3 April 2011

Sewing productivity


How many hours of sewing do you get done each week? How do you fit sewing around the other things you do in your life? Do you ever get frustrated by how little time you seem to have to sew?

In my work (and... er... social) life, people often comment on how efficient, conscientious and generally productive I am. These attributes don't, however, seem to translate into my sewing life. Other things always seem to get in the way - paperwork, cooking, eating, social engagements (although sometimes I try to get out of social engagements so I can spend time at home sewing - sshh!), commuting, eating, sleeping, eating, reading blogs, faffing about... I'm particularly busy at the moment and all the other projects I'm working on don't leave much room in my head to even think about sewing.


Sewing is, however, a big part of my life. I want to make it bigger. I want to make time to sew. With this in mind, I'm planning on implementing a three part research and strategy process to improve my sewing productivity:

1. Keep a diary for a week, maybe two, noting what I do with each hour of each day. When sewing happens, I'll note down how I feel before, during and after a chunk of sewing time.

2. Review the diary to assess what I'm spending my time on and to identify factors contributing to sewing productivity. Report back on my blog.

3. Create and implement a strategy to improve my sewing productivity based on what I learn from my research.

Now, I'd love to add a fourth part to the strategy - external research. Basically, you - how much sewing you get done each week and what makes you productive. Would you like to join me in this process? It would be great to pool ideas on how to become more productive.

If you'd like to join in, let me know, and I'll post up some more details next week about how we'll go about it. Pie charts will definitely be involved. Do you think one week or two would be best? Or maybe even a month? If you want to participate, any other ideas about how we should go about this?

Thoughts, please!

[Soundtrack: 'Guilt' by The Long Blondes]