I’m in a position right now when I got lots and lots to do. Designs need to be completed, follow-ups on clients and the work I’ve turned over to them, and blogs want content. I used to work in a pretty chaotic manner, trusting my instincts and going with my natural workflow which usually would result in a whole lot of stuff getting done, in chunks. The chaotic take on work is a very giving one, and if I was ten years younger I would probably subscribe to it still.
But I’m not, and I don’t want to put in crazy work-hours all the time. Honestly, I don’t have the stomach for pulling all-nighters anymore, and when that disappears as your last resort you’ll have to get organized.
So this is how I’m solving the ever present time dilemma of an entrepreneur. Perhaps there’s something for you to try in this, and if not, why don’t you tell me how you manage your time?
8 AM – I’m getting up. I’m not a morning person…
9 AM – I sit down with my second cup of coffee (I need that black gold) and fires up Gmail, my feedreader and stuff like that.
10 AM – I’m making a point of having cleared my feedreader by this time, otherwise things can easily get out of hand. There’s just too much out there to read so you need to be aggressive if you don’t have unlimited time. If I’m lucky I’m at work with my first blog post for the day (like today), based on an idea from breakfast or something from the feedreader.
11 AM – Probably still writing blog posts, but I try to catch up on my e-mail by now as well. Producing content for sites, be it 901am or Kong, is what’s on my plate right now. I’m usually disturbed on the phone several times during this period. Haven’t quite figured out how to approach that.
12 AM – An hour of randomness. Sadly, I usually have lots and lots of stuff to read left. Clearing the feedreader is one thing, reading up is another. Firefox moans over the 70 or so tabs I have open at this point, but I’m narrowing them down as I go. Not all of them will get read at all.
1 PM – Lunch break. I try to take an hour off the computer. Sometimes the lunch break is more like 1.30 pm or so, which isn’t a good thing.
2 PM – Back to work. A quick scan of e-mail, the feedreader, perhaps some posts and/or updates. A miscellaneous hour.
3-5 PM – Assignments I’ve been hired for, design gigs, or perhaps my own projects needing a bit of extra loving. The late afternoon is set aside for larger. For some reason it’s never hard to fill this time.
5-6 PM – Miscellaneous hour again. I try to skip this if I’m not too busy, spending time with my wife and aiming for an early dinner instead.
6-7 PM – No work, food.
7-9 PM – If I got work to do I usually put in two hours here. Mostly design actually, I tend to do my best work in the evening. Sometimes I got lots of review assignments and then you can be pretty sure to find me in my gaming room, cursing some of the crappy license games or whatever. Right now I’m playing ExciteTruck though, so I’m happy. Oh, and music always plays at this hour. I love me some music.
9-11 PM – Family time. If I work during these hours then there’s some sort of crisis.
11+ PM – If inspiration has got me, or I’m swamped with work, I put in a few hours of work here. I try not to, but sometimes the choice isn’t yours. Or if I had a bad non-productive day (it happens) then I usually am fired up enough to make up for it by now.
So there you have it! As you can see, it starts out like business hours but then just keeps on growing and growing. I try to cut as much of the time out as possible when I can afford it and when I just don’t have work. That last one haven’t happened for a couple of years, so… Still, working too much is actually bad for productivity so I try not to push myself too hard. Failing, of course, but you get the idea.
Now I’ve got to tweak this a bit. I’m going to put in a short story/novel project into all of this, and that’s at least two hours I’ll have to cut from something else. And since my free time is low already it won’t be going there.
How do you work and maximize your efficiency?
Originally posted on February 28, 2007 @ 1:43 am
Daniel, I guess feel the same. It’s tough putting in the 12-17 hrs/day, 7 d/wk that I do in blogging, research, and chatting with collaborators/ clients. But I’m motivated and plan to do this for another 2-3 years, then I’ll invest any savings and start to relax a bit. That’s my plan.
Also, good luck with your novels. I had to give up my short story and novelette writing because I find I cannot write creatively and blog about technology on the same day. Weird but true.
It is hard to combine blogging and writing, actually. I found it nearly impossible for several years, until I finally managed to get t to work. Don’t know what changed though, probably just a peace of mind or something.
And thanks. :)
I hate to say this, but reading suffers. Last year I was so busy blogging and writing that I stopped reading most of my favorite blogs and had to carve out time for those I did.
Also, insomnia helps.
Same here. I had no choice but to only read what I need for research on my paid posts. As a result, i think i offended a few blogosphere friends by not knowing what they were writing about recently. I tried to explain, but…
Reading other blogs is vital when you’re blogging if you ask me, so that’s not where to cut time. Still, it is hard to piece it all together.
You’re absolutely right. What I meant was that their blogs were not strictly about what I blog about. E.g., I write mostly tech posts (at one time for 7 blogs, cut back to 2) plus ghostbait (3-5 big articles per week), and in doing so, I just couldn’t find the time for any extra reading, let alone writing on my own blogs.
You have to decide what’s important to you, I guess.
When I read your post to thoughts popped into my head;
1. Do your wife support this lifestyle?
2. Do you make any/enough money out of this?
My day is divided into three parts.
Sleeping
Working
Family/friend time
And the last one is the one that suffers the most. No, not actually. Working is the only thing thats get full attention. I have to yield time from sleeping and friends to make my days go by.
It seems like working with computers can be a nightmare – or heaven depending on what you like.
I have never been a 0800-1600 working guy. I – just like you – stay awake late and then sleep in the morning. Plus, I have an interesting job and put in what it takes to make it continue to be an interesting job.
This would not be possible without support from home, so yeah, I have that. I’ve been working like this without making enough in the past, hoping for The Big Break, like so many others. Thankfully, I have no real problem paying the bills nowadays, and hopefully everything will continue to evolve from the positive path I’ve been threading financially.
But yeah, working less is one of the first things I want to accomplish. It’s surprisingly hard.
My email is always up because I get between 700-800 emails per day. If I wait until one time of the day to review it all I would never get it done. This way, if something pops up that I should take care of, or blog about .. I do it immediately.
Other than that, my blogging is stress relief and multitasking, say while I’m batch printing or between jobs, or between tasks on same jobs .. So – my biggest challenge is to not lose interest or get burnt out on the offline stuff, because I will tend to not return and stay in the wrong multi-task window – reading my bloglines, commenting, blogging, etc. But, generally that’s the way it goes .. I know you have to read to keep up with the blogging, but my bloglines are organized for that. I hate jumping back and forth reading feeds that sparks me to blog and then others that are strictly for my amusement or curiousity.
PS. Everytime I resond on 901am and tick the “Notify Me” box, my comment gets an error message when I submit.