And now a few words from old Rome...Time management: a longstanding issue...

“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”

That's Seneca (the quotation, not the photo).

His comments could be the introduction of a time management self-help title today. As alluded to in my last post, efficiency has been a big part of my goal structure for the rest of this month. A large part of maximizing efficiency as a freelance writer is learning to use one's time more effectively.

Seneca was a writer, too. He wasn't writing sales copy or articles for an Adsense site, and was probably able to work at a more relaxed rate than we do today. Nonetheless, he felt (or at least noticed) the time pinch way back then.

That's sort of comforting, knowing that my chief obstacle to maximum productivity isn't just a "me" thing. It's also sort of distressing, because it underlines just how tough a nut managing time is to crack. On the other hand, as I remember it Seneca was exiled to Corsica after sleeping with someone else's wife, so I might want to take his comments with a few grains of Mediterranean sea salt.

Anyway, I will continue to eradicate the non-productive while still trying to keep a little tiny sliver of "fun" time in the schedule.