Living by the Chicken

This time of year is especially vexing because of all the extra things we must do on top of what we normally do--shopping, wrapping, decorating, even baking. But if productivity is important, no matter the time of year, than you should try living by the chicken. Just like me.

I read a blog post at work about how much more a person could accomplish if she or he had two more productive hours in a day. If you could carve out just two more hours towards a significant project, you could change the world, rock your manuscript (you fill in the blank with something important to you).

So, when my friend gave me a chicken timer, I thought I could put it to excellent use to make my time more productive.

I'm hardly the busiest person in the world. I do work full-time, I host two blogs, and I am a writer. I'm not particularly social--don't run out for a lot of parties and social functions--but I see the value in keeping up a social media presence because the contacts and information are really invaluable. Occasionally, I try to be Suzie Homemaker and yes, that happens around the holidays. But I don't have any children at home any longer. I also try to see my elderly mother two or three Sundays a month--take her to church and to lunch--that sort of thing.

So, other friends of mine who write have more schedule constraints than me--getting their MFA's, constantly traveling for their jobs. But I'm still not as productive as I need to be. My husband might disagree with me, but the most important thing I need to carve out time for is my writing.

I'm living by the chicken.

My little black chicken timer goes room to room with me. Even as I write this blog post, I have the chicken set for twenty minutes. I'd better hurry if I want to finish this post because when the chicken dings, it's time to move on to another task, in this case tidying up and then getting cleaned up. You would be surprised, even if you tend to watch the clock, how much time it takes to do simple tasks like checking your vitals--all your email and social media accounts.

She's completely portable, loveable, sweet to look at, and helps me to avoid the time-suck of too much Internet surfing, excessive tweeting, or trying too many Facebook memes.

Need to carve more productive time out of your day? Then get one of these babies (they come in lots of colors) and start living by the chicken. And that's all I have to say about this because my chicken timer just went off.