Lovely Girl   +  plan

Open Thread: How Do You Manage Your Time?

Moving from cubicle monkey (where there's a natural rhythm to your day and you get paid pretty much regardless of your output) to creative freelancer (where the day stretches before you like a blank page and you actually have to produce stuff in order to get paid) can be a challenge. Often people struggle with the question of how they should manage their time. Should they designate an activity for every 15-minute slot? Or keep things more free form? Use a paper planner? Or go digital? My days are loosely structured so I can roll with the last-minute requests or phone calls that come my way. Sometimes I'll create a rough schedule with tasks scheduled for each hour, but most of the time I'll just work my way through a to do list, knowing what absolutely has to get done that day and what can wait. I also schedule phone interviews or meetings in Google Calendar (which is shared with Mr. Muse so he'll know if I'm going to be out at a networking event or home hanging out with him). I've made a habit of including phone numbers in Google Calendar, so when my 2pm phone interview rolls around, I can just copy and paste the number into Skype and make the call. What about you? How do you structure your days? What tools do you use to manage your time?