billpalmer.net

This three-ring circus and time management

This was supposed to be the week where I got fully caught up on things. I've been behind on something or other since I hit the road for that San Diego - Los Angeles - Atlanta trip a month ago. I see that it's already Thursday afternoon and I'm forced to conclude that this isn't going to be the week after all. I've been working harder this past month than perhaps any other time than the Macworld Expo run-up in December, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

I'm prepping for a trip to Charlotte next week to interview a musician backstage after one of his concerts, I'm expecting a phone call from another celebrity (from him, not his people) sometime in the next day or two, I'm still trying to work my way through the various stages of post-followup from PodCamp NYC, and my co-host is giving me crap about the fact that I haven't gotten this week's podcast episode out the door yet. Nevermind the stack of new iPod accessories that's been waiting for me since I got back into town Sunday night.

This morning I think it finally hit me why I've been struggling to keep up lately: from the start I've envisioned iProng as being focused as much on the content you can put on your iPod as it is about the technology side of things, and I think finally, after three years of working toward that goal, it's happening. Right now. I'm as involved in covering the iPod economy as I ever was, but now I'm knee-deep into the podcasting community and music industries as well. All three parts of this three-ring circus are finally firing. There's still plenty of work to do on all three fronts, which is a good thing.

But it's begun to place demands on my time and attention that I'm not quite used to. I think after I get back from Charlotte I'm going to have to sit down and take a look at how my time and focus are currently being invested, and perhaps re-evaluate which parts of it I should be working on and which parts I should be leaving to others. iProng (or whatever it was called back then) took a huge leap forward two years ago when I gave up on the idea of writing all of the commentary myself and turned the majority of that responsibility over to talented writers who had the time to make writing their primary focus so that I could focus on the new things the site was expanding into at the time. Doing so allowed me to start the processes that have eventually led to where things are today.

I'm not sure it's time for another quantum shift of those proportions, but I am going to have to re-evaluate this. I'm enjoying most of the work I'm currently doing for iProng, but I've got to sit down and ask myself which of those tasks could be better done by others and which ones I'd serve the publication best by hanging onto for myself.

It sure is fun seeing the vision finally coming into focus, though. I've got to go finish getting this week's iProng Radio episode out the door before I get yelled at again...