GET STUFF DONE!

EARLY BIRDIES CATCH THE WORM!

Maybe I should have named it Early Fat Birdies – these are truly chubby guys! But no matter – they got their worms and are happy campers.

Not me! I do way too many things. But I get distracted – I’m doing one thing, and halfway through, I see something else I need/want to do, and go start that! As I’m doing that, I get pulled away by something else . . . .

If I was going to keep doing that, I might as well quit. So I decided to create a new kind of scheduling for myself.

At the start of each month, I make up 4 one-week schedules, with each day outlined in one hour increments. All 24 hours, because I’m the world’s worst insomniac, and can be up at 4 AM or 4 PM and it won’t make a bit of difference to me.

So I plan out a week at a time. Each week has an overall theme of something I have wanted to do but never quite gotten around to. For instance, one week could be post-on-spoonflower.com week. Or create my book week. Or sort out all my files week – and believe me, it would take a week to do so!

Then, I section off hour-long blocks when I want to do each day’s work. I plan no more than two blocks together. Most times they are one-hour blocks – it’s amazing how much you can get done in one hour if you stick to that task.

I set my timer to 55 minutes, and just start. When the alarm rings, I know I have 5 minutes to either wrap up, or make a note where to continue when I go to the next block.

I don’t check my emails, go online, or answer my phone within a work block. I’m very strict about that – unless it’s obviously an emergency, of course.

At the block’s end, I stand up and move into another room. I don’t allow myself to do oh-just-one-more-thing – that wrecks the while idea.

This lets me take a bathroom or lunch break, or a nap, got for a walk, or a meetup with a friend, without feeling like I’ve left my work in the lurch and incomplete. I know I can just go to my next work-block and take up where I left off.

It also lets me be guilt-free about saying ‘hey I need to get back to work’ – not-artist people don’t get that we artists make our own timing. They figure ‘oh-she’s-at-home-no-worry-about-interrupting!’

Nope – that doesn’t help me at all! So having an exact time where I can say ‘gotta go’ really helps me be clear both to them and myself about my use of my own time.

This system has allowed me to move through mountains of work I’d intended to do but not done since forEVer, and gives me a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Here is the repeat-x-9 version of Early Birdies in blue. Available in 26″ and 36″ square silk scarves. Contact me if you want one. Enjoy!

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EARLY BIRDIES
© Angela Treat Lyon 2026
https://AngelaTreatLyon.com
https://instagram.com/angela.treat.lyon/