I am sharing this in the hopes that you will find it helpful if you are finding it difficult to manage your time in this 24/7/365 connected world.
How am I working to find focus? Perhaps will start with a little bit of background. In addition to my freelance work with Web 2.0, Blogging, WordPress Dev and Social Media I am also the founder and owner of Managed Solutions. As a result I’ve had to wear quite a few hats since January of 1997. One of my priorities recently has to become more focused and effective with my time, largely out of necessity (sad eyes looking at the gaps in my blog postings!). In an effort to help gain focus I started keeping track of every minute of my work day, not just my client billable time. That process provided me with the inspiration to write this post which for the record took EXACTLY 61 minutes start to finish.
Since I spend a good part of my time doing IT work it is hard to really schedule my time effectively. That said I have a general flow to my work schedule right now, this is the general framework that I work with by day of the week:
Mondays – Sales and Marketing
Ok so in theory I am performing sales and marketing efforts on this day. The truth is I often get a lot of customer calls on Monday mornings. Many a Monday becomes a response fest – a good chunk of my living comes from providing IT services to my clients.
Tuesdays – Field Days
I schedule foreseeable appointments on Tuesdays most of the time. I have a Rotary meeting at 7AM in the morning so I just keep on going from there.
Wednesdays – Work Days
Work as in billable project work, I schedule foreseeable projects for Wednesdays. Objective is to be logging time on projects all day every Wednesday. Usually the early in the week fire drills of Monday have concluded and I am able to focus on finishing longer term work.
Thursday – Flex Day
Thursday is pretty much a catch up day; ideally it is a carry-over of Wednesday.
Friday – Finance and Flex Day
I catch up on finance and accounting on Friday’s. I also tend to schedule meetings on Friday’s because it is lighter on the IT side of things most of the time. I also have time on my Friday agenda for Social Media posting for the next week. This can quickly fall in the priority list if it’s been a busy week or customers have urgent needs.
After Hours and Weekends
I tend to do a lot of remote tasks that require me to work after hours so I plan for and execute these tasks on week nights or over the weekend. I do my best to balance the time I spend with time spent with family. I make sure I limit the discretionary time for non-family and work items to avoid allowing my work or family to suffer.
A little exercise
As I mentioned I started to track everything I do, every minute of the day to identify my true activities and to help remove bottlenecks. I’ve not been doing this long but I discovered a couple of really important facts:
- I work for free a lot more than I realized.
- Accounting and Finance are very time consuming.
- Responding to Social Media and Email especially can take up a lot of my time.
- I usually take 30-45 minutes for lunch/family time during a typical 8-5 work day (even though I work at home)
Making adjustments
Now I am starting to make adjustments. I am already a serial un-subscriber and a master Email filter writer both help me cut down on Email time, but I am also trying to keep my responses short and to the point. I am also ignoring and deleting a lot more non-essential Emails. One thing that I find that really helps is to always consider my long term objectives in everything I am doing. If for example I am getting notices about technologies that really don’t fit then I don’t even file them for later reading, I just delete them. I think keeping long term goals in mind is a great way to reduce the burden that all these tools (E-Mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc) can help to create. I always make time for things that are important to me, that is one thing that won’t change, much to the contrary.
What’s Next?
I will continue to refine my process. I am also going to make sure that I am being compensated for more of my work or at the very least keep track of the freebies and make sure the customer knows about them. I can also use this as a basis to fine tune my compensation and estimating. I am also narrowing my long term focus and planning to be more specialized. I have in my business these last 14+ years always responded to what the market (and more importantly my customers) were needing. I can still do that but sometimes it might be by recommending a trusted third party to handle certain aspects of their needs. These relationships can be great sources of new business. I’ve had several of my partners send leads to me for more of my core business.
Do you have any similar practices? I would enjoy hearing about them.
Photo credit ihatatho
I love how you broke this down, Joe, thank you. I’m trying to find focus too. I’ve been using Toggl for a while to track the time I spend on client work, but I’ve also started adding in the time I spend in social media and new business/business development… the problem is that I haven’t been very consistent about tracking the latter. And I’m definitely not tracking personal time, though I should be (I think subconsciously I know I’ll be appalled at how low that number is!). Do you use a particular system to track your time?
I was wondering how you did all that you do! Staying organized and prioritizing is key. I think it’s something you have to constantly practice and assess. I like that you point out keeping your goals in mind. I have been trying to do this as well and I find it really helpful! Thanks Joe!
@rachaelseda so glad you were able to read this Rachael and even more so that you took something extra away. Thanks so much for your comment.
@Shonali our story is a common one right now, I think on the tail end of a nasty economy and with all the distractions (opportunities?) around it is an ongoing battle. I recall a conversation we had not long ago about this very issue. You were definitely feeling the pinch.
I’ve been using a good old fashioned tool, a pen and paper. It is the fastest and easiest way to keep track of things. This is part of my 9:07- entry “catching up on Email, social media and blog comments” I’ve been on Twitter, Facebook and here. Ironically I just read through all the comments from your post today that I love http://www.waxingunlyrical.com/2011/04/27/influence-is-not-a-number/ thank you for tagging me on Facebook. I am glad that I was able to join the conversation early. Interesting how Empire Avenue came into play. I need to make sure my friend adrielhampton weighs in on your post. He is big time into EA.
I will look at Toggl, but I have found as a rule that electronic tools for tracking time do not work well for me. I have tried for over 10 years to find a system that works but unless I am opening and working ticket in Connectwise (the Professional Services Automation system I use) pen and paper are still the best tool for me. I have about 20 more emails to read through and will close this time entry and start on some project work. The balance of today will largely be those entries if I “do it right”. 🙂
Thanks for your comment and question about the system I use, as always the comments bring out more important material especially with quality comments. Always appreciated 🙂
Joe
Exercise and sleep are the only two things that help me focus. Great read Joe. I enjoyed the read and may try out some of your techniques for myself.
@hackmanj Pen and paper rules! But do try Toggl (I’m not affiliated with it in any way, I just use it and like it), and it makes it very convenient, since so much of my time is spent online and on the computer.
Like @fatlester , I have to exercise and sleep more… and get back to cooking regularly!
@fatlester Hi Lester, thanks for reading it. Would love to hear if the suggestions helped you get more out of your busy days.
@Shonali @fatlester I will try it for sure Shonali. Btw on my way back from Sobcon and finally got to meet shashib what a cool guy. Very fun and smart.
Keep me posted on your progress, maybe we need to team up to hold each other accountable. Have you tried that? Someone was telling me they have a accountability partner that they talk to once a week, it is a interesting idea.
Hope you are well!
Joe
Hey Joe! Had to come over and see why your post reminded melanieathomp of me and it didn’t take me long to see it! Focusing on the important things is a constant intention of mine. I kind of do what you do- give each day a predominant theme. I even have flex time – didn’t know anyone else scheduled “catch up” time! It’s hard when you run more than one business AND blog which could eat up all your time all on its own!
My general schedule priorities:
Monday – get into the Blogosphere (post day)
Tuesday – promo and other attention to my other business
Wednesday – writing more posts day – tending the the blog
Thursday – paperwork day
Friday – flex day! (but usually by then I’m exhausted, so I know I can do better!)
I like your exercise of tracking everything you do – can’t organize something until you know what you’re dealing with. I’ve also been organizing my whole week on Sundays with my goals in sight, even the long-term goals. Which reminds me, better go do that!
Nice to meet you Joe!
Lori
@Lori melanieathomp Melanie acted as a great conduit bringing you hear, isn’t she great? I really appreciate you sharing your work outline, it’s interesting to see how other people organize their work priorities.
I’ve added something somewhat new after reading sanderssays book and hearing him speak recently at SOBCON. He advocates for more disconnection from the online connectedness (on weekends/early mornings). At first it might seem a little counter to what many of us are trying to accomplish but it helps me be a lot more focussed during my work week.
It’s so great to meet you Lori, thanks for dropping by and sharing. What is your primary blog url? I’d love to check it out.
Nice to meet you!
Joe
@hackmanj Hey Joe! My blog is Life, for instance:
http://www.lifeforinstance.com
Thanks for asking. Melanie is a regular contributor there – she stirs things up! Come on by when you have time! But wait, we’re paring down!?! ‘Tisn’t easy! LOL
Lori
P.S. I’m all for doing NOTHING online on Sundays! I’m moving towards making that a personal policy. Just need to step back from it sometime, even if it does mean you comment less.
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