On a Quest for Time Management Tools

Me: I’m on a hunt for a better solution for me and here’s why:

I think my life is divided into two distinct periods of time right now–Before the Fire (BF) and After the Fire (AF) and to be honest I don’t like it and I don’t always want to talk about it, but it has had an effect on every single area of my life. (Oh how I *HATE* to admit that!)

So let’s look at the BF time period, while I did have to admit that I was stretching myself a little thin and over-committing to things, I did recognize this and was making positive progress and gaining balance.  I was able, or at least I felt like I was able, to juggle many areas of my life without dropping the ball.  I completed tasks, found time to engage in new projects, make new friends while maintaining older friendships, kids, school, work, etc.  It was all falling into place without much need of more than my pen and my paper calendar.

Now jump to AF time.  It’s been a little over 2 months, and I reflected upon these last 9 weeks and I have to admit I have fallen into the “over-promise and under-deliver” category.  The reality of that realization sucks on all levels! However, if you don’t know there is a problem you can fix it, right?  So I am fixing it.

Sometimes when fixing things we can use tape, glue, nails, screws, hammers and more, while other times we just need to throw the object away and just start over again. Having said that, I am revamping the way I manage my time and I want some apps to help me keep track of stuff I am doing this year. Short term is I want to try it for a month and if it’s worthwhile and actually proves to be beneficial and if it is use it for the year and see what I learn from keeping accurate track of how I use my time.

So I am on a hunt for  “open source time management tools” and after a quick google search there are more out there than I thought.  Now it’s off to the Ubuntu Software Center to see what is available there.

Anywho, so what do you use?