Routine 📆

Hello friends,

I hope you're enjoying this Serial Maker newsletter! Join me and other Serial Makers on Discord. Check out the past editions if you missed them. And if you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend 😀

The current situation with stay-at-home mandates has put unprecedented pressure on people's schedules. Schools and camps are closed and home offices are serving dual purposes of classrooms and daycares. How can we find time to do the things we love when there's almost no time in the day?

Setting up a daily schedule can help. I recently wrote about coming up with my own daily schedule in The Maker's Routine.

Let's talk about scheduling a routine.

TL;DR

• Setup a consistent "maker" time

• Ruthlessly curate your calendar with timeboxing

• Break up tasks into small chunks with a Pomodoro timer

Your maker time 

If you want to accomplish something, you'll need to devote some time in the day for your passion project. This doesn't need to be hours of deep work. If you can fit in 30 minutes or one hour, that's enough to work towards a finished product. Those small blocks of time add up. 1 hour a day, every weekday is 20 hours a month, and 240 hours a year, or a full month of time. Think about what you can accomplish in one month.

The key is to be consistent. It doesn't matter what time of day you devote to your project, morning, afternoon, or night. Just make it the same time every day. Within several weeks, your mind will gear up for those times, and your productivity during your scheduled block will improve drastically.
 

No more Zoom calls

Distractions are a productivity killer. Avoid status calls, weekly Zoom calls, or anything else that could be replaced with an email or Slack message. If absolutely necessary, try to consolidate those distractions into a dedicated block of time. This technique is called Timeboxing. You can respond to all your emails in the first hour of the day. Then don't look at email until lunch, and spend another 30 minutes on emails then. One more email session at the end of the day, and you've freed up all the time in-between without distraction.
 

The Pomodoro Technique 

Another useful methodology that can help with distraction-free work is The Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes before starting a task. Work for only that amount of time, then take a short break. Repeat for 4 sessions, then take a longer break. These short, intensely focused periods of time are a productivity booster and help to avoid mental fatigue.
 

What works for you?

Have you found a routine that lets you accomplish your maker goals? I'd love to hear about it. I'm constantly adjusting my own daily routine to try to be as efficient as possible.

Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌

Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. And don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord!

Until next week,

Craig