Time Management Tips #2 - Add Creative Hours

Are you a night owl or an early bird?  When are you at your creative best?

For me, I found that I tend to be my most productive in the mornings, but most creative at night.  I also found that some of my best ideas happen in the space of early Saturday or Sunday mornings.

Time Management Tips #2 is -- Find your creative hours.  If you know when you are at your creative best, then you can shape your schedule around that to support your most creative times.

I've found that structuring my time is my single best way to get exponential results in less time.  Originally, I structured my time to focus on productivity.  What I was missing was the think time, and the creative time ... the space for creative inspiration.  In the world of knowledge work, you can't "be what's next" if you don't make space to figure it out, and if you don't make space to think up, experiment, and play at your ideas.

It's really an awareness thing, but if you start to pay attention to the state you're in during the week, you'll start to notice patterns.  Maybe you feel inspired and smarter in the morning.  Maybe you ease into it throughout the day.

There is a big difference between grinding through work to be done, and stepping back, taking a breath, and using your creative abilities.  If you feel you never get a chance to take your creative breath, then bake it into your schedule, and carve out the breathing room.

In 30 Days of Getting Results, you can use the exercise and time management tips for Creative Hours to get exponential results on a daily and weekly basis.

You can also find more time management tips in my book, Getting Results the Agile Way, and on Getting Results.com