When you play as many time management games as I have (and many more exist that I haven’t tried), you wonder if it’s possible for a developer to come up with more undiscovered surprises. First Class Flurry answers, “Yes!” And, no it’s not an Airport Mania copy.

I don’t dream of becoming a pilot or traveling the world free as a paid flight attendant. Sure, I want to see the world, but I’ll have to do it the traditional way — shell out the bucks. Nonetheless, First Class Flurry satisfies — and way more than a Snickers bar.

Like the old airline, Braniff Airways, Starlink files for bankruptcy. But wait a minute. Like Braniff (as Braniff International Airlines, Inc.), Starlink comes back to life under a new owner. Claire, the flight attendant, happens to know the right people including the owner. The owner hires Claire as the lead flight attendant to ensure passengers are as happy as larks.

Not so fast — not as easy as you might think. You deal with sick, whiny, demanding, and honeymooning passengers of all ages. In typical time management fashion, players must reach the minimum score to move on to the next level. Time management kings and queens, challenge yourself and shoot for the expert score every time.

Claire starts working on a diddly economy flight, but play well — and she can move up to business class, first class, and finally royal first class. Her job involves making meals, fetching drinks, finding lost handheld devices and diamond rings, and handing out other comforts of the plane like headphones, pillows, and sleeping masks.

Claire tracks orders, recycles the trash, and somehow has to watch for annoying kids who cry because they can’t find mommy or they want to pester other passengers. After you earn enough points, you can buy a tray to carry three items and even four. Not often a game lets you carry more than two things and I like it!

Travelers also come with hearts for your monitoring their happiness levels. When the levels dip below unacceptable levels, you lose points. Quickly giving them what they want will keep them smiling. You also have the opportunity to simultaneously boost everyone’s happiness by spraying air freshener — can only use once per flight.

Another way — and you’re stuck with a captain who thinks too much of himself — is to quickly serve the captain whatever he (yes, “he” while the flight attendant is a “she”– don’t blame the messenger) wants. Once he’s happy, the whole flight smiles in adoration right back at the captain. The guy has an ego, but I love my job anyway.

The flights can fly in one of four locations: North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Pick any to start and fly for the duration of the economy flight. Finish that and you select another spot for business class. As you travel to new locations, you’ll notice some culture in the air. Plus, learn or refresh your knowledge of flags for different countries in the flight map.

Turbulence? Of course, there’s turbulence and it interrupts your work. Forget whatever you’re doing and make a run for the phone to warn passengers of impending bumpiness. Then help the lazy ones buckle their belts and get to your seat all within seconds or else enjoy a nice headache.

The game works beautifully with the mouse and its two buttons. Right-click anytime to cancel an action. Click ahead to get Claire hopping in doing a bunch of tasks in a row. It’s a lovely thing to have almost complete control over future actions. Although, the game occasionally gets me by having a passenger cancel his order and I keep trucking along unaware.

Upgrades and tasks can make or break a game. First Class Flurry aces the test. Upgrades change the look and color of the airplane, add features and décor to relax the passengers (hint: make them happier and more patient), and speed Claire’s movements. Some upgrades come with a few color options. With each flight class, you start over on the upgrades. You may or might not be able to buy all of them before the end of the flight class — just depends on how well you play.

Way past the game’s halfway point, the game continues to surprise with new dishes and features. So the tasks don’t feel repetitive especially in food preparation. On one flight, Claire makes burgers and fries. On another, she makes salmon (takes three steps) and sandwiches (also three steps). The station locations — such as the emergency kit and the magazine rack — also change around so you can’t get comfy.

First Class Flurry is almost perfect. Its wonderful all-around production values overshadow the few scrapes. For some, the pace can get frantic a little sooner than they would like. Some dishes are hard to distinguish especially the noodle family. That nuisance goes away after a little practice. Aptly named First Class Flurry is indeed a first class game. Take off and go play it!

I took my first break in ages — that didn’t include an illness or a holiday — for a few days last week for spring break. We went to San Marcos and San Antonio and visited Wonderworld, Sea World, and the Riverwalk. Wonderworld contains a dry cave created by an earthquak on the Balcones Fault Zone over 35 million years ago. The web site’s tour information only documents part of its fascinating history.

Though we took a laptop and our smartphones, I rarely checked e-mail (!!!) and returned to over 1000 messages. Of course, spam made up the bulk of the messages. So I downloaded my email and went to work elsewhere while the email client filtered the garbage. Much better.

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Unfortunately, Google Mail went bonkers. Once in a while, GMail sends spam into the inbox instead of the spam and trash folders. It decided to do that while I wasn’t checking e-mail. This created more clean up work.

Several clients went on an emailing binge (it happens, and that’s OK). Rather than making the client wait for me to wade through the messages to get up to speed on the conversations — I sent the client a quick e-mail saying I’ve returned and would address the messages as I work through them. I suggested that if something needs top priority — to let me know.

The steps for catching up quickly…

1. Download e-mail in your primary e-mail client. Let its experienced filters do the cleaning up. Skip any temptation to use the cell phone or another non-primary e-mail client to catch up on email or else you’re stuck looking at a lot of unfiltered stuff and it takes longer to do this than on your primary e-mail client.
2. Scan e-mail quickly filing or deleting newsletters and regular e-mails you only read when you’re caught up or work is slower than usual. Newsletters I subscribe to fall into two categories: Always read/scan (shortest list) and sometimes read/scan (these either get filed or deleted). When returning from a break, I don’t read or scan the “sometimes.”
3. Reply to quick e-mails. Some e-mails may just involve answering a few questions or doing a quick task. Do them and then file/delete the e-mail. This further cleans the e-mail clutter and makes you feel better because your inbox shrinks.
4. Complete bite-sized tasks for each project or client. On the first day back at work, I did bite-sized work for my regular clients rather than only complete work for one or two clients. It’s a way to get something done and touch base with all of them without feeling overwhelmed. Plus, checking off the tasks as completed gives you a sense of accomplishment. I also skipped blogging.
5. Skip administrative work. No balancing the checkbook or doing other business maintenance activities. Those can wait until you settle back in your routine unless you returned on tax day.
6. Skip personal tasks. I have a birthday party to plan, but I skipped personal stuff on the first day back at work (this could be a problem for those who wait until the last minute).
7. Limit meetings and appointments. I had a prior commitment on the first day back that couldn’t couldn’t be avoided, but I sacrificed a non-profit organization meeting today.

Though I still have plenty of work to do, I feel better knowing I’ve touched base with my regular clients and cleaned my inbox.

I have a few clients in which the engagements are open-ended. This means helping them with their ongoing content work. As a result, it’s easy to let something drag on without completing it.

For example, a client may ask me to revise the Help documentation and write entries for blogs. Rather than just letting it sit, I prioritize them for the sake of motivating me.

Furthermore, freelancing offers a way for many of us to lead balanced and happy lives. Spend more time with kids, hobbies, volunteer work, whathaveyou.

1. Split Project into Small Tasks
Help documentation can easily take weeks. So I work with the client to split the Help into sections. Completing bite-sized tasks works faster than working on a giant project without any breakdowns. For blogging — set up an agreement with the client on the number of posts per week.

2. Set Rules for Your Own Activities
Having trouble updating your blog because of client work? Struggling to make marketing a regular activity? I used to blog five days a week, which became too much in recent months.

So I shoot for two to three a week. It’s not like readers don’t have other things to read. Two or three posts a week won’t hurt because the blog stays updated without overwhelming readers. Remember, blogging also counts as a marketing tool.

Marketing activities — one way to do it is set aside 10 to 30 minutes a day or some other time that works for you. I’m lucky to have a full plate, but I know things can disappear or take a long time before they materialize. So by the time I set up something with a new client, another project will have ended.

3. Allow One Hour of Non-Work Time Per Day
Exercise? Volunteering? Other things you wish you had more time for since you already eat lunch while you work? It’s OK to take one hour per day (with OCCASIONAL exceptions) to do something away from work. So what if something takes two hours (I have three doctor’s appointments this week — I guess I’ll do some work this weekend)? You’ll make it up the next day by taking a shorter break.

4. Schedule Work Time around Regular Activities
You could even calculate your work for the week WHILE considering the time you spend on exercise or another regular activity. For instance, I play on a tennis team that practices and plays matches during the week day (Saturday league won’t work due to kids’ weekend games).

Tennis triples as exercise, social interaction, and hobby (my love for playing sports). After all, isn’t freelancing about flexibility? It allows me to enjoy a well-balanced life. Sure, you’ll have some weeks where you only work 30 hours and others where you work 60. I believe it evens out in the long-run.

5. Make a Habit out of Regular Tasks
When it comes to a certain time of year, do you crave a specific food? I noticed that mint-flavored things usually appear everywhere in the winter and go away by spring. Is there an unwritten rule that we can’t eat mint-flavored food other times of the year? No, but we tend to associate them with winter and cold.

A regular schedule for tasks and activities helps you keep going at it. You can’t help but start the day reading e-mails, writing a blog entry, or however you want to start your day. On days I blog, it’s the first work thing I do. The first thing I do every morning is drink a cuppa Joe, read the newspaper (the print kind), and do the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper.

It’s easy to overwhelm yourself with so many things and ideas that nothing materializes. For example, a writer might think about article ideas for different magazines, project ideas, and Web site / networking pages content ideas. Thinking about all of these will likely produce nothing except one overwhelmed freelancer.

This became a problem when I drafted two posts (one being the 70+ PowerPoint presentation post) and I kept running into articles from experts who implement many ideas. This inspired me to think about something I could create. Then I realized I was brainstorming about too many things at once. The result: Stifled energy and creativity. Nothing got done.

Freelancers typically have current assignments plus projects or tasks they want to do or try. Sometimes thinking about both can lead to getting little to nothing done. Instead try these steps:

1. Keep a “to do” list for currently assigned projects and clients.

This list contains things you must do. Identify these as required tasks. Instead of looking at the long list of things to do and inviting overwhelm back into the picture — pick two or three to do for the day.

2. Add “want to do” projects to the “to do” list.

Label these differently than the required to do items for clients and projects. On a day when you can do shorter tasks from your client/project task list — make this your task for the day. Don’t let your mind wander and seek out other ideas and projects. Do only this activity.

You could set a schedule for allowing yourself to work on these want projects. Once a week. Once every two weeks.

3. Stop mind wandering by adding new ideas to the “want to do” list

Instead of getting trapped thinking about more things you’d like to do or try, add it to the list and let go. This puts your idea in concrete terms so you can let it go. Return to whatever you’re doing or work on the next to do item.

IttyBiz offers six excellent tips for finding four hours in your day. Successful freelancers must balance their time as not working = not earning money. This is especially true for those who have lives outside of freelancing and value sleep. The Internet unquestionably provides valuable resources for helping our business, but it easily steals your productivity time if a site or Web-based application gets their hooks in you and won’t let go.

It happens to me on occasion especially when the creativity levels are low and uncooperative. But I also take care in avoiding sites and applications that will lure me in if I dare venture there. Twitter and Second Life are two examples. When I first heard about them, I took a quick look to learn about them to keep up with what’s hot.

Before checking them — I put up a warning flag in my brain because I knew they stole productivity time based on what I had heard. It’s OK not to participate in the latest greatest of everything online. I had to learn this in the mid-’90s when I used to buy the latest techie stuff. By then, new products came out and in droves. It would’ve put my bank account in danger.

Good sites and content give you an idea of what you could get into if you click a link or check a recommendation. If you decide that you just want to satisfy your curiosity and spend only a few minutes on a site before visiting, it’ll be easier to pull away rather than let it trap you.