Time management again...

I'm gonna go ahead and say it.  I really much prefer writing at this time of night/morning.  I have a clear head, I'm having a cider, listening to a friend's music, and unwinding.  I don't have to spring out of bed so early tomorrow morning either.  I was just reading a blog from around this time last year where I was going on about "how am I going to survive working 64 hours a week!" Happy to report to my one-year-ago self that I made it through and it wasn't all that bad. 

This is actually good knowledge for me to unearth, polish off, and reexamine in a different context.  See, in a few weeks, I'll be starting up that racket again, only this time, it's basically 8 days a week versus the 4 days worth of doubles followed by a regular Friday and a weekend off.  I'll be working Saturday and Sunday evenings 3pm-11pm at CNN for 2 months, while continuing to pull 3:30pm-11:30pm shifts at NY1 Monday through Friday.  When I was asked about covering someone's maternity leave there, I came up with the plan to disperse my remaining personal days at NY1 during the weekdays throughout the months of June and July so that I could ease the load a little bit. 

In the end, I wound up just taking two big chunks of time off in July, so June might be rough.  Just sayin'.  But I'm ready for it.  I did something this crazy last year and in fact, continued to do it after the CNN work dried up, albeit a little less, working only twice to four times a week at TruTV (the third and fourth shifts being short weekend morning shifts when no one else was there).  In fact, barely a week has gone by since last April that I haven't worked at least 50 hours a week.  And I've still worked on music and furthered my voice over career and kept up with yoga and still had time to get out and see some great music and travel. 

So, yeah, it's remarkable what a little time management can help you accomplish.  I've actually thought about writing a book on the subject of time management and how I pull this crazy stuff off.  I could boil it down to a handful of important maxims.  The first and most important being to auto pilot as much as you can (this is not entirely my wording but the idea did come to me on its own...I already know exactly what I need at the grocery store most weeks and for the most part, for example, so that goes pretty quick).  The second is to know how much time it takes you to do certain things (the most basic being showering, cooking, eating and commuting...but then other things more specific to your situation come into play, i.e. for me, how much time do I really need to record a script for a voice over audition and do it well?).  Additionally, you have to identify the gaps in your day during which you can squeeze certain tasks in, what kinds of things can you do simultaneously (for me, an example is laundry and cooking...getting good at that one.  I have to run down the block to do coin laundry so I start my brown rice cooking before I walk down the hill with my laundry bag, etc.).  Also, and this is probably the most important, how can you fit in exercise and relaxation...because let's face it. I'd probably go nuts trying to do all this if I didn't stop and center myself once a day at least.

So, sure, I could probably flesh that all out into a book if I threw in some anecdotes for good measure.  But then, I gotta find the time to start writing down all these ideas.   Totally doable.  But now, I gotta squeeze in that 7 hours of sleep because that's probably the most important use of my time these days.