I’m staring down the barrel of my kitchen timer. Tick… tick… tick…
Already a minute has passed since I wound it up to 30 minutes.
I can feel the stress rising already.
Because I’ve only got until it hits zero to write this email today.
Not that I don’t like spending time writing it. Today… that’s really all the time I’ve got.
So I’m sitting here. Mildly stressing. As I watch my dictation go into Microsoft Word and — be duly mangled. It just loves putting full stops wherever I pause — even for a quick breath.
But it’s how I’m coping with getting the words out of my head quickly today. (I’m no speed typist.)
One of these days I should teach myself how to drive it a little better. But at least I need know how to say the command: “New line”. So I’m not staring at a massive blob of text like I did last time.
You will have to put up with some waffle today, sorry! I waffle enough in my edited emails.
So hopefully I’ll have time to edit that down. Because it’s 30 minutes for EVERYTHING!
[Meta comment: And here I am on 15mins left and edited less than half! Aargh!]
The reason I’ve put the timer on today is because there’s a lot of stuff on. Not just work stuff, but really cool family stuff.
A group of us are now heading out for breakfast, which is cool. And it’s an opportunity to spend a little more time with my brother in law. He’s been staying with us. And heads off tomorrow.
And the crowd this morning will also include two of my kids and one of their friends.
Then after breakfast, I’m on “Dad Duty” duty and going with my daughter and friend to drop her friend home after staying the night (school holidays right now)
But that’s an hour round trip. So my usual morning focus time for writing and learning. Is somewhat limited.
So here I am at 5:22 AM in the morning. Staring anxiously at Microsoft Word. As it kinda picks up (or “picks off” as it decided I said) what I’m saying.
And also glancing frantically at my kitchen timer. That is now down to exactly 25 minutes.
[Meta comment: Ahh, that’s 9 minutes left now I’ve arrived here editing!]
So that’s not bad. I’ve done about 3/4 of a page in that 5 minutes.
The thing is:
Yes, there IS a thing…
This email is a chance, if I haven’t said it already, to share that one of those strategies for just getting things done quickly is to put on a timer.
And if you don’t have a wonderful round little wind-up kictchen timer like I’ve got. That’s ticking mercilessly away and is now at 23 minutes [Meta comment: 6.5 minutes at this point in editing!].
Then the timer on your phone will work just fine.
If you like putting the pressure on like this… and even if you don’t…
There can be something good about it. Certainly for me.
This added a little bit of pressure means I’m mindful of the time.
Usually I sit down and start something. Knowing I’ve only got a short amount of time to do it, but I just get carried away.
But sometimes we have to say that perfection isn’t possible. But 90% of the way there is “good enough”
And that’s all the time I have for writing. So I’m going to stop there.
There might be something in there this email for you today. If nothing else, you might have been suffering along while reading it and feeling sorry for this poor sad man who feels the need to narrate his email writing. 🤪
The other reason I will stop there is because it’s going to take me. Most of my remaining time to go back and edit. This enormous pile of words that is now stretched to just over a page.
Oh… my… gosh!
Should you need to get some stuff done in a flash too…
Maybe this timer trick can be your friend too.
Have a productive day!
Chris Mallam. (Er… thank’s Microsfot Word)
[Meta comment: 2 mins to go after first editing sweep… and do I go back to the top? Ahh… no… my timer just went off when it was at the 1-minute mark… guess there’s no more editing. But I’ve made rule that meta comments can go past the timer end 😁… I feel oh so anxious inside letting this email go out without having done more than a cursory quick edit. I’m going to send this without going back to fix any typos or whatever. Let’s see how this little experiment goes…]
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Chris Milham