The Hardest Game

. . . is Time Management. Before you rush off to look that up on BGG, don't bother. I mean, it may be a game listed on there, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about actually figuring out how your day is going to be spent and then executing that plan. (That laughing sound you hear is my wife reading those words on this page.)

These past two weeks, I've been redesigning a game, organizing playtesters, thinking about this other game I need to redesign, contacting various people about various, non-related projects, answering rules questions about Kingdom of Solomon, finishing a proposal for another game, teaching a class, tutoring, taking an online class in math education, preparing lessons for church, reading, getting things packed up to move later this year (house needs to be ready by March), all while helping to babysit my very active nephew and my four daughters. I'm really glad my wife does 99% of the homeschooling. And I'm also glad I make enough money from all this to survive, because it would stink to have to WORK in addition to all this stuff!

I'm not terrible at this important skill, but I'm also easily distracted. I've noticed a correlation between my strong inclination to switch strategies halfway through a game and my knack for starting a new project at exactly the halfway point of the old project. This is a recipe for lots of projects. Which is good for a game designer, I think. Keeps us sharp.

This is that part of the post were I explain my secret technique for managing my time. Except . . . I don't really have one. I only started writing this entry because I was waiting for something to upload for a different project I'm supposed to be working on. !!! That's what I'm dealing with here! Again, I don't have a magic formula, but I can at least give you my (non-original, captain-obvious) steps:

1. Write stuff down. Before you go to bed or when you get up. What do you need to do tomorrow? What do you want to get done if you have extra time?
2. Spend a few minutes every month/two weeks to sit and think about what you want long-term. Write this down, too. Sometimes you have to break these up into smaller bites to get them to fit on your day-to-day list.
3. If you're not getting stuff done, re-evaluate. Do you really need/want to get it done? If so, then you may have to go to step 4.
4. Do that really hard/boring thing you wrote down for today. Ouch.

I guess that's how I juggle all my many responsibilities (occasionally dropping something) and still keep my head screwed on.

Oh, and I'm going to be attending a Revolution! tournament a week from Saturday. Should be a blast!