time slicing [07/23/2008 20:12:13]
I'm developing a new daily checklist, and as part of that, I'm setting a goal for how to allocate my time:
Lately I tend to swap between catching up on little things, then focusing for long periods on one thing, then scrambling to catch up again. I'd like to establish some balance.
So I'm going to start time-slicing.
time-slicing isn't always bad
Yeah, I know this kind of multi-tasking is bad for big projects. I've made the same argument numerous times.
Swapping within a project delays the flow of value by making projects take much longer to complete. (Joel on Software has a nice illustration.)
However, most of my work is not project-centric, but stream-centric.
support stream
Support, for example, is a constant stream of requests to answer. It doesn't take up a huge amount of time, but the longer I wait to answer each request, the more pain and suffering it causes for both me and the customer.
client work stream
My hourly contract work is also a stream, even though I spend the time working on a project.
That is, if I agree to work around 20 hours per week, it doesn't matter where in the week I allocate that time. I could pull two ten-hour days or I could work 3 hours a day, 7 days a week. (I set my own hours, so it doesn't have to be exactly 20.)
Similarly, I don't have to do those 3 hours all at once. I can do three one-hour sessions, or four forty-five-minute sessions, or six half-hour sessions. I picked 4 by 45 because that's enough time for me to accomplish something meaningful code-wise, but still small enough to seem doable "in the moment".
As long as my client measures deadlines in weeks instead of hours, my task-swapping doesn't change anything. (In fact, my actual delays have come from not getting enough hours in per week - it's been too hard to block out 3 solid hours to sit down and work.)
goal stream
I have lots of goals:
- get in shape
- build a good marketing system
- learn Spanish
- write about interesting things
- build cool software and websites
For me, these goals are the big rocks in the jar.
They're the things I want to spend most of my time on, but in practice, I hardly work on them at all because of all the "little stuff".
No more. Structuring my time this way guarantees that I'll have at least 4 1-hour sessions to spend on my goals. One of those hours will go to my goal of getting in shape, and the others I can allocate any way I want.
the plan
My earlier attempts at setting a schedule fell victim to constant interruptions and my erratic sleep schedule.
Even if I get my sleep back under control (another item on the checklist), I'd still prefer a more flexible schedule.
So the plan is to do four quick "loops" a day.
Each loop is 2 hours, 15 minutes:
- 15 mins - plan all tasks for this loop in detail
- 45 mins - client work
- 15 mins - handle support
- 60 mins - work on one goal
Four loops will take up 9 hours. I'm also budgeting 2 hours for errands, 3 for fun, and 8 for sleep, leaving 2 hours of slack per day.
Any time I finish something early, the extra time goes into the slack buffer, and if I'm running late, I'll use up the slack.
Rather than being a workaholic, I want to optimize for fun. Once I've accomplished all the loops and errands, any remaining slack gets converted to fun time. If for some reason I exhaust the buffer, I'll try to postpone errands before eating in to my "fun" time.
What's my idea of fun? That's a good question. I don't really know yet. Some of my goals and projects ARE fun, so that's part of it. Having a social life also falls under this category.
The loops and sleep time are meant to be atomic. They don't get chopped up, and I'll do my best to avoid any kind of outside interruption. The fun and errand times can be chopped up as needed.
So that's the plan.
I don't know for sure that any of this is going to work, but it seems doable and (more importantly) something I maintain as a lifestyle.