your notes back to you when you\u2019re in the office. No excuses for not capturing your bright idea!<\/li>\n<li>A good diary set-up &#8211; pretty much anyone with a busy job\/lifestyle can benefit from a good calendar app on their phone and I\u2019ve taken this one step further by syncing mine with the calendar on my laptop and my office computer; there are plenty of ways to do this, but personally I use Google Calendar for extra backup. What\u2019s more, with a few tweaks of the settings, friends and staff can see when I\u2019m busy, when I\u2019m free and book me in&#8230; only those few I trust, of course!<\/li>\n<li>Training shoes and a skipping rope &#8211; okay this is an odd one, I admit, but when I\u2019m traveling this all I need to make my hotel into a gym for half an hour. (I don\u2019t skip in m room &#8211; I find somewhere quite outside to do this). Other people run, but I\u2019m too lazy! I\u2019m also experimenting with a yoga DVD to pop into my laptop for that time between waking up and going down for the hotel breakfast&#8230;&#8230; but I can\u2019t tell you how well that\u2019s working, yet.<\/li>\n<li>In-car radio thingy &#8211; now I have to confess I don\u2019t know exactly what to call this little gadget. It sits in my car and broadcasts to a very short range radio signal (a metre or so) which I\u2019ve tuned one of the stations of my in-car radio to&#8230; By attaching my an MP3 player (in my case my trusty iPhone) to this gadget, I can listen to my iPhone in the car. Books, lectures, podcasts and just plain ol\u2019 music. The beauty of this, of course, is that I don\u2019t need headphones, so I stay legal and safe!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there you go &#8211; a quick run through a few of the ways I\u2019m combatting my deadtime. Your mileage will vary of course, and they won\u2019t all be useful to you, but a couple of \u2018em might be.<\/p>\n<p>Let me know&#8230; &#8230; and if you\u2019ve got any useful tips yourself, let me know that, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We ran a half day workshop session recently on Time Management &#8211; and many of the usual issues came up&#8230; There\u2019s no magic bullet and it\u2019s about self discipline&#8230; any system for time management works better than no system so stop prevaricating and pick one&#8230;Pomodoro, JDI, whatever feels right for you is more right for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-productivity-time-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}