Time Management

Posted 7/30/08 - Joshua

So some of you may have noticed it has been awhile since I posted here. The simple fact here is I let outside forces mess up my daily work schedule. Basically I let stuff make the schedule instead of me making my schedule.

Bloggers can learn a very important lesson from this; do not let stuff or other commitments deter you from what it is you would want to be doing. We all have many things that take our time away, but to be successful bloggers we must find time each day to sit and write if only a few paragraphs.

Over the last few weeks I have started a new semester at school, traveled to three different NASCAR tracks, taken my son to his first baseball game, and tried to get outside and enjoy some of the summer. All of that has taken away from writing, and while those other things are extremely important, writing is what I do and I need to find a way to insure all of my commitments are being met.

For me the best strategy is to have a solid time each day where I do different things. As many of you know from reading this I write at least two articles a day and try, try, try to write something in a personal blog as well. Some of these days are easy; some are a little bit harder. For those that are curious, this is what a typical week looks like for me on the writing side.

Mondays are the easiest days, but for me the most nerve racking. I spend Monday mornings going over the stats from the weekend’s 3-5 NASCAR races. For each race I have an index card where I write down all the important facts I want to remember for the next race there. Generally this takes about two hours or so.

It is important for me to know not just the news but the actual results of NASCAR stuff for my role as a fantasy racing expert at www.fantasyinsideronline.com. While going through that I look up the stats for my pick that week. Last Week I picked Kyle Busch, who finished 15th not a horrible pick but he never ran higher then 9th so not a good pick either. My gut told me all week I should have gone with Carl Edwards and as it turns out he was 2nd. The lesson here is always trust your gut.

After pouring over stats from that week, I move to stats for whatever tracks are coming up on the schedule. Then I make my fantasy picks and my top 12 power rankings for the week. If all is well it is around noon and time for lunch.

Tuesdays tend to be a little tougher then Mondays. Generally speaking I write my post here on Tuesday mornings and I have an opinion NASCAR column due. I also have a Sports business piece due for my new job and starting in September I will have an additional NASCAR opinion piece due for a new project I cannot announce yet but details will be coming.

Wednesday is the easiest for me, just one Sports business piece to do and not NASCAR at all. This is my rest day. Thursdays are much the same but I tend to find myself glued to my Sirius waiting for announcements on NASCAR's silly season. I try to write a really nice piece for my NASCAR blog this day as well, but lately news has not been breaking until Friday.

Friday is fun day, usually NASCAR all day from early in the morning to late at night after a truck race; it more then drives my wife crazy. I write a Truck series piece in the morning and attempt to write another NASCAR blog entry in the afternoon when I hear something cool going on. I also write a sports business piece and try not to take another invitation to go and cover a track in person. Lately I have been receiving a lot of requests to visit tracks and cover their events.

Now I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but mix in a full time school schedule, and since my wife works most of the time I have my son here, and there is always an abundance of house work that needs to be done and one can see my need to have a firm schedule in place to get it all done.


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