Time Management Tuesday: Be Ready To Start Again

Ernest Hemingway said of writing, "The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next."  And guess what? Jan Allen Graduate Mentor (Oh, how I love the name of that blog.) says something very similar. "There’s an essential task in your last five minutes of writing each day that will save time and increase your productivity. Five minutes before you stop writing, make a list of your next steps and ideas for continuing your writing at your next session."

What they're both saying is, Know what you're going to do when you come back to work.

What does this have to do with managing time? Getting started for the day can be hard and take a lot of time. If you know what you're going to do before you start working, you can hit the ground running.

Allen writes about flow in her Your Last Five Minutes of Writing Post post. Flow is a very desirable state in writing, and anything else. In addition to feeling good, it can move work along quickly. Among the conditions that can lead to it: concentration, feeling in the moment, and feeling in control. You don't get to flow struggling just to begin work.

As it turns out, I did know what I was going to do when I started work this morning.