Spree

Sometimes during the course of my “free” time, there are a number of projects, those of a mundane nature as well as those that I do for “self-improvement”, that compete for the finite time that I can allot to them. With many of these projects, I can get so involved that just one of them could take up all of my time, with the others going by the wayside. I’ve developed a strategy that occasionally helps me cover some ground and not let me get too far behind in some of them.

I have one of those little digital kitchen timers that I can carry with me and set for a specific time—anywhere from 1 second to 99 minutes. First, I make a list of the projects I want to go through. Then, I make sure that I have the necessary equipment and material to do them. Then, I set off my timer (usually around 15-30 minutes) and go through each project. When the timer sounds (signifying time’s up), I put aside the project I was working on (finished or unfinished), reset the timer, and then start on the next one. I do this until I’ve finished the list of activities, even though I may have some unfinished work to do in some of them.

Doing this tends to focus my attention sharply, and without distractions, on the “assigned” project at hand. And thus I am able to accomplish much more within a specific span of time than if I hadn’t organized my work this way. I even have a name for this strategy: I call it “spree”, after the sprees on the game show Supermarket Sweepstakes, where contestants were given a specified time to charge through a grocery store and fill up their carts with as many expensive items as possible. Now that’s focus!

To be perfectly honest, though, I haven’t been as assiduous lately in employing this very effective personal strategy as I would like to. Which is why I’m writing about it here! Maybe this way, I’ll be more likely to employ “spree” to whiz through the seemingly never-ending tasks that I feel the obligation or motivation to master and transcend.