Time Management

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

Disabled and Retired Veteran
Joined
18 Dec 2017
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Time management is often very important and has been mentioned in some posts regarding organization and processes related to cooking.

For me, it has recently become all the more important to meet my desire to 'break routine'.

While I am still clearly cooking, and photographing, I am reopening a series of projects which I have had closed for some time to inactivity. Writing projects are a major part of that and learning the Affinity Publisher product is another. I've decided to switch over from my dated copy of Adobe InDesign. Writing often breaks time management, because, if I get started on something and am intent upon it, I may loose all sight of time to complete my thoughts and put them into text. This is, as it must be mentioned, both good and necessary, to avoid loosing ideas, by simply trying to remember stuff. Lots of notes get jotted down. Lots of research is done to gather facts for contextual backgrounds.

So my time management is returning to being something much more than the retired senior citizen's management of his cooking and photography.

How far do you go with time management?
 
Its pretty essential to me as I'm looking after a partner with dementia. Routine is really important for him and I also find its the best way for me to cope. Its becoming increasingly challenging to do this because his concept of time is slipping away. But I nevertheless stick to a routine. I do have time for me alone which is invaluable.

Left to my own devices, I'm a mad hatter, anarchist and prone to do crazy things. But at the moment I need to stick to some sort of routine.
 
I am, unfortunately, highly disorganized with the way I work, but simultaneously very regimented in the way I like things stored (pantry items, the fridge, etc), and I do feel most comfortable when practicing a routine.

Except when work intervenes, I almost always get up at the same time, follow the same morning routine, eat at the same times, turn the TV on for evening viewing at the same time, have my evening cuppa at the same time, and go to bed at the same time, and I do get highly annoyed when something gets in the way of that or changes that.
 
Morning Glory said:
Reading the above postI fail to see in what way you are highly disorganised!
Click to expand...
My biggest issue (and it presents itself at work and in the kitchen) is that I'm extremely single-minded, and I have a hard time moving on from one task until a previous task is completely finished.

It's why, when I post meals, I'll frequently say that I forgot to make whatever side dish I was supposed to make, because I have an impossible time orchestrating cooking two or more things at once. The only way I get through a proper meal with multiple dishes (like at Christmas) is to write up an outline at the beginning, like:

10AM - take roast out of fridge and prep
10:30AM - roast in oven
11:15AM - prep potatoes

That sort of thing, and it'll be a dozen lines long. I don't do that for day-to-day cooking, which usually means I'm a frazzled and disorganized cook most days.

I think very linearly, so starting a new task while one is in some kind of holding pattern is very difficult for me, especially as I get older, and of course, in a typical work environment, everyone is expected to juggle 10 things at once, and that's not that easy for me.
 
TastyReuben said:
My biggest issue (and it presents itself at work and in the kitchen) is that I'm extremely single-minded, and I have a hard time moving on from one task until a previous task is completely finished.

It's why, when I post meals, I'll frequently say that I forgot to make whatever side dish I was supposed to make, because I have an impossible time orchestrating cooking two or more things at once. The only way I get through a proper meal with multiple dishes (like at Christmas) is to write up an outline at the beginning, like:

10AM - take roast out of fridge and prep
10:30AM - roast in oven
11:15AM - prep potatoes

That sort of thing, and it'll be a dozen lines long. I don't do that for day-to-day cooking, which usually means I'm a frazzled and disorganized cook most days.

I think very linearly, so starting a new task while one is in some kind of holding pattern is very difficult for me, especially as I get older, and of course, in a typical work environment, everyone is expected to juggle 10 things at once, and that's not that easy for me.
Click to expand...

I am not a good multi tasker, which is why mise en place is so valuable to me. If I have all my ingredients prepped and properly arranged, I can handle a couple of menu items in one time period. That includes having all my pots and pans out and ready.

For big meals, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, I do also write out a simple outline for when things need to be started for everything to get done at the same time.

Just the opposite of those holiday meals, for my recent Texas chili cook, I also needed to bake some cornbread. But, with the chili needing a three hour simmer, that was easy. I like that kind of multi-tasking. :laugh:

CD
 
Time management can be so stressful in these days of instant communications. For me even the best plans can go wrong when one my many modern devices decides not to recognise a password or fails to download a software update. Hours can be lost from both work and leisure time just messing about with these "essential" devices. I often get frustrated with my work iPhone user names and passwords which have been recorded and dated in my Notepad but are then not recognised.
 
I will be dividing my time management into days for some things, while other things remain on the clock. For example, I may work on one of my fiction writing projects one day and on another, the Affinity Publisher learning curve. I won't be going by specific days, just using one day for one thing. If I'm flowing well with something, I may go two or more simultaneous days with it, even a week.

On the clock, will be meal preparation, photography, grocery shopping, etc. Although grocery shopping and appointments tend to be allocated days, but never the whole day.
 
I have a problem with time management. Even when I use a recipe that gives me an approximate preparation time, my wife knows to double it to temper her expectations 😅 Things went from bad to worst when I was recording my cooking for YouTube videos because in addition to the meal prep, there was talking to the camera, moving lights and changing camera angles and settings. Wife would be very upset to get dinner 2 hours later than expected... can't blame her. That is one of the main reasons I stopped making videos.
In all seriousness, I probably have ADHD but have never been tested. 🤷‍♂️
 
This seems appropriate (for me, anyway):

79913


At work or the kitchen. :laugh:
 
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