PRDV005: Time and Stress Management

A couple of years ago, I faced a brick wall. I was in the second year of a part-time Master's degree essential for my business. I was invited to edit an issue of Magma, one of the top poetry magazines in the UK – as a poet, this was a chance I could not turn down. I was also getting married, which took a fair amount of preparation too – and that was one opportunity I was not turning down! Meanwhile, I somehow had to keep my business going, keep my clients happy and fund all these extra-curricular activities.

As if that were not enough, I discovered this new phenomenon called blogging – or instead, people were using it to spread their ideas and promote their businesses rather than just to write about their cat's breakfast menu. It looked like a perfect medium for me – I loved writing, I had ideas I wanted to get into circulation, and I loved connecting with new people. But where was I going to find the time?

I had already made a reluctant deal with myself to put my poetry-writing on hold until the end of the MA (on condition that I resumed afterward, which I am now doing with pleasure). But I was still faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding quality, focused time, away from interruptions, to write my essays, read poetry submissions with the care they deserved, and start a blog. After scanning my diary and surveying the tasks, I faced a depressing conclusion.

I was going to have to get up early.

There was simply no other time in my schedule – or not the quiet, uninterrupted time I needed for my work, without the intrusion of phone calls, emails, meetings, and classes. I had never considered myself one of nature's early risers, and working from home much of the time had allowed me the luxury of avoiding early starts for commuting. On a good day, I would be up by 7.30; on a bad day, it was closer to 8.30. Still, time to get a reasonable amount of work done by starting at 9.00 – but I was faced with an unreasonable amount of work, so drastic action was called for.

My new start time became 6.30 am. If you want to know how I managed this, read Steve Pavlina's excellent post on becoming an early riser. Here, I am more concerned with the effect. Since making the change, I have edited a postbag of 2,500 poems into Magma issue 34, achieved a distinction in my Master's, and created the Wishful Thinking blog, which has transformed my business and opened many new creative avenues for me to explore. I have also written some poems I am pleased with (at the moment, anyway) and am gradually making it into publication. Most importantly of all, I made it to the wedding on time!

I am not listing the above to blow my own trumpet but to illustrate the value of ring-fencing time for your own creative work in the midst of more urgent demands. It would have been easy to justify turning down the poetry magazine because I was too busy. It would have been easier to start the blog until I had more time. I could even have reasoned my way into stopping or deferring the Masters degree. But the thing is, there will always be something "urgent" taking my attention away from my own creative initiatives. Yet when I look back over the last couple of years, the time I have created the most value for myself and my clients has been those first hours of the day I have spent writing blog posts, essays, seminars, and poems. It is the creative wellspring that feeds into all the coaching, training, presenting and consulting I do when I am face-to-face with clients.

Enough about me. How can you find time to achieve your creative ambitions?

Prioritise Work That is Important but Not Urgent

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey classifies work tasks according to whether they are important or urgent.

Covey points out that many of us spend too much time on tasks that are urgent and important (the red square in the diagram) – in other words, staving off emergencies by rushing around to solve problems or responding to others' demands at short notice. Sometimes this is unavoidable – deadline magic can spur us on to feats of creative production we would not otherwise attempt. This can be an exciting and productive experience – but it is up to you whether you want to work like this most of the time. The example of the computer games industry – where extended crunch times can mean endless overtime to meet a deadline – suggests that prolonged deadline magic can turn into deadline misery, with a significant impact on morale and efficiency.

Covey's solution is to prioritize work that is important but not urgent (the blue square in the diagram). Though this is hard to do on any given day, it is the only way to ensure you are making progress toward your own goals and dreams instead of merely reacting to what other people throw at you. And over time, the more you deal with important things before they become urgent, the fewer urgent and essential tasks you will have to deal with.

The most obvious way to do this is to work on your own projects first every day, even if it is only for half an hour. Whatever interruptions come along later, you will at least have the satisfaction of having made some progress toward your own goals.

It is not just a question of time – you also need to ring-fence your attention so that you can devote your full attention to your creative work without being knocked off course by distractions. The next chapter will examine how some highly creative people have achieved this and what you can learn from them.

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