Recently I blogged on a number of seemingly unrelated topics. The reality is that they are all linked together by the mere fact that my time management skills leave a lot to be desired!
In my last post I wrote about the disastrous effect on my time, energy and basic well being caused by the simple act of using my enamelled bath as a cement mixer! No that wasn't my mistake, as it had been done years before I moved in. The problem had been bugging me for years, resulting in time and money wasted on all sorts of proprietary cleaning products.
What I learned from the whole bath episode is that by thinking smart I can achieve pretty much anything I set my mind to. One whole week later the bath remains white and shinier than it has been at any time in the past. The men in my life have kept it that way, simply by spraying the bath, walls and shower curtain with shower cleaner each time they've used it - that's a miracle in itself! This means that I should hever again have to waste four hours of my life giving myself intense pain radiating from my shoulder to my wrist again!
To take this lesson and learn from it would be the ideal. Sadly the human condition being what it is means that it isn't as likely as I'd like it to be. One example of this is my use of my android cell phone for simple day to day tasks, such as checking my g-mail account. It has revolutionised my life. Beforehand I would start up my trusty desk top computer pretty much twice a day with the intention of just checking...
The result would generally be lost minutes, hours or even days, yes DAYS! The same is true of the borrowed lap-top in the days of being the official secretary for the Offaly DAI (Offaly Dyslexia Group). Once that baby was started it was a rare day that I accomplished much outside of the fascinating realm of the world wide web.
The offer of an upgraded cell phone came in the guise of a call from my network providers back in early December. I had been experiencing some difficulties in service (that I associated with in-built obsolescence) and had planned on visiting the phone store anyway, so the call came at exactly the right time. My criteria for an upgrade was simple 1) it must be inexpensive, 2) have built in broadband usage and 3) if it were possible to get a smart phone it had to have Office! Enter the Samsung Galaxy II...
Put simply this phone has revolutionised my life and I love it! I've got the full office suite which I use regularly to produce documents for the various extra curricular activities, it synchronises with Google, importing all my contacts and accounts and eventually I will be able to configure it to sync with my google calndar too. Sheer bliss...
So, imagine all that and having more time to use too. For me this couldn't have come at a better time. My good friend and colleague who has recently been acting as our manager was taken gravely ill on New Years day. We don't yet know what the outcome will be, but we are all putting on a good show of positivity and offering as much love, support and assistance as possible in the hopes that it might just make life a little easier for her and her family.
Meanwhile the burden of replacing her indomitable energetic management of the department has largely fallen on my shoulders. With the help and support of my colleagues and staff things are just about working out. My learning curve has taken a dramatic and steep ascent overnight, I just hope that I will be able to keep on top of things the way my very good friend and now gravely ill colleague did.
This of course is where a diary is invaluable. Day to day queries will still be scribbled on my desk top planner but at the end of each shift the important things will find their way onto the pages of two diaries.
The office diary is a given, remaining on the desk for general consumption. The other will travel with me and hopefully keep me on track with all my commitments. These include a review with Occupational Health tomorrow morning! Hopefully my diary will have reminded me to ring the Exemptions office beforehand for news of my review...
Thanks for dropping in guys. If you need help in getting yourself organised, why not drop into Flylady next and see how she does it? I'm certainly one of her faithful devotees and swear by the tools freely available to download on her site (especially her great big calendar...)
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