No one has time – no one really does nowadays. So the time that you do have you have to make the most out of it right?

After going to sleep at 2 A.M daily and watching stuff on my task list pile up, I decided it was time to get more productive and organized; Italian mafia organized.

Too many times, I would write tasks down I’d say I’d complete on Monday and watch it move all the way to Thursday. That would obviously pile up and mess up my production. At the same time, I wasn’t happy trying to knock things out in one night. First, the quality of the work was diminished; and second, I went to sleep late and only got about 4 hours of rest. I know you guys and girls have gone through the same. Its a natural, normal occurrence for all of us.

So, I decided that whether it has to do with work-related stuff, social networking sites, making phone calls, finishing up errands, reading newspapers/ magazines, jogging or blogging, it was time to shape up.

This is going to sound real funny, but one of the first things I had to do was quit reading the NYTimes everyday. I know a lot of people who read this blog, read the Times. And I’m pretty sure some of you find so many articles you want to read, but feel overwhelmed. So many to read in one day. Why of course – the Times is a great paper. But with little time in the work day and getting home around 730, its hard to really appreciate it and read it in its entirety.

What do I do now?

I decided to collect the links every day that I like to read and put them in a drafted email. Collecting these articles takes about 10 minutes a day. Reading the Times may take 25-30 minutes daily depending on what you like. It may sound like a little, but 30 minutes is a lot when you work all day and are tired once you get home.

So once Saturday hits, I collect that day’s links and read all my articles from the past Sunday-Saturday. On Sunday, I begin another week of link collecting. I would say on average, I collect 20-25 articles of interest from the Times per week. It takes the max of 2 hours of my time on the weekends which is fine by me. I can read them in peace and digest them better without feeling rushed.

As for “some” sites on my blogroll, I try to visit them on the weekend and read all the posts in one shot. At the same time, contributing to your ‘time on site’ stat. Aint I nice?

One of the other additions I made, was to time every task I need to complete. Its one thing to say you’ll complete a task, but when you give it a set amount of time to be finished in, it keeps you motivated and less distracted. From the miniscule laundry, to cooking dinner, and exercising and making calls, it really helps to break things down in time sets.

As far as creative stuff like coming up with pitches or even idea generation for this blog, I save that for my daily life of walking around and taking the train. Life is inpiration.

I used to write down that I would sit down on this day for a few hours to create ideas and nothing would ever pop out. Why? Because I was treating idea generation like a task. I may walk down the street and see something that sparks me. I may listen to a conversation on the sidewalk that sparks me. When you’re outside and in the thick of things that’s when you experience the most. That’s when you have your blackberry or camera handy ready to record all the interesting things you saw or heard throughout the day. When you’re in your apartment in peace and quiet, how can creativity really arise?

I also decided to set up a little office space in my room with everything and anything I need in my life surrounding me. I think its very important to have a specific area of the house to do your work in and not jump around from the kitchen table to your bed or your desk. Pick one site and work from there.

I keep all my tasks in my blackberry, but I also invested in a dry erase board in my room that has the tasks needed to be completed. So when I walk into my room, and I see my bed and the temptation of browsing the net, I immediately bump into my board and FOCUS.

So to give you an example, this is what yesterday was like:

6AM – 650 – Jogging
700 – Eat breakfast and watch Sportscenter.
730 – Do daily link collecting on NYT site
740 – Get ready for work
815 – Leave the house
900 – Get to work and stick to my eating regimen
600 – Leave work
700 – At home; prepare laundry and take downstairs.
715 – Eat dinner.
730 – Go downstairs while laundry is being done and read Pablo Neruda.
830 – Completed 1 hour of reading and laundry was completed.
830-845 – Organize laundry
845-900 – Throw on playoff game on mute and make a phone call I have to return.
900-1000 – Check email for last time and focus on blog.
1000-1015 – Focus on next day’s tasks and timing them.
1015-1030 – Iron clothes
1030-1100- Get in my jammies, drink my hot milk and go to bed (just kidding)

That’s an example of what I did yesterday. A bunch of small tasks, with some I consider important in between.

What else have I changed?

My checking of personal email. I check my email once I wake up, periodically during work, and once in the evening no later than 9 P.M. I don’t have any sort of response strategy – I reply as they come.

Oh…I can’t forget about this:

The way I approach social networking. I really re-examined how this stuff was affecting my life and I noticed it took too much time. The only thing I really use is twitter, and I use that while I’m at work (9-6 or 7) and have down time to browse other profiles which may be of interest to me; and to post my own personal opinion or promote this blog. I’m going to install my own twitter feed so I don’t have to constantly update myself on twitter. I did the same with Facebook blog updates.

As for Facebook and Myspace, I parsed who I want to see updates from and get alerts when I’m mentioned once a day so I can speed read through them. I found that once you login in to facebook, you get too hooked on what other people are doing. I have everyone who I care about’s phone number, so I can just text them to see what’s up.

I signed up for this application called “nutshell” mail which handles all of this. It allows you to pick who you want to see updates from and how many times you want to receive them. Its a great application. Sometimes you find yourself spending 20 minutes on all these sites reading stuff and that’s a waste of time.

As a writer, many will say: “Well Claudio, you need to be on these more to make contacts and develop relationships.” As I said, while I am at work I browse different writers I admire and follow them on twitter. Aside from that, I use the email to editor or writer on his “great work” method and keep it old school.

In the end, what works for me may not work for you. But, I think these are easy steps anyone can take to making your life a bit more organized. If you have kids though, that’s a whole different story…