Financial Hack

I will not pretend to be a guru when it comes to time management. In fact, it’s a constant struggle for me. If they were offering 36 hour days, I’d be at the front of the line.

I am just like you. I have a life and there are other things that I spend my time doing besides blogging and creating websites. I love spending time with my friends and family. I procrastinate just as much as the next person. I’m constantly fighting to find more time to devote toward the projects that I want to do. When someone tells me that they struggle with their productivity, I fully understand.

I am by no means a prolific writer compared to many others out there and I do struggle to get the things I want do accomplished each day. Over time, however, I have greatly increased the amount I am able to get done each day. I usually write a minimum of 4 posts that are 500+ words each day along with all my other activities in keeping the blogs sites up to date. When I started, I struggled to get a single post of any length up on a daily basis. A lot of this was because I just wasn’t efficient with my time although I was never aware at how inefficient I really was. I had always done things as I had done them and it wasn’t until I needed the extra time to succeed that I started to look at ways I might improve my productivity.

The fact is, if you want to be successful as a full time blogger, or practically any other profession that you chose to pursue, figuring out ways to improve your productivity will be a major key to your success. It’s important to give new productivity ideas a try and see if they work for you. The good news is that if someone as lazy as I was (and still am to a great degree) can become more productive, then anyone can. These are some of the tactics that I have adopted that help me quite a bit and if you’re having trouble finding enough time to do everything you want, you may want to try a few of them out:

I watch very little TV: One of the biggest lifestyle changes I made to create my success was to virtually stop watching TV. I still do on occasion, but very rarely these days. This freed up a couple of hours a day. It’s amazing the amount of time you gain when you do this and surprisingly, I haven’t missed it one bit.

I walk: Walking may seem to oppose being productive, but it is by far the best place for me to get ideas for writing. There is something about a walk that helps all the ideas come together to create interesting topics for writing (this list found its initial form while walking).

I bring a pocket notebook everywhere I go: I never know when inspiration is going to appear, so I carry a small pocket notebook and pen in my pocket. Then if any idea comes to me no matter where I am, I jot it down. I even place it on the desk by my pillow before I go bed. This ensures I remember good ideas which I often would forget in the past.

I eat breakfast: I used to be one of those people that ate whatever and whenever. This often meant skipping breakfast, but I have found that eating breakfast every morning greatly increases my concentration on the computer and I’m much more productive when I do eat it.

I (try to) get a good night’s sleep: This one has been a huge challenge because I don’t sleep well. The problem was that when I didn’t sleep well, I would wake up the next day without energy and still sleepy which greatly reduced my productivity. I now set a nightly time to go to bed even if I don’t feel tired. It doesn’t work every time, but it has helped reduce those days when I feel too tired to concentrate.

I write lists: I never thought that lists were very helpful until I began using them myself. A big part of making them useful and productive was coming up with a system that worked for me. I had tried to use lists in the past and I would write them, but never act on the list. It took awhile through experimentation to find a system that worked for me. Once accomplished, lists have greatly helped me stay on track each day to get the important things done and has definitely made me much more productive.

I have work music: This one may sound strange, but I have a few CDs that I call my “work music” (one of which happens to be playing as I write this). This is the music that I use when I really need to work hard and get things done. I only play it when I know I’m in a zone to do a lot of writing and it seems that this plays on itself. When I have something that needs to get done, but I seem not to have the needed concentration, I can put in one of these CDs and I immediately go into work mode.

I take breaks: While it may at first seem counter-intuitive, small breaks (I take a 15 minute break every 1 - 2 hours) from the computer helps me to rejuvenate so that I’m more productive when I get back to the computer. I used to try and work hours on end, but I noticed that after a couple hours, my productivity rate fell off quite a bit. Small breaks have helped quite a bit so that I’m productive throughout the entire day rather than just in the morning hours.

I don’t take breaks on the computer: One of the worst things I did in the past was when I got tired and needed a break, I would look up news, head to social network sites or randomly surf the Internet. While this gave me a break from writing, it failed to rejuvenate me like the breaks away from the computer. When it’s time for a break, I physically move away from it. It took a long time to break that habit, but once I did my productivity soared.

I set specific times to do daily work: I set times when I do the things that need to be done each day. For example, I get a lot of email, so I set 3 times a day to check it. I used to check it throughout the day and found that doing so would end up taking me on tangents all over the Internet. Setting a specific time to read and respond each day makes me get through it all much quicker and more efficiently since I know I only have a certain amount of time to get it done.

I stretch: Sitting in front of the computer all day is tiring - much more so than I imagined when I started all of this. The problem is that this can often be gradual during the day so you don’t notice it happening. I do a small set of stretches that takes about 5 minutes every few hours so to keep my body feeling better which has helped me work more efficiently.

I have a place void of interruptions: This was a hard one to accomplish working at home, but I finally initiated a system where I won’t be disturbed while I’m working. Those little disruptions end up taking a lot of time and can ruin your productivity, so doing whatever you can to eliminate them is worth the effort.

I have a set writing time: I have a set writing time each morning for about 3 hours where all I do is write. Even when I have writer’s block, I still spend this time writing (often nonsense that I never use), but setting that time to write something helps me get a lot more done overall. I used to wander off when I was having trouble writing, but sometimes you just need to force yourself to work through the block to get it down.

I drink water and eat fruit/vegetables: Writing takes a lot of energy and especially when I am having trouble writing something down, I crave sweets. When I cave into these cravings, I find that I am a lot less productive. While it does give an initial high, that energy quickly disappears and I crave more sugar. Having fruit/vegetables instead doesn’t always suppress this craving, but it does a good amount of the time. Over the long term, it makes me feel a lot more healthy and helps me to get more done.

I keep my water and fruit/vegetable snacks by my desk: I found that my snack craving was a good excuse for me to leave my writing when I found I was stuck. I’d wander into the kitchen and look through the drawers for sweets, go back to the computer and start the process all over again 20 minutes later when I was craving sweets again. Instead, I make sure that I have plenty of water and fruit by my desk and when I have the cravings, I eat this and there is no need for me to go wandering off.

I do small chores during my breaks: My wife would never go for the excuse that I didn’t have to help out around the house, so I do have a list of chores that are mine to do each day. When I take my short breaks from the computer, I do the chores that need to get done around the house. Things like doing the laundry, hanging out the clothes, washing the dishes, etc. This means that they aren’t all piled up at the end of the day and they are activities that are really different from writing which gives me a clean break that I need.

I make a daily 3 These are the three things that I have to absolutely get done that day before anything else. While these rarely take the entire day to accomplish, having them there to start off my day helps me get into the work mode from the minute I get up. These are often the things that I don’t particularly enjoy doing so would be indefinitely put-off if they weren’t on my daily three list.

I leave messaging off until the afternoon: I leave all my computer messengers off in the morning and won’t turn them on until I have accomplished the things that need to be done that day. There is nothing that ruins the flow of writing than having conversations constantly pop-up asking questions while I’m writing.

I do a daily 10 minute clean-up Since it never seems that I have enough hours in the day to get everything I want to get done, my desk used to get quite messy over time as things piled up. I take 10 minutes to clean my office each day. While it is not perfect, it keeps it from becoming overwhelming and enables me to know where everything is. I simply set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and start cleaning whatever seems to need cleaning most in the room and then stop for the day when it rings.

I (try) the one touch method: I still have a long way to go on this, but it does work. Only touch things once. I’m terrible at looking at things multiple times, but I have started to embrace the one touch system because it does work. I much better at it some days than others, but am working on making this a habit to increase my productivity further.

I exercise: When I started working on the computer full time, I gained about 20 pounds over a short period of time because I sat in front of the computer most of the day. The extra pounds made me feel unhealthy and affected my productivity. I decided to implement a weekly exercise routine that has greatly helped the way I feel and has improved my productivity.

I get up at 7:00 am each morning: Even when I don’t sleep well, I get up at 7:00 am each morning. If I don’t, I can waste the entire morning sleeping. If I didn’t sleep well and am really exhausted, I will take a small nap, but usually I can make it through the day and then sleep well the next evening. While it is easy to slack off in this area when you are working at home, when I don’t get up in the mornings, my productivity plummets.

I don’t multi-task (usually): I find that while in theory multi-tasking should save you time, for me it ends up making me less productive. The reason is that it takes me time to adjust to the new task each time I change to get into my optimal work mode. I find concentrating on a single task is much more efficient for me. The one exception to this is when I’m doing lazy activities such as watching TV. When I am watching TV, I always try to do something else at the same time that doesn’t require a lot of detailed attention (folding laundry, sorting stuff, etc).

I dance: Okay, this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but sometimes when I hear one of my favorite songs, I will spontaneously get up and dance. If anyone ever places cameras in my office, I’ll never be able to live it down. My wife has walked in on a couple of occasions basically thought I had lost it (now she just rolls her eyes). There is something about getting up and dancing once a day that is completely refreshing for me and afterward, I am ready to get work done.

I get out into the sun: This is part of the reason that I walk, but when you work from home, it’s easy to stay inside all day. It’s amazing what a short walk in the fresh air with the sun shining down can do to re-energize you. I try to get out a minimum of 2 times a day and doing so helps my concentration and productivity.

I only spend 30 minutes reading news: I love reading and gaining new information, but this love can make me highly unproductive. I would spend hours reading the latest news if I didn’t limit this activity to 30 minutes a day. I leave news reading for my days off which has given me a lot more time to do the things I need to get done.

I take vacation days: When you work for yourself, not only is it easy to get lazy and not do enough, it’s also easy to spend too much time doing it (especially if you enjoy what you’re doing). I find that I need vacation days from time to time, but I really do have to force myself to take them. While I’m always glad I do after the fact, it can be difficult to pry myself away even when I do realize I need the break.

I travel On my days off, I take a lot of short trips. These are a great way for me to get away from writing for a day or two and completely refresh. They also give me a chance to see things from a new perspective and look for new and interesting subjects to write about.

I’ve learned the signs of when I need to take a break: While this may not seem like much, this was actually one of my biggest productivity increases. I have slowly learned the signs that show that I need a break. I used to ignore these and continued to work, but I now know that when these signs appear, it’s time to take a break and do something else for a bit. My big signs are that I’ll begin yawning and I’ll open new windows on my computer without a specific purpose. When either of these two things begin to happen, it’s time for me to take a break.

I get ahead: Pressure to produce in one of the things that makes me less productive. When I initially began, I would put up every article I wrote the minute that I finished it which meant that I would produce a lot over a short period of time, but then have spells where I wouldn’t produce much at all and would have a lot of pressure to write something. I have since learned to space out my writing and try to have a week’s worth of content that I can use if I happen to have writer’s block or an emergency happens that takes me away for a few days. Having this cushion makes me more relaxed and helps me be more productive.

I don’t have a cell phone: It would certainly be convenient to have one, especially when meeting up with friends in a new location, but I found that letting people have access to me 24/7 ended up creating a lot of wasted time. My life has become a lot more simplified without a cell phone and I get a lot more done as well without the interruptions.

I don’t eat meals at my computer: I used to do this thinking that it made me more productive (the multi-task thing), but when looking at it closely, realized that it hurt my productivity. When eating, you can’t concentrate as hard, so I found that I would end up reading and surfing instead of working. While I convinced myself I was doing so to find new and interesting topics to write about, I rarely did this. Then when I was finished, I was not refreshed at all since I had been reading the entire time and found it hard to get back to work. I now eat my meals away from the computer as one of my break times which makes me much more productive than before.

I compliment tasks: When there are several things that I need to do, I try to complement them when possible. For example, instead of going to the gym and working out and driving to the store to grocery shop, I will walk to the store instead. I get exercise and shopping done taking less overall time (and saving money at the same time)

I keep things simple A lot of the programs that are supposed to make your computer time more efficient end up wasting my time. I keep things really simple and don’t go for any of the programs that are supposed to make you more productive, but don’t for me. For example, I do not make my lists on any of the list sites. This is because I always have my pocket notebook with me where I list it all - even when I’m away from the computer. When I do write it down, I do it directly into the blogging software.

I question a lot more: We all get into habits and stop thinking about the way we do things. I’m much better at asking myself if the way I’m doing something is the most efficient way and if there is another way I could do it more productively. This is an area that I still need improvement, but I am getting better at this.

I ask for help a lot more: I used to be the type of person that would try and do everything myself. It’s been a difficult task letting go of many of the things I used to do and have others help out, but many times it’s just more efficient to let others do it. Even better, they usually can do it better than me. Even for my writing, I often ask questions in the forums of my main site on how people do certain things to expand and generate new ideas.

I explore a lot more: I find that having curiosity and actually acting upon it (something that is often difficult for me since I’m an introvert) makes me much more productive. It gives me a lot of new ideas that I would have never come up with on my own. Some of my most popular posts have been of what others do which I would have never found had I not been curious and acted upon it.

I try to do something good every day: Okay, I know this sounds kind of corny and doesn’t seem to have much to do with productivity, but I find that I get a huge boost of energy when I do something nice for another person. It doesn’t have to be anything big. It can be as simple as holding open the door for someone whose hands are full. Doing something nice for someone each day gives me a pick-up and that feeling good about myself helps me be more productive. If you don’t believe me, give it a try. You’ll be surprised.

I only check stats once a week: I used to be obsessed and would check the stats of the blogs and websites several times a day. While it is good to go through the stats, they can also take valuable time away from writing if you are doing it too often. There is really no reason to check them more than a couple of times a week. Simply stopping this habit has saved a lot of time.

I severely limit time on social network sites: I found that when I first quit watching TV I replaced it with time on social network sites. My problem was I would have a few minutes I wanted to waste and I’d end up being there for hours. They are such an easy place to waste time that I have severely limited the time that I spend on them. I now only visit them on days when I am taking a break from my blogging / sites which gives me a lot more time to write.

I would not expect that each of these would make you more productive, but there may be a few on the list that would be worth trying. The key is to constantly keep an eye open of ways to do things more efficiently that work for you and how to keep your energy level up. It’s a never ending process, but pursuing it on a constant basis will help you to get more done in the limited time you do have.

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