Yesterday, I didn’t want to work. I felt sort of blah all day. But I still got stuff done, and I had a productive day.

Does this happen to you? I’m sure it does. Part of being a small business owner is having to find the self-motivation to work when we don’t feel like it. Without a boss checking to see if we’re playing Solitaire on our computer, it’s easy to fritter a whole day away.

How to manage the problem? I recommend having “Rainy Day” items in your action list. These are things that need to be done but don’t take a lot of creativity. Cleaning up my Twitter followers is a good example. Doesn’t take much brain power, and it’s something I hate to do when I’m at my best, but it’s perfect for “brain dead” days.

I also worked on editing and rewriting my urban fantasy story. It did require creativity, but it was also fun and didn’t feel too much like work.

What kinds of (productive) things do you do when you don’t feel like working?

I read a lot of advice on time management and am always looking for good ideas for my clients.

Something I’m not a fan of is advice to check email at specified times. Generally the suggestion is to check two or three times a day and discipline yourself to not check in between.

If you’ve read anything by me, you know I’m not big on one size fits all advice, and this one strikes me that way. I agree that many people waste time with email or feel that it controls them. So having a system to address the problem is good. But I think the advice to check a limited number of times a day puts the cart before the horse. First, you have to understand your issue with email and your needs with email.

Do you check email throughout the day as a way to avoid working? Or are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount you receive in a day?

Are you in a fast-paced business where quick response to email is key to your success? Or do you work in an office where up-to-the-minute response is not expected or required?

See my point? Each of the above situations indicate a slightly different response to email. The fast-paced business person who only checks and responds twice a day might miss opportunities.

The person who uses it as a distraction may have an underlying problem that goes beyond email. Like burned out on the job. Restricting access to email won’t address that.

Being in control of email and not letting it control you is important. But first understand the problem. Then work to find a solution.

In case you were wondering, I check email throughout the day. Processing it in short bursts works better for me and fits my personality and my business needs better than two or three marathon sessions each day.

How do you manage your email? Share your ideas and tips in the comments.

I’ve been discovering some things about myself and timing of tasks lately, and I thought I’d share.

I thought it didn’t matter what time of the day I wrote. Turns out I was wrong. I’ve been struggling a bit with the rework of Face to Facebook. I’ve been doing other tasks in the morning and saving work on the book until later in the afternoon. Mistake!

Yesterday, I switched my scheduling and worked on the book in the morning. Wow! What a difference that made. What had been hard in the afternoon was almost effortless in the morning. Lesson learned. No more writing in the afternoon. Well, except for fiction. So far that works any time of day.

Checking social media used to be something I did in the morning. I still do, but less now. It’s a perfect late afternoon task. I can read and absorb blog posts just fine late in the day when I’m not up for creative tasks.

Same with catching up on email. It seems I can focus better on that when I’m feeling less creative. Although yesterday I needed to write a fun and creative email introduction. I made sure to do that earlier in the day.

What about networking? I’m still blessed in that I can be productive at networking meetings any time of day. But I know people who can’t do mornings or are just much better in the evening. If there’s a time of day you’re more effective networking, go for it. Spend more of your time interacting when you’re at your best. There may occasionally be a great event at your less effective time of day, and you’ll probably want to go to it. But try to schedule thing when you’ll be more sharp.

Finally, client and one to one meetings? I’m okay with those morning and afternoon. Much after 4:00, though, and I start to lose focus one on one. Good thing I don’t have many people wanting to meet at those times.

I challenge you to look at your regular tasks and events. Is something giving you trouble? Try it at a different time of day and see if it makes a difference.

Wouldn’t it be great to get more done in the same amount of time? You can if you schedule things appropriately.

Anyone else have a good story to share about switching around the timing of a task?

Having a good task and project management system in place is essential for being an effective networker and making time to network and get work done.

In my post on setting boundaries, I talk about having a system for your tasks will make it easier to say no. If you know what you’ve committed to, how much time it will take and your priorities, you’ll be less likely to take on more than you can handle.

So what does a good task management system look like? I use David Allen’s GTD system (and I reviewed Getting Things Done last year). You don’t have to use his system, but he has some excellent points.

One of the biggest is organizing tasks into projects. Many people write down general things on their to-do list (like Create an Estate Plan). That’s not a task, it’s a project made up of sub-tasks. Something that vague will never get done. It’s too big and intimidating. But breaking it down into sub-tasks (like “find an attorney” and “schedule an appointment”) are less-threatening. They are clear and obvious and more likely to get done.

But more important than organizing your tasks is having them with you at all times. I highly recommend that your task management system be portable. Task managers on your computer are fine, but unless you carry your computer with you everywhere, there will be times you don’t have it with you. You need to be able to capture ideas and tasks immediately. Little pieces of paper are one way to do it, but then you have to enter them later in your system. And little pieces of paper tend to get get lost. Using a service like Jott can work well. You can speak your ideas, have them transcribed and then emailed. When you’re back to your computer, you can enter them into your computer system.

It won’t come as a surprise, though, that I recommend using your smart phone as a way to capture tasks. My phone is always with me, so I can enter things as soon as I think of them.

I could write an entire post on handling email, but right now I’ll just say that a number of your tasks probably come in through email. Your Inbox is not a task management system. Capture tasks from email and then file the email as a reference.

Once you’ve got your tasks written down, don’t overbook yourself on a particular day. If you think you have 4 hours to work, schedule yourself 2 1/2 hours worth of tasks. That gives you extra time in case you are interrupted or something takes longer than you anticipated.

Looking at your tasks this way will keep you focused. You won’t get stuck scrambling at the last minute to do something you forgot until something reminded you. If you are in control of your tasks, you’ll know how much time and when you can network.

Finally, use your tasks as the reason to keep your boundaries firm. Now that you know everything you need to do and how long it will take, when someone calls to ask you to do something, don’t automatically say “yes.” Look at your tasks. Look at your time. Make a reasonable decision about taking on one more task.

And use any extra time to go out and meet more people!