Work
Time = $$
Dec 2nd
For those of us that have our own businesses what amount of time is dedicated to expanding your business? Lets say you are your own boss and work on average 55hours a week, how much time outside of explicit business activity do you spend either growing the business (networking, attending social events, reading online), or maintaining the business (servicing clients)? Quite possibly it is more than you think. Another thing to consider is what do you outsource because someone else can do it better?
- Dry-cleaning
- Lunch
- Mowing/Shoveling
- Grocery Shopping
Of course outsourcing personal services is great, IF and ONLY IF, you can make more money during the time spent on those activities. For example mowing your lawn make take 2 hours or it may take 6 depending on the size of your lawn. It might better to pay the neighborhood kid $25 to do it. On the flipside, steam cleaning your carpeting. To do it yourself, you must first rent/buy the equipment, then purchase the cleaning chemicals, then bring them home and move furniture. While moving your furniture you must also clean all of the carpeting. With the time and costs involved here, it may be far cheaper to have a professional company come in and do the job.
How much is your time worth? If you are sitting online reading blogs, it is not worth the $500 you may think it is worth.
I spend over 50hours/week on explicit business related activities, plus an additional 10-12hours/week of travel time. I get paid exceptionally, but as a result I do not have a large amount of available free time. I wake at 6:30am and return home from work between 4pm and 9pm depending on the day of the week and how many clients I meet with. However on Tuesdays I do not show up to my office until 1pm, because I take the morning off to run errands.
MSNBC has an article that can help calculate the amount of money your time time worth per hour. In effect, I use 2.5hours of paid time to purchase 1 hour of free time.
If you are you are self-employed, work from home, or work in sales you probably work far more hours than a typical employee or even an executive. At the same time those that are self-employed or are in sales often find it harder to justify their time to customers and clients than a typical employee. Attending a chamber of commerce event for someone that owns their own business is a great place to make new contacts, but for an employee required to attend they may think of it simply as a social event or a PITA.
There is a reason why someone in sales, or self-employed can determine their own salary whereas regular employees have no control over their salary. Why can some self-employed consultants charger $1000/hr for something an employee receives a yearly salary of $35k to do? Its because their are their own boss and their time is worth more because they spend more time building the business in activities that they are not explicitly paid for.
Think of it this way: Who benefits from your time and effort? Yourself or someone else?
On another completely side note I have had these MoleSkins for awhile now, the pen makes them even better.
Connecticut
Oct 3rd
Closest Office Depot/Office Max 44miles
During the week alcohol isnt sold after 8pm, on the weekends its 10pm and Sunday nothing is sold.
Off the major highways there is no road that is straight for more than 1block.
How do you screw up Taco Bell?
Buffalo Wild Wings: 50miles
Barnes and Noble: 37miles
The world’s 2 largest casinos are in the middle of the woods (reservations)
No HD broadcast television, hardly any broadcast television
Pizza is based on crackers and no sauce, not thick crusts and lots of sauce and ingredients
No BIG department stores
Good paying jobs
Fedex Kinkos: 50miles
Papa Johns: 43 miles
Little Caesars: 40 miles
Productivity Online & Offline
Sep 20th
I enjoy reading how others stay productive (this causes my productivity levels to decrease BTW), so I have decided to share some tips that I use to stay productive through the day.
Offline:
- Take notes
- When you are done with a document immediately put it back from where it came.
- Clean your desk
- Get your 8hours of sleep a night
- Stay away from caffeine, if you are an addict, slowly get off it and watch how much better you feel (after the shakes and cold sweats stop)
- Turn off the TV
Online:
- Kill your IRC/IM/Chat window
- Check email, once an hour at most
- Ideally close or minimize all applications that you do not NEED to use currently. This helps you stay focused, and there is less need for multitasking.
Either:
- Walk away. Leave whatever it is you are doing for 5-10minutes an hour unless you are really into the flow. Otherwise walkaway, get something to drink, step outside for some frsh air, or grab a snack.
- First thing in the morning, plan out your day. Do not read the news DO NOT check your email. Sit down at a piece of paper or on your computer and schedule your entire day with as much detail as possible. This will help you stay on task and remember what it is you should be doing.
- Listen to music, I listen to stuff with little to no words and a semi-repetitive beat, this helps my typing get into a regular rhythm. Try to stay away from anything new.
When you have free time check out the following site:
43 Folders
GTD Wiki Entry
Productivity
Aug 30th
As some people know, I have some extra time on my hands right now. I am bored, but I try to stay productive doing things. Over the years I have struggled with how to stay productive and stay focused. I still have these problems but have managed to minimize these problems. So how do I stay productive? focused? and just plain remember?
Its not that complicated, although it may sound complicated. The biggest thing for me is to write stuff down, and type it into the computer. You can do one or the other if you so choose, but I need both. Also, if you must get something done, and do not absolutely need an internet connection, unplug it.
The internet KILLS your time.
I use plain yellow sticky-notes, when around my apartment to write notes and make lists. I move these into OmniOutliner, which I believe is a Mac only software that allows to to create lists, drag text, drag pictures, drag anything and capture just about anything. I use the regular version since it meets all of my needs.
While I am not a fan of most Google applications, I have started using Google Calender, to keep track of appointments. There is a plug-in for my MacBook that puts a little icon at the taskbar so I can quickly add, and check appointments.
If you can manage, unplug your mouse. It may not seem like much time can be wasted, using a mouse. However think about how much you move it through out the day. When possible use keyboard shortcuts. When I first moved to the Macintosh platform, from Windows I found the software and interface lacking in shortcuts. However not to worry, there is software called MenuMaster, that allows any dropdown, in any piece of software to have a shortcut of your choosing assigned to it.
I also use a piece of software called QuickSilver. It allows you to run any piece of software and run different commands with it. For example, I can open QuickSilver, tell it to send an email then type part of an address (QuickSilver will recognize everything on your computer), and type a short message. Boom its sent. Did not have to launch any software, or do anything. QuickSilver is Free and besides for Keynote it is the single greatest piece of software for Macs.
Read http://www.43folders.com
Relative Links:
MenuMaster $10
Quick Silver Free WATCH this quick demo by Merlin Mann and Leo LaPorte
Omni Outliner $39.95-$69.95