As an entrepreneur, the privilege of setting your own schedule is a blessing. It’s also a curse. Here are my 5. What are yours?
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Blessing, and a curse.
I absolutely love being an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship is a fast life. A tough life. A life full of finding and solving problems. For me, one of the most challenging aspects of entrepreneurship is structuring my schedule. I want to make sure I’m working on the most important projects, doing them well, and finishing them in time for the next move.
I’m no guru on productivity! I’ve read a little about it, but I certainly haven’t conducted field research or run tests on monkeys to see what works in the lab.
What I do know is that I get a lot done in a single day. Here are 5 things that I do to keep me at the front of the pack.
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1. Pick one thing to finish within my first 90 minutes of work.
Before diving into why I do this, let me point something out. Did you notice that I didn’t say, “within my first 90 minutes of the morning?” There’s a lot of self-development literature telling to you master your mornings. Yes, it’s great to master your mornings if you’re a morning person.
I’m not a morning person, at least not by traditional standards.
I usually wake up at 9 AM, and go to sleep at 1 AM.
You may be working on a side hustle that you can’t get to until after you get home from the office. Or maybe you’re a night owl. And maybe you’ve got kids that you need to take care of in the morning.
So I encourage you to focus on the first 90 minutes of your work. I’m talking fierce focus. Absolutely no distractions, nothing else on your brain, and no side thoughts. Zone in on one thing for 90 minutes.
My first 90 minutes of work are unique every day.
We’re in “selling season” right now for our conferences coming up later this year (we sell sponsorships for conferences). So each night before I go to bed, I write a number on a sticky note and slap it on the backside of my bedroom door.
That number is the amount of sales emails I want to send within my first 90 minutes of work.
I’ve done different things with those 90 minutes, and you can too. Think about the projects that really move the needle for you, and tackle those in those first 90 minutes.
2. Make less urgent phone calls during my transitions.
There are some calls that require you to be sitting, taking notes, taking time, and taking your full brain power to manage.
But there are many other calls you can make that don’t require all of that.
I’ll check in on my team members, call contractors, and set up meetings while I’m moving from one place to another.
My schedule has me running around the city–and I love it–but I was spending quite a bit of time every day just driving. Sometimes I walk from office to office–really, coffee shop to coffee shop–and that was also a waste of time. Those minutes add up.
So I began to use those tiny pieces of time to make 5-8 minute phone calls.
These have come in really handy, actually. People love when we get to check in with each other and that we do it so quickly. I’ve also found that it’s a great way to keep the momentum going on the day.
It can be tough to actually schedule 5-8 minute meetings in your transitions, so I’ll just pick up the phone and call. If we can’t reach each other, I’ll leave a voicemail telling them what I wanted, that I hope they’re doing well, and that I’d like them to email me later that day with an update.
Works like a charm.
3. Do not answer my phone unless I’m scheduled for a call.
I’m distracted easily. That’s not good, especially when there are a bunch of people trying to get my attention.
There are people who want to be available all the time, and they make themselves available. One of my mentors works this way. His door is quite literally always open. His phone is always on him, and he’s in his inbox for the majority of his day. He’s mastered that work style.
I’m a little different. I definitely need space to focus on my work.
Are you like me?
If so, then you might want to try what I’ve been doing for the last 8 months.
Be diligent with scheduling calls. Insist that people schedule a time to talk, then stay on schedule with those calls. Scheduling times–and sticking to those times–is a sign of respect.
It’s one thing to schedule calls, but just scheduling them won’t make them worth your time. I’ve began to prepare much more for each call so that we can get the most out of it. Sometimes the prep is 20 minutes long, but mostly it takes less than 10 minutes. It’s sure worth it.
I’m not suggesting that you ignore every call that isn’t scheduled.
There are people I always answer the phone for: my grandma, my parents, and investors. I encourage you to have a list like that, too.
But if it’s not on the schedule and you need time to focus, let that call go to your voicemail.
4. Plan meetings into the activities I do anyways.
One of my favorite meetings of all time happened during a workout.
He and I had fought for weeks to find a time to meet up, but we could never make it work. Eventually, we realized that we both work out (almost) daily. Why not meet there? It was productive, fun, and even a little competitive.
This is something I also do during meals and coffee breaks. Think about the things that you do on a regular basis that you wouldn’t mind doing with company.
People will appreciate how welcomed they’ll feel into your world, and the meeting will take on a whole different feel.
5. Audit my 7 PM to 1 AM.
This is one of the many things I’ve picked up from Gary Vaynerchuk.
He wrote a really short piece about New Year’s resolutions, and this was one that he suggested we have: “audit your 7 PM to 2 AM.”
“That time between when the traditional work day ends and when you fall asleep is the white space for so many people to do great things around businesses. Whether that’s advancing your career by staying in the office late, or going home and building out your cooking blog or SoundCloud account, use that time more wisely” — Gary Vaynerchuk
The first thing I noticed when I audited my 7 PM to 2 AM was that I couldn’t stay effective until 2 AM like Vaynerchuk! (He’s a machine.) But I never would have known unless I paid attention to what I was doing that late.
7 PM to 1 AM is basically the second half of work day. That’s a seven hour work day!
Maybe it’s the same for you if your business is your complete focus. Or maybe the second half of the day is your time to build out your side hustle. Regardless, take a week to log what exactly you do from 7 AM to whenever you go to sleep.
Here’s something interesting I realized when I dug deep into that second work day.
I’m not very effective at strategy during this time. Interesting, to me at least, because that’s one of my top talents during the first half of the day.
But there are a couple things I’m really good at late at night: sending sales emails and writing pieces for the Good Men Project (like I’m doing now). I’m not saying I write good pieces! I’m just saying that they come easier to me at night when I’m less self-conscious about my work.
I’m more scatterbrained in the late evenings. Knowing that, I’ll think of the two things I want to do in the late evenings, write them on post it notes, and then tackle them before going to bed.
That’s a satisfying way to end my day.
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What works is what works.
These 5 practices are what I’m doing today to stay productive, and they’ll evolve as I do. The demands on my time will change, my business will change, and I know my philosophy on life will change as I add more experiences to the bank.
Keep in mind that these things evolve. What works for me may not work for you. Then again, they might.
The point is to test and tweak to find what works best for you. What works is what works. So, what works for you?
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Photo: Flickr/ Romain Toornier