Those with a 9-5, how much work do you do? What do you do?

[Mr.B]

I found this this timeline fascinating.

It's based on a book called 'Daily Rituals' and shows the daily routines of a number of famous creative people.

 

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[Andy Black]

Not everything is bad. When you have a job you have less time.

When you have less time , you know that you can´t spend your day doing useless tasks, and so there is less procrastination.

It allows you to clear the clutter, eliminate the fluff and get important things done.

Too much time available make us lazy.

^^^ This. Turn it into a positive.

I work on client stuff during the day, then my own stuff in the evening. Having only two hours each evening means I should prioritise better. Sometimes we have too many resources and our work just expands to use it all up. (Think budget, timeframe, size of diskspace/desk/shelves/etc.)

All I can remember from The Four Hour Work Week was how he combined two "laws":

1) 80/20 - you get 80% of the work done in 20% of the time. Monday your broke the back of the project, and Tuesday to Friday you farted around beautifying it ("creeping elegance" I heard it called in programming/IT circles).

2) Parkinsons Law (was it Parkinsons?) - your work expands to fill up the time you give it (or budget, or diskspace).


Turn then both on their head and give yourself LESS time, LESS budget, LESS space.

See how you end up MORE productive.

Break the back of FIVE projects Monday to Friday. Get all FIVE projects 80% done and do less farting about.

Remember when you have to take a half day to run to the airport to catch a flight? You manage to be super productive that morning, because you didn't do any of the stuff you'd allow yourself to do when you've got more time.

Story from a business course I was on years ago... our mentor explained how he was asked into a business by the business owner because he couldn't work out why things were going downhill. The mentor watched as the business owner came in before all the staff, and stayed hours after all the staff left. Calls would come in from customers, and the business owner would take the calls... because he didn't have a set time to go home. He'd inadvertently set expectations for his customers that they could ring after 5pm, AND he took on problems that the business didn't have the time to resolve. All because he thought he had limitless resources.

Sometimes I'm my most productive in a 2 hour session when I go for a walk for 40 minutes, clear my head, work out what ONE thing needs done, then do it... rather than be "busy" for two hours.

Turn your lack of time into an advantage, and ruthlessly prioritise.

 

[mt_myke]

I found this this timeline fascinating.

It's based on a book called 'Daily Rituals' and shows the daily routines of a number of famous creative people.

Fascinating indeed. The first thing that jumps out at me is that many of these people don't exercise at all. Then again they may be both creative and have a lifestyle leading to an early death. Was reading Balzac's wikipedia entry the other week so I know that's the case for him (died in his 50s, attributed to not giving a damn about his physical health).

 

[PedroG]

I'm a Software Engineer, and have an 19-month old kid. I try to get as much done as I can at night, after he goes to sleep. I've been going to bed around 1:00am. My job is also flexible, so there are times when I can work on my own thing during the day.

It's definitely harder with a family, but still doable. You don't have to neglect them. Just go to bed late, and get as much done as you can every night.

 

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[Basilius]

I work as application administrator (IT). I'm not fully utilized during the business hours, so I tried to work within this timeframe, but soon realized that the distractions (I need to be reachable on email and phone) makes it really hard for me to concentrate on creating my own business. Therefore I started getting up between 5:45 and 6:15 (I'm using Axbo alarm clock to make me wake up in REM phase) and work on my business for 90 to 120 minutes. I must say it's been working spectacularly for me! I'm not distracted and I have all the energy. When I start my day knowing that all the important stuff has already been done, it's just priceless. My goal is to work at least 2 hours every work day and of course with this morning routine I usually work more.

Also wanted to mention that I can't work 2 hours straight. I've been using pomodoro technique lately - 25 minutes of focused uninterrupted work and 5 minute of physical activity to help my brain relax (walk, washing dishes, vacuuming, stretch, push ups, ...).

 

[pgtownsyou]

I have an electrical engineering desk job that I work at 7-4 M-Th and 8-12 on Friday.

The best thing I've done for my productivity was read "The Miracle Morning". I've used my home automation system (there are simpler ways to do this) to slowly turn on my bedroom light at 5am. In my experience, there is no better alarm than a light! Light is your body's biological alarm clock - not some buzzer that makes you cringe every time you hear it. 99% of time, when that light turns on, I'm suddenly wide awake and ready to go! It's amazing how well it works. If I'm in a dark room with some buzzer sounding, you better believe I'm smashing the snooze button.

In those couple of hours before my 'workday' starts, I'm usually able to accomplish my '80%' (4 Hour Workweek reference) for the day. My mind is fresh coming off a night's sleep and there are no other distractions that early in the morning.

Getting off work at 4pm and having a 5 minute commute also leaves me quite a bit of evening to hit the gym and continue to work on the business before my 9:00 bedtime

 

[Deleted27835]

This thread has been a great read so far!

Currently I have a small lawncare business and this year I am working mid feb to the end of june. During that time I'm grinding 6 days a week from sun up to sun down, cold calling (door to door) and then doing the manual labour. April-June I'm on the road living out of the back of my truck so I can get a longer season. I have some time during the morning/evenings, yet find it challenging to divide between going to the gym, preparing myself for the next day, getting actual rest and relaxtion time and working on my online business. The benefit for me is that I get the whole summer and winter off. Going from the full-time grind of the work season to having abundant free time in the off season is still something I'm learning how to optimize. I find it equally challenging having endless open time with no structure as I do to having my whole week jam packed with work. Looking forward to getting better at this moving forward.

 

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[mt_myke]

The benefit for me is that I get the whole summer and winter off.

Sorry if I missed something really obvious but how do you have the summer off when your business is lawncare? The lawncare and landscaping people I know are busting their butts the whole summer and thru the fall, until everything is frozen or snow covered.

 

[Deleted27835]

Sorry if I missed something really obvious but how do you have the summer off when your business is lawncare? The lawncare and landscaping people I know are busting their butts the whole summer and thru the fall, until everything is frozen or snow covered.

Well, if I had a traditional lawncare business you'd be correct. I don't do any mowing or lawn treatments. I'm only providing two specific services that are done once or twice a year max and are only done in the spring and fall. As a 22 year old with no college education it's a step away from the 1 hour of my time = $10 trade. There is some (minor) ability to scale through buying more machines and hiring workers while I line up new clients.Currently I'm averaging around $500 cash a day. If I wanted to build it into a full blown landscaping business I could see myself being able to scale it up to the 100-150K a year range in a relatively short amount of time. Really this is just a vehicle I'm using to launch me into whatever is next and not something I'm looking at doing long term. When I'm done with it I'll sell my client list and equipment for whatever I can get for them.