Shankar Ganesh

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How I manage time between blogging and studies

with 52 comments

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Vivien of Inspiration Bit is conducting a group writing project and is getting inputs from people on how they manage their time. Just thought of pouring down my thoughts.

time_mgmt.jpg

Rising Early
Getting up early in the morning really helps. This is the time I feel fresh and brisk, the time when I can finish learning my lessons twice fast than it usually takes to. After having spent every evening infront of the computer, early morning is that time of the day I really count on for doing my lessons. :D

Getting up early isn’t that tough for me now. It actually was. I’ve learnt to tame my brain. I tell to my inner self “I’ve to get up 5.00 a.m”. These mental commands are more reliable than alarms :D

Dividing Bigger Tasks into smaller ones
I’m not a Productivity Junkie, and I don’t like writing down a todo list either. I rougly allote time to complete lessons, and start learning. An hour for each lesson, if there are 20 pages in the lesson, 2-3 pages every 5 minutes. How’s that :D

If I’m not able to complete my lessons on time, I leave the incomplete stuff as such, and try to complete them in the weekends when I’ve loads of free time.

Blogging
I have developed a habit of keeping my inbox clean and clutter-less, reading feeds as fast as possible (folder view in Google Reader helps a lot for this) and keeping distractions like IM off when writing a post. (more here)

I’ve cut down the time I used to spend on modifying themes ;) , and I’m spending more time to write posts for my own blog, and many others where I’m a co-author/guest blogger.

Learning to say ‘No’
One thing I’ll practise even if I grow big – turning down a task if I can’t really do it, declining offers if you’re loaded with too many already. This is the best time management tip I’ve ever heard :D

Just my $0.02. How do you all manage time between blogging and your day job?

Written by admin

September 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

Posted in personal

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  • http://www.inspirationbit.com inspiration

    Oh, these tips worth more than just 2 cents. If you were my son, I would’ve been very proud of you :-)
    Thanks, for this great entry, Shankar.

  • http://ashwinr.com/ Ashwin

    Amazing post Shankar.

    Regarding managing my Blog and Day job – it’s very easy actually. I never work. :twisted:

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur Kapoor

    Great management skills you got buddy . As for me , i devote around 2-3 hours everyday on writing a post or reading feeds .

  • http://techie-buzz.com Keith Dsouza

    Great to know more about you Shakar, its quite nice to know how you at such a young age manage your time between multiple things

  • http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/ Brown Baron

    Sounds like you got a great system in place there buddy. Oh and you will get big, that’s a safe bet :)

  • http://www.lasthaven.com eBusiness Haven

    I have a busy schedule when the semester starts. So, I pretty much made a print out that’s color coded for the 7 days in a week where I have a set schedule for my workout, class times, and study sessions so I can see how much free time I have in between everything. And on my free time (which is very little) I can squeeze in my blogging, and anything else I want to get done!

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  • http://www.rahulpatel.in rahul

    Time Management lessons btw Blogging & studies/work by Shankar :P

    title need to be changed like that :)

  • http://www.nirmaltv.com Nirmal

    I work less and blog more! :twisted: :twisted:

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    These tips used to work for me in the high school, but as I enter college, work load started pouring on my head. I could neither complete my college work, nor do anything else.

    # Learning to say ‘No’ – I guess, I read that line in one of my favorite productivity book. I can’t recall the name of that book :(

  • http://www.nftecnostar.blogspot.com nicholas francis

    very nice tips! i hope you give more tips like these

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  • http://www.sizlopedia.com Dj Flush

    Honestly its hard to manage :( trust me and I don’t want to say that I am the only poor soul who has to manage between university and blog as a lot of senior bloggers are doing the same

    But it takes a lot of time and energy. I have a schedule set up and that is what is helping me till now. Don’t know about the future :D

  • http://www.sizzledcore.com Haris

    This is the major issue I’m facing. :( Studies vs Blogging. I’ll try to find a way out through your tips. Thanks a lot for the post.

    I usually write on weekends, and then time-stamp the posts. And reply to comments on the other days.

  • http://www.technospot.net/blogs/ Ashish Mohta
  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @inspiration: Oh, that’s a great compliment, thank you.
    @Ashwin, Nirmal: Thank you, I guess you guys do blogging full time, and work part time :D
    @Keith: Thanks, Keith. You too have great skills :)
    @Madhur: It’s great that you can come up with good content in such a short time!
    @Brown: Hehe thanks!
    @eBusiness Haven: Looks like you manage your chores very well.
    @Thilak: Hmm… looks like I’ve to work hard when I enter college.
    @Dj Flush: Yeah, it’s very tough to manage between studies and blogging :(
    @Haris: Good tip you’ve shared with us. May be I should draft more posts in the weekends.
    @Ashish: I just checked that.

  • http://www.teknobites.com ram

    I never work, always bury in Google Reader :wink:

  • http://www.mysites-advisor.com Ken Xu

    a tips that worth $200 instead of $0.02. The key of this post is located at the last point. :wink:
    Nice post, buddy!

  • http://techmantra.net Vikram

    Nice post :)

  • http://simpleinfo.blogspot.com Ajith K Punnoose

    Hi Shankar Nice to see that you have moved to your own domain. Can we have that old link bait again. Also please let meknow more about your host and Domain service the charges and such sort of things

  • http://www.seaykopitiam.com jamy

    Hi Shankar,

    I can relate to your post :) .
    I am a full time home maker, a full time investor a full time student and doing my clinical rotation.
    I am cutting down my frequency in blogging but not the content . I want to keep my Dean-List status for my studies :) , still want to make 200% return on my gold stocks and being there for my son to/fro from school so at the moment blogging is at the bottom of my priority. Promise myself I will come back full force (God willing) after I finish my state board :) .

    Jamy

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ram: LOL, you’re addicted to feeds :P
    @Ken, Vikram: Thanks.
    @Ajith: I’ll email you soon.
    @Jamy: Wow, you seem to manage your daily jobs pretty well. Thanks for dropping by to comment.

  • http://www.techlivez.com Shashank

    5 am thats sometimes my sleeping time :D ..day is for fun night is for work for me :)

  • http://webtalks.blogspot.com Ashwini

    I give studies priority and the spare time blog.Looks like I’m the only “good” boy here

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ashwini: Haha, I too give priority to studies, but still can’t resist blogging :)

  • http://www.alltipsandtricks.com Simonne

    It must be hard to have to study when your mind goes to blogging, commenting, reading feeds… I think you are managing your blog in a great way, and if you treat your lessons in the same manner, your teachers must be proud of you.
    I wrote my entry for Vivien’s project, if you didn’t read it by now, you’ll see it when she will publish the list.

  • http://www.seaykopitiam.com jamy

    No, Shankar, a lot of times I felt like I am drowning :) :)

  • http://smansa-sbb.blogspot.com Ricardo

    thanks for your inspiraation

  • http://smansa-sbb.blogspot.com Rohit

    Im so helpfulull with your post

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Jamy: Haha :)
    @Simonne: Yeah, it’s tough to study actually amidst blogging and stuff. Somehow, I manage to get a good score everytime. Thanks for dropping by, will check your entry soon :)

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  • Goutam

    Good skills buddy!
    But as you grow and you complete your college and involve yourself more in higher studies, it’s a hard time out there. Anyways, I need to learn from the tips. At least, getting up early…

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  • http://techyantra.net Beta3

    Hmm I finding difficult to blog now that my college has started. I need to try to follow this….

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Goutam: Thanks for dropping by, do practise it :D
    @Beta3: Oh, good luck with your studies buddy :)

  • http://www.bustachange.com Jerad Kaliher

    Keeping up with the feeds in my reader has been the biggest challenge for me. I began to read them on my smart phone because otherwise I could never begin to scratch the surface.

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  • http://www.seomastertips.blogspotc.com Dina

    Nice tips!….Thanks

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  • Kishi

    just keep happy,and then everything will be done quickly

  • http://www.intowindows.com/windows-7-icon-pack-for-vista-xp/ tweakwindows

    Good tips.But, I really hate to wake up in the early morning.Will re-think about it.

  • Leiwolong

    I manage my time by using a time management tool which I list my entire task that I should do. This tool is what I use personally. Then, it helps me organize it from the top priority to less priority. I also set an amount of time to do each work so that I won’t waste any time that I also eagerly follow. Another thing that helps me manage time effectively is discipline that I’m getting use to. At the end of the day I fell great that I finish the entire task on time. That also gives me more time to do other things like spending more time with my family.