Time Management
No matter what you do in life, in order to get things done, a person has to manage their time in some way or other. Gardening for the market requires most of my time from May to August. I work full time and the hours before and after work and on the weekends are usually spent completing a long list of gardening tasks. It always seems there is never enough time in the day to accomplish the to do list but I find there are a few things that really help to increase productivity. And I always try to remind myself that as long as I keep working and keep trying, that’s enough. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect and every box doesn’t require a check at the end of the day.
Prioritize
The thing I find most useful when managing my time is prioritizing tasks for the day. Some days I make actual written lists and some days, the list is just mental. The written lists are always better as things get forgotten by the end of the day, using the latter method. I try to prioritize based on the item that has the highest need for the day and also based on the time of day. Here in Tennessee, we have a lot of heat and humidity. This environment, especially when in drought, can be very hard for the garden plants and on me. I find I wilt just as the plants do during the heat. So I try to do my gardening either very early in the morning or during the afternoon hours of the day. Tying tomatoes to prevent them from breaking or falling over is high on the priority list. So I try to be in the garden before the workday starts at 8 am to complete the job. By doing this early instead of in the heat of the day, the plants are more tolerant of the handling.
Categorize
It also helps to manage my projects by categorizing their duration. For example, manual work in the garden is not year long. But for those four to five months, my housework takes second place. I keep all the daily tasks complete; dishes, laundry, floors cleaned but any major cleaning like windows or light fixtures is saved for time before or after garden season. Another example, this week we have obligations Monday through Thursday that have required a lot of prep work. So I know that these items must be done immediately as the project will end soon. The garden on the other hand, will be months longer, so I do have more leeway regarding some of those matters. Hoeing and weeding are the exceptions, as these need to be completed daily to keep the Johnson grass, morning glories and crab grass at a manageable level.
Routine
Lastly, my routine helps to manage my time. I am a creature of habit. Some would say this is an understatement, I’m sure. However, having a routine increases my productivity and efficiency. I usually tend to household chores at the same time each day. This saves time as I don’t have to think about what time I will do the dishes or prep dinner, it’s the same most every day. Here is a typical day:
5:30 am Wake up-Complete household chores: picking up, dishes, laundry.
6 am Garden-Hoeing, weeding, tilling, pruning, tying tomatoes, etc.
8am Work begins
1 pm Dinner-Work on household chores: fold laundry, dust, prep for dinner.
4:30 pm Work ends-Back to the garden to till, weed, hoe, prune, harvest, etc.
8:00-9:00 pm Shower and supper
10:00 pm-10:30 pm Bedtime
And then I remember, it’s okay that the peas look like rows of grass and my shower is dirty. I’ll just add those to the list for tomorrow and keep on going.
