Angela Crocker

Write. Teach. Organize.

Schedule Digital Tasks and Digital Fun

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Digital Cleanse Day 13:

Schedule Digital Tasks and Digital Fun

Take time to schedule your digital activities. You get to decide when to use technology. In turn, this affirms when you’re NOT going to use technology. You don’t have to use it all the time. Frankly, a 24/7 digital life would be terrible for your physical and mental well-being and it can disrupt your sleep. You are in charge of your digital life. You also get to choose when you’re going to be offline, away from your computer, ignoring your smartphone.

I recommend you separate your digital tasks separately from digital fun. Digital tasks are things you do for work or your own projects. These might include writing blog posts, checking social media feeds, creating illustrations or editing copy.  Digital fun includes all your leisure activities. Movie night, browsing Instagram, video games, Instagram and other social media outlets are all fun digital activities. Of course, for a movie reviewer watching movies is work not play. That’s OK. You decide how to define the activities in your digital life.

Put your digital time in your calendar. Here’s an example from my own calendar. Events in blue are digital tasks related to my professional life. Orange events are digital snippets from my personal calendar.

A digital calendar excerpt showing digital tasks separately from digital fun.

You’ll notice my digital fun happens in early mornings, evenings and weekends. From Monday to Friday, I schedule my work related digital tasks, for the most part. What you can’t see in this example is that I have flexibility to move my digital appointments around other events. For example, if I’m a parent volunteer parent for a school field trip on Monday morning, I’ll reschedule my blog writing time for the afternoon.

There’s power in writing something down. It helps you set boundaries for how long and when you are going to do a particular activity. It also helps you prioritize that activity so it gets done. If you schedule a conflict, you decide if you can cancel the digital activity or reschedule it. Formalizing your digital appointments can also help you stick to it, especially if one or more digital tasks is a swallow the frog moment for you.

More on the 30 day #digitalcleanse tomorrow. Hope to see you then!

(If you missed yesterday’s installment, take a couple extra minutes to explore Give Up On Toxic People. For links to the complete Digital Cleanse series, click here.)

 

Idea City Method

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Digital Cleanse Day 5:

Idea City Method

Idea City Method brainstorms for the Toy Rhapsody websiteGood news! You live in Idea City. At any moment, you may be inspired with a bright idea or simply remember a task that needs doing.  To avoid distracting yourself trying to remember the idea, put all your ideas in one place. The goal is to document the idea, inspiration or task so you don’t forget. By writing it down, you improve your focus on your current task.

What I call the Idea City Method, is not a new productivity idea.  I’ve heard variations discussed by many students and writers. By following three simple steps, you increase your productivity.

  1. Capture any idea as it occurs to you. Just jot it down quickly and continue with your current task. Capture personal and professional ALL in one place.Once the idea is documented forget about it until step 2.
  2. Schedule 30 – 60 minutes every day to review your idea notes. Take immediate action on any item that can be completed in the time available.
  3. Schedule time to execute more complex tasks. Make an appointment with yourself to pay your bills, get a haircut or review the proofs of your new book. Simply moving the idea to your calendar means you’re done with that item for the today.

As with other steps in the digital cleanse, how to capture your ideas is a matter of personal preference. Some people prefer a digital solution while others go analog with pen and paper.

There are a wide range of digital solutions. Evernote, Google Drive, Basecamp and many other applications. Use the one that works for you and your workflow.

Analog solutions are varied, too. You can use a scrap of paper, loose-leaf paper or a notebook. I must admit to a deep love of pretty notebooks so I’ve always got a few in my desk drawer. I prefer pencil and I’ve seen my friend Joyelle Brandt use a full rainbow of colored pens.

I must admit I’m a little bit sneaky in my execution of the Idea City Method. I use pencil in a notebook to capture my ideas. However, my notebook is a specially formatted Evernote notebook from Moleskine. My quick scribbles and sketches can always be converted to digital notes, when needed.

More on the 30 day #digitalcleanse tomorrow. Hope to see you then!

(If you missed yesterday’s instalment, take a couple extra minutes to explore Dedicated Devices. For links to the complete Digital Cleanse series, click here.)