Time Shifting

August 5th, 2010Blog0 comments

So one of my main tasks these days is managing my own productivity. The metric for measuring my productivity is page count — if I’m turning out pages every day, then I know I’m being productive.

The trick is that I’m writing on a machine that wants very much to show me video game news, Mac news, and very important YouTube cat videos. It’s extremely easy to get distracted and go off on a cat video tangent. This is where previous generations of writers had it easier — typewriters can’t play cat videos.

So I’m trying to apply the technique of time shifting to my everyday productivity schedule. Time shifting was popularized by the TiVo: It records your shows so you can watch them when you have time to watch them. In other words, it automatically captures information so you can disseminate it later on, on your own schedule.

On the web I’ve been using Instapaper to time shift my web browsing. When I see a page that interests me but I don’t want to read right away (because I’m supposed to be writing!) I can use Instapaper’s Read Later function to cache the page’s URL and store it for later retrieval. Then once I’m done with the day’s work I can pick up the entire list of cached sites on my computer or on my iPad and read away.

This is great for me because it immediately ends any procrastination and ensures that I’ll never forget to read those interesting articles later on. It bookmarks the information so I can use it at a time when I’m absorbing rather than creating — and absorbing/reading/getting information is vital to the act of creation.

Now I need to figure out how to time shift everything else in my life. I can’t time shift email because it’s dependent on other peoples’ schedules; I can sort of time shift phone calls by just not answering my phone — EVER — and just listening to voice mails. But phone calls also require instant replies.

What I really need to do is learn how to time shift myself into another dimension.

The Chair Hunt continues: Now I’m looking at the Steelcase Leap Chair. The design feels more modern than the Aeron. Plus I’m more of a fan of cushioned fabric over mesh. Plus it seems more practical and less science-fictionish.