Image from sxc.hu user zuwiu

In the mid-nineties, I worked with a colleague who was a published romance author. She did most of her writing in the evenings, her most productive time. My night owl friend arrived in the office as late as possible while I came in early. Despite my being the morning person and her night gal, we worked well together and stayed in touch after leaving the company.

Transitioning from Sleepyhead to Early Bird

I discovered my penchant for early hours at the start of my career. Of course, there was a time when I couldn’t imagine waking up at or before 7:00 a.m. That happened way back when I was a typical teen. In high school, class started at 8:00 a.m., and I slept walked around the house in the morning and somehow made it to school on time. By the time I went to college, my body hated the 8:00 a.m. class. Somewhere between that class and the first job, the body clock changed its ways. And I heard it.

It makes sense to exercise as early as possible for a burst of energy to carry you through the day. I don’t workout until the afternoon sometime between lunch and 3:00 p.m. because I save my mornings for work when I’m most effective. Besides, if I workout in the morning, I feel guilty thinking I should be working. By the time I step onto a cardio machine or pick up dumbbells, I do it with a clear conscious.

On weekends, I exercise before lunch so I can enjoy the rest of the day without a drop of guilt.

Find Your Peak Time

Morning, afternoon, night. It doesn’t matter. Identify your high and low energy times based on the needs of your mind and body. Most of us can figure out when we’re most and least productive. However, if you’re not sure, track your work for one week. Pay attention to when you finish the most work and when you drag that it takes you longer.

Also be aware of the types of tasks you do. For example, you may discover it’s easier to make phone calls in the morning because you’re more alert and social than in the afternoon. For me, I do the bulk of writing in the morning saving admin tasks and editing work for sluggish times.

Knowing my peak time is in the mornings, I avoid scheduling appointments and meetings during that time. I also try to schedule them toward the end of the week when I feel more relaxed having accomplished a lot of work for the week.

When are you most productive? Least productive? Are you a morning or night person? Have you always been that way?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

In coming home from a long doctor’s appointment, I decided to take the tollway for most of the way to get home faster. I rarely drive on the highway, so you’d think I’d be more alert about the exit. Yep, I missed it. I caught the sign for the exit, but thought I wanted the next one. And, of course, it was further than the usual distance to that exit taking me a bit out of my way.

Photo from sxc.hu user maavi

How did I miss it? I had too much on my mind with paying attention to cars, looking for exit signs and noticing all the construction I hadn’t seen before. I had too many filters in my mind getting in the way of the one filter I needed — the right exit.

A Filter Problem

I use Gmail more than meryl.net email. The meryl.net email has been around for years meaning 100 spam emails come in daily. The email app does a good job of diverting spam into its dump out of the way. Still, spam messages clutter email on the mobile device, which makes it harder to identify good emails. Gmail relies on all of its users in creating effective spam filters, so I rarely see spam in Gmail outside of the spam folder.

Some of my regular email newsletters stop appearing where they should. They ended up in the trash despite having their assigned labels, which should’ve filtered them to the label folder. Gmail, why are you throwing away my good email? I studied the “delete” filters to see if something confused Gmail like my multitasking on the road did to the point that I missed the exit. Having used Gmail since 2004, the list of filter felt like a mile long. (It’s still long after the clean up, but it’s more efficient and updated.)

Fixing Filters for Fitter Filtering

Time to take Gmail filters for spring cleaning. I remove every filter that deleted an email and clear many label filters. The only ones that remain — it’s still a bunch — are the ones most recently created. The nice thing about Gmail’s filters is that appear in the order they were created. So the top ones are old and go bye-bye.

When I unsubscribe to an email newsletter, I also delete the filter. But sometimes I forget. This cleaning helps clear those. I prepare myself for piles of emails showing up in the inbox after the filter wipe out. Anytime an email comes into the inbox, I either unsubscribe or create a new filter. It’s hard to let go of some email newsletters, but I tell myself that a cleaner email account is more important than subscribing to the email newsletter just in case I get around to reading it.

I’m paying attention to my actions when reading emails with several labels (email newsletters, for example). If I delete them every time, then I unsubscribe unless there’s a reason to keep them such as the rare coupon. If an organization sends too many emails, I see if they have another subscription option to get fewer emails or unsubscribe. (I don’t think any organization needs to send an email more than once a week aside from the Groupon types.)

Inbox, Spam and Domains

The only emails coming into the inbox are the quick ones that I read and delete in an instant from looking at the subject lines (Groupon is one). I also try to avoid creating filters with subject lines or @domain.com with no user name. For “@domain.com” filters, I limit those to clients from companies unlikely to have unrelated emails coming from their domain. For instance, if I had a contact at Apple, I wouldn’t create an “@apple.com” filter since it’s plausible I’d receive newsletters and notices from that domain. In this case, a filter with the contact’s complete email address works best.

I also bring back the spam folder. I had done away with it and told Gmail to send all spam to trash. But after the filter clean up, I want to check the spam folder for anything that slips through.

You can apply these steps to any email account with filters.

Results: The two email newsletters that kept landing in the trash stopped going there. I also have fewer emails coming in since I shed some of the email newsletters.

Next: Cutting down on checking email. I’ve been working on this habit all year and have improved a little. But I still check emails too often. The problem is that I need Gmail open most of the time so my husband can reach me through Google chat. I tried the chat window pop out, but it felt awkward. Even with the pop out, Gmail must stay open or else it closes the chat window.

Multitasking has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when the brain or filter has too much going on, it can let something slip through. Choose your multitasking activities wisely. Sometimes it’s more efficient to focus on a single task than to do many. Or in Gmail’s case, clear the filter cobwebs so it can make better choices.

P.S. Instead of checking emails this morning, I wrote this blog post. Now let’s see if I can work for a couple of hours without checking email. (Oh, boy. Help!)

What tips do you have for managing emails more efficiently?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

19 high. 8 low. Whoa. Texas gets below freezing temps, but rarely single digit temps. Cold, yes. Affect work, just a little because the kids didn’t have school. It turns out to be a booming YES.

Image from flickr user innpictime

This week has not gone the way I expected. I knew extremely cold temps were heading toward the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but I never thought my kids would be out of school for two or three days and that we’d have rolling blackouts. Four of them came my way in six hours … so far. (Another place just one mile down the road had zero by the time I had three. Hmm …)

I’m grateful for rolling blackouts with their lasting 15 to 20 minutes max. The alternative is to go without power for hours, freeze in my house and worry about refrigerated food. A friend of my daughter’s went without power for over five hours. Yikes. Yay, rolling blackouts.

My computer connects to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) so that sudden outages don’t hurt the computer. But I need to shut it down as soon as I can to preserve the UPS.

Since I use a wireless network, the network goes down as soon as the blackout hits. This means I can’t save any work done over the Internet. Easy workaround. The content stays on the screen after the wireless shuts down. So I just copy the content and paste it into a document that I save on my computer. Then, I safely turn it off.

The constant shutting down, booting up breaks the work flow. After the fourth blackout, I clock out the computer knowing a laptop stands by I need anything.

I started writing just before the second blackout occurred. When the power returned, I moved on to admin work doing first of the month stuff. It needs to be done and this is a good time to do it as disruptions don’t get in the way of the process.

Constant interruptions during writing produces a scattered draft that’s worse than an expected bad first draft. And when you try to get back in swing of things, the power goes out again. Nasty cycle that. Just not a good use of time.

Cell phones. Amen for them! I email my clients to let them know I’d be out of the loop. Thank you, wonderful and understanding clients.

Snow is A-OK in my book. Ice… not so much. Few of us own ice skates and sleds around these parts. Although, I did have a sled in my childhood home and my parents had a perfect small sloped driveway for sledding. AND my neighbors had an unusual driveway that went below the street (only house to do that), so I’d sled down our drive way gaining enough momentum to make it down the neighbor’s driveway.

My current driveway has a slope, but it’s not safe because it’s in the back facing an alley with fences blocking the view both ways. You can’t see who’s coming unlike the driveway in front of my parent’s house. Besides, there’s very little street space (just enough for a car and one person walking next to it), so the chances of smashing into the neighbor’s fence are very good.

What unexpected work disruptions have encountered and how did you deal with them?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

I admit it. Summer break messes with my writing work that I work shorter hours, blog less and write fewer online articles. While I have one kid old enough to fend for herself (driving) and another going to day camp, summer still disrupts my schedule. For one, the day camp doesn’t start until 9am. By that time, I’ve worked at least two hours during the school year.

Between breakfast and the two younger kids talking to each other, it affects the quiet time I love during the school year. Although I’ve adjusted to start my morning with administrative work and social media catching up, how I start my day sets the tone for the rest of the day. Plus, one kid stays home all day and interrupts me at unexpected times.

Here are the rules I’ve set to be as efficient as possible:

1. No TV downstairs. The noise distracts me. Sure, I can turn off my cochlear implant — but that silence differs from room silence. Plus, turning it off prevents me from hearing the door, the dog or hurt children.
2. Make your own lunch. If I am in the kitchen making my lunch and I’m good about eating at the standard lunch hour, I offer to make lunch for the kids. But if they’re hungry before then, they can make their own.
3. Do interrupt when it’s health-related. I want them to know that getting hurt or not feeling well is important and I need to know ASAP — not at the end of the day.
4. Schedule afternoon appointments. I’m most effective in the morning, so I make all non-work appointments in the afternoon — when I have the choice.

The rules work, but I still get a few interruptions daily that aren’t important. But I won’t impose more rules on the kids. So that’s why I limit blogging and social media time in the summer. I use that time to get client work done. (Heh. Just interrupted because son said he can’t remember how to write a couple of cursive letters.)

Whether you have children at home, there may be other times of the year that become more disruptive than the usual. How do you manage during those times of the year?

After her uncle invents the sandwich, Elise decides to try her hand at selling them. Help her run the very first Sandwich Shoppe in this fast-paced time management game. Use upgrades and new ingredients to make Ye Old Sandwich Shoppe even better, and help make the sandwich a staple for years to come.

Make sandwiches and decorate your shop as you play through 48 levels in four different locales including England and Asia. You’ll also pick up fun facts about sandwiches.

This $2.99 Catch of the Week runs through Sunday, May 9 at 11:59pm.

Catch the PC version.

Catch the Mac version.

The regular version of Diner Dash 5: Boom! is now available for $6.99. Here is the review of Diner Dash 5: Boom!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Exclusive advanced levels for extra gameplay
• An interactive strategy guide
• Behind the scenes concept art
• Animated screensaver and wallpapers
• “Flo Over Time” historical retrospective

Diner Dash 5: Boom Collector’s Edition blows up today, that is, it’s available for downloading for club members. Diner Dash‘s Flo’s Diner is smashed to bits. Flo needs cash to renovate her restaurant within a week or deal with some serious repercussions. So help Flo seat, serve and save the day in the time management game that involves dealing with weird weather conditions in outdoor settings. You can also build a unique diner with 1000 combinations.

Can you believe Flo first captured customers’ stomachs five years ago? “Since the debut of the franchise in 2004, the Diner Dash series has been downloaded more than 550 million times,” says PlayFirst.

Diner Dash 5: Boom Collector’s Edition includes:

• Five advanced levels of exclusive game play.
• Strategy guide and walk-through to reach expert level.
• Behind-the-scenes concept art book.
• Animated screen saver and wallpapers.
• “Flo Over Time” historical retrospective.

Not much information about the game is out there yet as people could not download it until today.

Kenny Shea Dinkin, PlayFirst’s Chief Creative Officer, says the company wanted to ensure the latest edition remains fresh and innovative without feeling like “the same ol’.” So what does PlayFirst do? Blow up the dinner and give players 50 levels of outdoor dining around DinerTown’s neighborhoods. Since her debut five years ago, Flo has found her way on iPhones, Xbox Live Arcade, Nintendeo DS, PlayStation Network and WiiWare. Wowii! Here are some of the Diner Dash games available on Amazon.

If you’d rather save the dough, a standard $6.99 version will come along later.

Mac fans! A Diner Dash 5: Boom Collector’s Edition Mac edition is available.

Download Diner Dash 5: Boom Collector’s Edition for Windows or Diner Dash 5: Boom Collector’s Edition for Mac

FYI: Big Fish Game Club is a monthly membership that lets you get the daily deal game for $2.99, credit every month to redeem for most games on the site and play “Tomorrow’s Game” today. The club costs $6.99 on a monthly basis and you can cancel membership anytime. I had no trouble canceling membership.

Why do we “get a feeling or craving” for something at a certain time of year? It’s Pavlov at work. These become habits and with habits come expectations.

Not everyone can succeed in working in a home office. The temptation to procrastinate and do non-work stuff is too great. Lone workers don’t have to worry about people watching over their shoulders or Alt-Tab to switch away from the improper web site.

Turn “forcing yourself” to get things done into “habits that make it easy” to get things done in six steps:

1. Create a general schedule: This depends on what you do for work. As a writer, my activities are: communications (emails), writing, editing, research, administrative, and interactions. Assign blocks of time for the activities for the day.
2. Stick to schedule: I’ve made it a habit to start the day with an email, followed by a blog post (when I do one), and then article writing for the morning. The afternoon is for the tedious, less creative work and social networking (reading blogs, tweets, etc.). I know I don’t function as well in the afternoon as in the morning. I also exercise mid-day.
3. Give it time: You won’t have that “feeling it’s time to do something” overnight. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. It works, I promise. When I got into habit of not working due to hand surgery, I thought I’d never get back into work. I did. Just had to push myself to do #2 and it fell into place.
4. Work from the same place: If possible, set aside a space for work. I have two places: my little home office and my bed with a laptop (I had back problems plus that’s where I play games for reviewing).
5. Handle guilt: You might feel guilty about household chores and other personal activities that we must do, but don’t want to do. Set aside 30 to 60 minutes a day for such activities and do them then. That gets rid of the feelings of guilt and carries you through the day.
6. Take a break: Don’t let yourself get carried away with working at your computer all day and eating lunch at your desk. You may feel like you’re on a roll and not tired, but a break revives you. Make this personal chores time, if need be. The physical break gets you moving and your eyes away from the screen. I have a dog, so unless I want her to do her business in my house — I must take a break to walk her. We don’t have a backyard and she refuses to go before walking at least half a block.

Think about the different times of the year. Do you find you crave something or expect something? For example, my family can’t help but crave cake in January with three of us having birthdays this month and one in early February.

I used to play tennis on Saturday and Sunday before I got hurt. It’s going to take time to get back in the mood for it after a long time off plus the cold weather. So I’ll start with one of those days and build back up.

If my routines don’t convince you, maybe these people in Daily Routines will.

Habits can work on an hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly basis. It’s what you make of it. Steps 1 through 4 work for most habits. Pick one thing to turn into a habit and try it.

Rebecca and Robert return in Turbo Fiesta taking their high energy and crazy-paced business out of space selling Mexican food. This time management game never feels too slow, not even at the beginning. In fact, it doesn’t take long before I fail to meet the level’s goals.

I cruised — with lots of bumps along the way — in Turbo Pizza and Turbo Subs. But hit a brick wall (or space station in this case) early on with Turbo Fiesta. This is a good and bad thing. It’s good because those who complain they never feel challenged by time management games should meet their match here.

It’s bad because Turbo Fiesta goes from 0 to 100 too soon. I can’t be too bad if I finished its predecessors’ games. Novices to time management might want to skip this one unless they’re patient and ready to jump in head first.

When I say “out of space,” that’s what I mean. Location, location, location matters in the restaurant business. I suppose this game fast forwards to the future to a time when there are plenty of customers in the sky. The customers’ attitudes (their moods drop as fast as ever) remain the same despite being way up high in the atmosphere.

Robert does the cookin’ while Rebecca does the runnin’ to pass out menus, pick up orders, nuke food, and collect change. Robert has it easy since he has robot arms that help with the food. Although the game remains similar to the previous two, it adds a turbo meter that rewards combo actions. When making enough combo steps, the turbo meter cooks in and Rebecca becomes Wonder Waitress, moving as fast as a speeding bullet. I love this.

After turning on turbo mode three times in a level, you’ll reach Fiesta mode and have a ball. Unfortunately, the two times I reach Fiesta mode… it’s the end of the level so I hardly enjoy my siesta. The dark space scene brightens up with Mexican decor that comes with a piñata and Mariachi music. Ah, that’s the best part since everyone is happy and you don’t have to rush anymore. Alas, it takes work to get there.

The mini-game offers a fresh perspective of the Pipes game. Turn the pipes and parts until everything connects — except in this case, it’s to restore power. Clever way to blend the mini-game with the story as the restaurant loses power.

Plenty of upgrades await including one that lets Rebecca carry three items at once. Only a couple of games have this feature, so I keep forgetting she can carry a third item. Upgrades up the price of food items, add color to the restaurant, help Rebecca and Robert work faster, and more. The superb graphics still impress and the music lifts.

Turbo Fiesta needs to offer an easier mode even for us experienced time management players. It stinks to get stuck early in the game or else the game is no fiesta. While the latest in the Turbo series introduces only a couple of new features, it remains as hyper and colorful as ever.

Download Turbo Fiesta.

Playfirst has a hit with its Dash series, so it makes sense for the company to capitalize on more Dashes. This time the action occurs on a farm. Even Diner Dash‘s Flo appears in Dairy Dash, but that doesn’t help Dairy Dash win me over.

Oh, Dairy Dash still entertains and adds a component few have: multiple characters. We’ll get to that later. In the meantime, we meet the Smith family consisting of Mom, Dad, Emily and Ethan. They’re not quite the farming family. In fact, they’re the opposite and enjoy technology as much as any other modern day family.

One night, they go out for a family dinner at — where else — Diner Dash Flo’s place. Dad hears from Uncle Bill who reports his farm could go under if he doesn’t get more help or buyers. After talking to Uncle Bill, Flo tells the family she knows restaurants in need of good organic produce. Being the supportive family they are, the Smiths leave city life behind for the quiet and hard-working farm life.

Dad Smith starts feeding the animals, milking them, gathering eggs, making cheese, and growing crops. Mrs. Smith joins him and the two work in sync. The action feels frenzied from the get go and chaining feels unnatural. A little practice helps, but chaining doesn’t work as well as the other games. Furthermore, the game won’t let you cancel an action. At least, you can click a few actions ahead.

They call Emily to help when they discover Uncle Bill has another farm, but she refuses. Mom and Dad continue working on their own. Eventually, Emily and Ethan join them. The later farms don’t change much — things shift a little, but not drastic. In fact, drastic describes the fourth farm, which looks like something from 2010. Oh wait, that’s less than two years away.

A mini-game enters every few levels for a break from running around. One uses match three to sell produce, another involves picking good apples before they fall, and another catching fruit in a basket. Nothing spectacular, but not boring as some mini-games can be.

Story mode works as expected — hearing a story and making your way around four different farms for 52 levels. To move to the next level, you need to reach the goal score before the rooster crows. You can also challenge yourself to surpass the goal score and aim for the expert score.

Also, Flo calls from time to time with a request, so you never know when the phone rings. Mr. Smith occasionally has to stop farming to fix the truck so they can deliver the goods. These factors keep the game from becoming predictable and repetitive.

Endless mode provides three levels of difficulty. This one’s endless mode should please plenty as it begins with a goal score. When you hit the goal, a new goal appears along with more elements to increase the challenge. I’ve never been a fan of endless mode, but this one has a good set up instead of having players play until they falter.

The Smiths can fill up on lemonade for a boost of energy to move faster. Unlike most time management games, you can’t bribe the animals to make them happier. The game requires little strategy as the best thing to do is click and act as requests come. Because of this, Dairy Dash might be an easier game for the youngsters than other Dash games.

The animals look pitiful when they’re hungry or thirsty and not much else. In other Dash games, the characters ooze personality. Dairy Dash doesn’t have the charm or personality that we’ve come to expect of a typical Dash game. Moreover, farm-themed games have been milked to death, so Dairy Dash feels ordinary by time management standards. Nonetheless, time management fans will find it a joy to play thanks to its multi-characters and variety.