Dedicating one day to research tasks [Productivity]
Those who know me (and those who read my blog frequently) know very well that I haven’t discontinued my research activities even if I do blogging, freelance writing and client work (consulting). Frequently, I get asked the question “How do you manage to keep your workflow going when you have to do client work, freelance writing, etc…?”
Well, unfortunately I have exactly the same number of days and hours in a day as everyone does, sadly (I’ve frequently asked The Powers That Be to either clone me or give me like 72 hour days but I think my request has fallen in deaf ears… too bad, as I could seriously use a clone!). What I used to do up until earlier this year (around July 2009) was to just dedicate a few hours a day to research, exclusively (mostly late at night, which explains to you why I would be awake at 4am – still doing research).
What I’ve now started doing is dedicating one entire day to only research. This means that, while I may be answering some critical emails or tweets, or (obviously) client work, my brain is primarily focused on my research. If you read my tweets of today, for the most part, they’ve been on the drinking water project I’m conducting with Dr. Rachel Black and Julia Ko, M.A.
Do you dedicate one full day to creative/research/thinking activities? Or do you do interspersed hours throughout each day? As usual, have at it on the comments section.
Related posts:
- Surveillance Games Research Workshop Livetweets #sgw
- Breakdown a project into smaller tasks [Productivity]
- BillingBoss.com [Software review]
- The Top 10 Productivity Tips: A Summary
- Raul’s Top 10 Productivity Tips – The Return!
In all honesty, I really should dedicate more time to thinking and brainstorming and being creative. It’s so easy to get swept up with work and the week…
You are probably the busiest person I know… so I’m amazed you manage to put away a day for that!
That’s great!
I think if you are going to do a couple of hours a day they need to be GOOD hours, not the end of the day when tired and burned out.
I don’t research anymore but my partner tries to write every morning. And I’ve been pushing the value of 30-minutes a day (http://jovanevery.ca/category/30-minutes-a-day/)
Since marketing is creative in nature, I spend most of my time thinking/being creative/researching. However, it’s important for me to set aside time for learning. I dedicate a good portion of my time to reading industry books and watching webinars. I now set aside a full morning each week to learning. I find it easier if my mind is focused on one key task/goal for the day. Of course, there are always distractions, but it’s easier to switch back to my one key intention if this time is slotted off for this purpose already. Great post!
Thanks all for your comments! I really would like to stay with one day of research