Workflow, Work Times

Friday

Sep042009

September 4, 2009 by

Jim N. in

Opinion

Adrian over at FreelanceSwith.com has posted an article on how he optimizes his work time, and the inevitable interruptions that arise during that time. He mentions generally being a night-owl, but lately has been finding a lot of productive time in the early AM. I commented on his post with my own routine for work and thought I'd cross-post here.

To your first point, I also work from home and am Mr. Mom in the AM as my wife leaves for work before the kids go to school. I’m Mr. Mom in the PM when the kids get off school (because the wife is still working), which includes making dinner. Staying up late isn’t an option.

So I’ve been getting up at 4am for a couple months now, at my desk by 4:30. I stop for breakfast around 7:30, take the kids to school at 8 and exercise till 9.

Essentially, by the time 9am comes I’ve already gotten 3-ish hours of work done. Another 3 before 12, and another 4 – 4.5 by the time dinner needs to be made, minus a quick trip to pick up the kids. I treat Fridays like an overflow day, and am having success refraining from work on weekends. If do I work on Saturday, I get up at 4 again so as not to cut into the day too much. By the time the kids are up and watching cartoons, I’ve put in another 5 hours, and whether the work is done or not I at least have a clear conscious.

Like you, I find I can mostly relax in the evenings, which has a far greater psychological effect than putting the kids to bed at 9pm and realizing I still have several hours of work to do.

So there you have it: the life and times of one of many modern freelancers. When it comes to my team –a small collection of trusted designers, programmers, etc– we definitely follow the "No more employees (or employers)" principle.

My schedule hasn't always been this way, and likely won't always be this way in the future, but for now it works. Most importantly, I think this is a more "organic" way of functioning, being around or in the vicinity of the home and family all day as opposed to commuting somewhere else. Not everyone can do this, of course, and this style was a real challenge when I first took it on. Years in corporate America had trained me that work can only be done when there's a commute involved. But I've warmed to my current situation, and it goes a long way towards the goal I have of "working to live" and not living to work.

4 References | |

Send | (Comments)

References (4)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.

Source: 4 Lessons That Helped Me Optimize My Workflow

by Adrian Try at FreelanceSwitch.com on Sep 5, 2009

Finding the right workflow can make a tremendous difference in the productivity of a freelancer, and I have been working very hard at this over the last few weeks. I have made sure that there is enough time each day and each week to accomplish all of the tasks that I’m responsible for. And I’m learning when I’m most productive and have the most energy, and I have been using those times effectively to maximize productivity. But even with careful planning and the best of intentions, managing time
Related: The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload & Triple Productivity in 24 Hours

by Timothy Ferriss at Change This on May 8, 2009

It’s Monday morning and your To-Do list for the day is lengthy. You turn on your computer, log into your inbox, and…spend the next six hours starting, stopping and backtracking, your To-Do list untouched. Tim Ferriss offers immediate solutions to improve your productivity and quiet the constant information interference.
Related: Quit Managing Your Time… and Start Managing Your Attention

by Lee J. Colan & David Cottrell at Change This on Aug 13, 2009

You can’t manufacture time, you can’t reproduce time, you can’t slow time down or turn it around and make it run in the other direction. You can’t trade bad hours for good ones, either. About all the time management you can do is to cram as much productive work as possible into each day. What you can manage, however, is your attention.
Related: No more employees (or employers)

by Eric Karjaluoto at Ideas On Ideas on Jul 21, 2009

A fellow named James has been working with us in this capacity. I’m not his boss and he’s not my employee. I’m not sure what he looks like and I don’t know where he lives. I don’t have any idea of when he starts his work-day and I don’t care.