How A Nano Second Can Cost You Days – A Lesson in Time Management!

I will start by saying that I know I am the only one to blame – I could list (and probably will) a whole load of factors that most writers have to deal with and work around when it comes to submitting before deadlines.

• Here’s the list – can you add more?
• Work
• Childcare (I don’t have this excuse yet)
• Grocery Shopping (online saves time)
• Appointments and other life events (currently meeting with financial advisor re: insurance and banks as Mr G and I are buying a house)
• Other writing commitments (the writing schedule and my wonderful network meeting today!) I was happy earlier.

The online course I enrolled on at Ohio State University is a hefty workload and as you know I don’t have 24/7 internet access!

I know I need to manage it better. I made 2 mistakes – presumed the weekly assignment would be due in a week, three days later I learnt that it was in 2 parts and I had until Sat 9pm to post it!

The research – resource materials – PDF files Vlogs and You Tube videos (like the 1hr Q & A) I watched all prepared me – I still feel it would have been the same assignment with half the research and ironically if I had skipped a bit and believed I could do it, I wouldn’t have missed the deadline!

2nd mistake – I thought the GMT – UTC time difference was bigger than an hour!

I managed to finish the write in time, logged into the submission platform at 20:59
I had 60 SECS to click the button! (Remind me never to become a secret agent!)
MESSAGE: ASSIGNMENT 2 is now CLOSED!

I must have missed it by a breath and I am not alone – sadly the 2nd part – the reviewing and evaluating other people’s writing is the main focus and we (I am not alone!) are all locked out from that!

I now know how it feels to have a virtual door slammed in your face. How people may feel when it’s Christmas Eve and the last shop shuts before they finish getting their presents! How Olympic athletes feel when they just miss a medal position.

I am gutted – I have been on the forum posting now for over an hour! I had already put many hours into this assignment and because I had lots of other slices of life to manage this week I messed up!

I don’t think it would feel this bad if I’d missed it by an hour!

As for the title – sorry to mislead – I am too negatively consumed by wasted energy to write an article about good time management right now (ironic pun) – sure I will in the future, I can link it to this post to show the consequence of not learning TM skills!

Bank Holiday Weekend and Productivity

Another write Saturday! Last month I booked myself a place on a network meeting, writers and some guest speakers/ promoters.

I thought it would be an opportunity to meet people and it was….. once I got there! I have no inner navigator, it is how my life has been allowed to slip off the main road for so long, it was a long and winding road back onto the main one I can tell you! A bit like today’s roundabout detour. I was 20 minutes late (that embarrassing moment when you open a door and don’t know what to expect) and then I arrived in time for coffee break! I had to laugh.

After the event we mingled and I found out about various exciting opportunities and other workshops which I will blog about in the future. Here comes my second ‘Bridgette Jones moment’! I gave my details and when I gave the blog URL I got it wrong a / instead of a .

I had to Google the mistake to check if they would still be directed here – they are. Whilst in this Google mission I discovered some interesting Statistics on the blog which I will write another post to cover AND another Blog award – guilty as charged I still need to post my nominees!

Original post (comments context)

Just wrote and LOST an entire post.
Will be back to write –  I will do it the hope-it-won’t-ruin-it-laptop, later on!