In the last few months my
work schedule has changed dramatically. What was a 9 to 5.30 Monday to Friday
routine has changed to a self-managed 7-day week free for all. Escaping the
restricted employed world has its challenges and I’m facing them now as I type.
It's 8.30 at night and for most the working day has been forgotten. For me, a
person who has his desk in the kitchen, it’s very easy to jump back in the
saddle.
The
barrier of having to travel to your workplace can sometimes be an annoying one
but can also be a bonus if you look at it differently. Sat in traffic on the
way to work I would quite often think how great it would be to work from home.
But having work so close is not all roses. If there is work that needs doing,
which there always is, it's not very difficult to fire up the computer and
finished that last e-mail.
The great stuff – flexibility
Don't get me wrong being your own man and working
to your own drumbeat is the best thing I've done in a long time. Because most
of my work is done on a laptop I have great flexibility and can work from
anywhere with an internet connection. Paris, Rome, Barbados or like most days
Uttoxeter (really have to take more advantage of this one). The freedom is liberating and gives me the
feeling I can go anywhere and do anything. It also gives me the freedom to work
when I want so if I want to finish early on a Friday I can. One of the other
great things is that all the work done is for me to help me move forward
instead of adding to others.
More than you think.
All of the above is true and I believe in time will
become reality. But when you 1st start it's hard. Getting the correct balance
of life and work and that mixture is a challenging one. Because of this I can
work when I want I to. At the moment I have 3 major projects on the go and they
all overlap. I have a web site design business; I'm developing an e-commerce
sales site and studying for my Masters course. Each of these requires a certain
amount of time each week.
At
the moment I'm under time pressure for the e-commerce site to be launched so
all my efforts are going into this. On saying that I also have to pay the
bills, which at the moment the web business is doing. But to add to this for
the e-commerce site I have to created video graphics that's tied into my
Masters course. The balance of all these projects is a difficult one but can
only be resolved by just working hard and the more hours of work the better I
feel I am getting the balance right. Which I’m not sure is true.
The slip then the slide
With all of these projects I try to set deadlines.
Setting these deadlines correctly is difficult. So far all the deadlines I’ve
set have been missed. Through one reason or another sometimes not within my
control hitting these deadlines has not been possible. Is it because I expected
too much? Or I'm just unrealistic with what I can get done within a time frame.
It may be that I'm just slowly getting into gear. One thing I do know is that
sometimes if I let that small deadline slip it creates a slide moving
everything forward a little. So it's my aim to stop and achieve the small
deadlines stopping the slips. Which I hope will stop the slides.
Stopping it!
So how do I do this? For starters I’m going to
start recording my progression. Tracking my hours worked and what I have
achieved. This will inform deadlines in the future and hopefully make me more
accurate. It will also give me an indication of where I work best. I'm also
going to educate myself in ways of working by researching different working
practices. I have a list of books and I am going to read that’s I believe that
may help.
Books
· 37 Signals (2010). Rework
. RandomHouse
· Tim
Ferriss (2011). The 4-Hour Work Week.
Vermilion imprint.
· Steven Gibson (2008). Going Self-Employed. Right Way
· Mark Forset (2006). Do It Tomorrow. Hobber & Stoughton
Listening to Podcast
· 5by5. Back to
work (2012)
· lifestylebusinesspodcast.com. Lifestyle business podcast (2012)
So within the next few weeks
I hope to report back to this blog with my findings.
