Reposted: Time Management and the Author

A great piece by Cedar Sanderson of the Mad Genius Club, readers!

Time Management and the Author

I’m dealing with a number of deadlines this month. Writing, graphic design, and personal. I’ve always done better with deadlines than without. As I, ah, matured, I learned to give myself self-imposed deadlines to try and prevent myself from letting the work pile up to the very end. This doesn’t always work. It depends how much you respect yourself, for one. If you don’t give those deadlines the same authority that an external deadline has, you’ll blow past them and then panic later. Or at least, I will.

I’m also a very visual person, which means that my surroundings get cluttered, as I need to see something to remember it exists. However, if it’s been there for too long, I stop seeing it. This paradox means that my big whiteboard on the office wall has to be refreshed from time to time, or I lose sight of the lists on it. The calendars help more – the monthly is best, I’m finding, as I have to stand there and write it all down at the beginning of the month. The annual is harder to read (smaller squares and the small markers aren’t very bold) and also a mass of information my brain finds overwhelming. I also use an online calendar, but it’s not in my face the way the ones on the walls are.

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