The other day, Jessica Hische shared some reflections on how her schedule (or lack thereof) has been affecting her work. This has been on my mind for a while as well, and her post finally prompted me to dig into it a bit. Here’s what came of it.
Some context
When it comes to scheduling, freelancing can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you are in total control of your schedule and can afford yourself unmatched flexibility. On the other hand, if you’re not careful you’ll find yourself working around the clock.
This past month, I found myself in that latter category — working nearly around the clock. I had the good fortune of having a lot of client work come my way, and I didn’t want to pass up work that might not be there down the stretch. It was an exhausting, important lesson: I can do that for a short period to make a living, but it’s not how I want to live my life.
The goal(s)
My primary goal for August is to return to a more normal, humane schedule. I’ve learned that — because I enjoy my work so much — I’ll work all the time if I’m left to my own devices. So, in an effort to curb that, I’m returning to my old habit of having a rigorously structured day.
There are basically three important aspects to my life on any given day (in this order):
Spending time with my family;
Taking care of my mental and physical health; and
Earning a living by tending to my work.
In the past, I’ve mostly used my calendar only to schedule work. I figured that the other stuff would just sort of happen on its own in the unstructured time. But instead, I found that when my time is unstructured, I gravitate back to work — to structure. So now I’m scheduling everything: family time, personal time, and work time.
The schedule
It looks something like this:
Scheduled family time
This felt a bit weird to do, but I think it’s necessary. As the saying goes, you make time for what’s important to you — so I’m proactively making time for my family.
Specifically, I’m planning on “family time” three times per day: in the morning when I first wake up, at lunchtime, and in the evenings before the kids go to bed. I’ve been spending the early mornings with my kids their whole lives, but lunchtime and evenings are usually the first things to get sacrificed when work gets busy. But it won’t be much longer before my kids are in school and can’t share lunch with me every day. I need to enjoy it while it lasts.
Mondays are for kicking off projects
I always start new client projects on Mondays, which involves some rote admin tasks, some time spent on project management, and a heavy dose of kickoff calls. It makes sense to proactively block off that time.
Email twice per day
I know it’s somewhat trendy to blog about how you’re only available for email a few times a day to let you focus on your work, but the honest truth is that a great deal of my work is answering email. I make website themes — sure — but I also pitch myself as a responsive, helpful NationBuilder Expert (essentially paid customer support on retainer). That means I need to get back to people quickly when they need help.
So for client questions that come in through my preferred client project management tool — Basecamp — I’m going to keep triaging them as they come in. But other email — project inquiries, random notes, etc. — I’m only digging in twice per day. I basically think about it this way: if you’re paying me to be responsive then I’m going to be responsive, but if you’re not paying me yet I’ll get back to you when I can.
Basecamp tasks
I mentioned that I use Basecamp to manage client projects. I’ve used pretty much all the major tools in the market — OmniFocus, Trello, Asana, Basecamp, etc. — and I find that Basecamp works the best for me. I have a few “template” projects that I use as a starting point for each of my project tiers, and they outline most of the core tasks needed to get the project from conception to launch.
So, basically, “Basecamp tasks” time is for working on straight up client work.
Scheduled “available” time
I end up spending a pretty solid amount of time on the phone each week — prospecting calls, check-in calls, etc. — and if I’m not careful it can eat up a whole day. A single “quick call” in the afternoon can ruin my flow for a whole day, so “batching” those calls into a few times a week can go a long way toward improving my overall productivity.
A few weeks ago, I started playing around with Google Calendar’s “appointment slots,” and it’s been working well for me. Instead of spending a ton of time going back-and-forth finding a mutually agreeable time for a call, I just send folks to a Google Calendar view that shows my available slots. They can pick one and create an appointment straight from there, and it’ll automatically be added to my calendar. Combined with Google Hangouts and/or my personal UberConference line, it makes scheduling calls a breeze.
I now have two schedulable blocks per week: Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings. If no one schedules me during those times, I’ll just revert to work on Basecamp tasks.
Newsletter / Fun Project time
I recently decided to kick off a weekly NationBuilder Experts & Architects newsletter, so I needed to make time for that. But even more broadly, I need to build in time to tinker — because if I don’t build it in, it’ll happen anyway. And like Jessica found about herself, I’ve learned that if I put off my personal projects until the evenings I’ll never make any headway on them.
Yeah… but will it work?
God knows. Ever since I stopped taking my ADHD medicine in 2012, this level of structure has been very difficult for me to maintain. But I don’t want to repeat July 2014 again.
I enjoy my work tremendously, but I don’t want it to be all that I do. Part of the reason I chose to work at home was because I wanted the freedom and flexibility to spend more time with my family — not less. This is an effort at remembering that — and to act accordingly.