It's All About Managing Your Time
Posted On: 2015-03-27
It's Friday as I write this column. The one day of the week that once had so much meaning when I worked for someone else but these days doesn't mean so much because, when you work for yourself, you don't always get to take the weekend off.
This weekend won't be much different for us. There's plenty of work to be done for clients and we have our own projects that are rumbling along and nearing completion and it's time to get them moving along a little bit faster.
Sometimes, when you work for yourself it's quite hard to find time for anything but what you have to do right now to put food on your table. How can you find the time for future projects when all your time seems to be taken up with what you have to do right now?
I saw one suggestion about how to do that the other day. It sounded quite strange at first but now that I have tried it the idea makes sense and it could work for a lot of people like me who are just so busy doing other things.
The guy who came up with this idea suggests that you start with a diary or a calendar, I use a Google Calendar, and you start blocking out periods of time each day for the things you have to do. So you would block out a period of time for whatever the regular daily thing you have to do to keep making money. You block out a period of time each day for your family, relaxation, chores etc. and you also block out a period of time for your project.
Of course just coloring in blocks of time on a calendar doesn't do much unless you stick to those periods of time and only do the task that you had allotted that time for. Of course you have to make the effort to do that but it only takes a few days to get into the habit of sticking to those times and the tasks that you have set for those times.
Does that sound too easy and, at the same time, too hard? Try it, it is both easy and hard to achieve but the longer you stick at it the more it becomes a habit ... a good habit ... and we all know how hard it is to break habits.
The most productive time
What is your most productive time of the day? At what point in the day do you achieve the most? Some will say that their most productive time of the day is after the kids have gone to bed while others will say that they are most productive later in the day.
Well, some testing has been done on this very question and the answer might surprise you. The most productive time for most of us is the first four hours of our day. So if you roll out of bed at 4am like my partner and I do then your most productive time will be between 4am and 8am and after that your productivity and your focus will begin to fade away.
Now when do you sit down to do your work? Is it in those first four hours of your day or do you wait till later in the day to make a start on the things you have to do?
You might think that the idea of having any set time that is more productive than another time of day is a load of garbage and there are certainly examples of famous people who do their best work at other times of the day. But there are many examples of people who do their best work in those first four hours of the day and leave the less important stuff for later in the day.
Stephen King is one example. He devotes the first half of his day to writing while meetings, shopping etc. are left to the afternoon.
Of course rescheduling your life to try and do your important work at your most productive time can be a real challenge especially if you have family because you have to convince them to perhaps turn their lives upside down just for you ... but it might just be worth it.
There's no doubt that I achieve more in those first four hours of my day when I actually sit down and focus on work and don't let anything distract me but convincing my clients that they should not disturb me in those hours is a challenge. I have several who seem to have some sort of contest going to see who can call me first so by 7.30 my phone is running hot.
Oh well maybe it will work for you even if it doesn't work for me.