A diary is a frightening thing. It comes all filled out with days and months and other relevant information. All that is empty is the actual content of your own time. This means that the diary in itself demands that you fill it with relevant personal information.
An empty diary therefore is a failure. You have been unable to fill the little book with things to do. When I started working at university people would ask me if I was available for a meeting or to give a lecture. I would turn to the relevant page on my diary and see that it was empty. Agree to the appointment and fill in the blank space with a sense of accomplishment. I had done something â?? I had filled a void.
What it took time to realize was that the blank spaces in the diary were not really empty â?? they were (and still are) time for work, time for the craft of research. Reading, writing research takes time and requires empty spaces in a diary. Not just the brief moment between two booked meetings â?? but real time. Time to penetrate a subject and develop ideas, time to record these ideas in the correct format (papers, articles & books).
Despite this understanding, blank pages in the diary still stress me out, and cry to be filled but I must do more to guard my productive time. This will be especially true next term when I am literally going to drown in teaching.
These last two years I tested going completely digital. Maintaining my diary only on my computer and syncing it with my telephone and iPod but this has not really worked well. I like the clarity but there are situations where I would prefer not to pull out a gadget to check my time and to fill in an appointment. So next year will be paper based again.
How do you guard your time? Where are you productive? All tips and tricks appreciatedâ?¦