Be creative and conscious with your use of time
If (1) you work for yourself and set your own hours, and (2) you have pretty good self-discipline about time and work, I encourage you to learn to "ride your energy", and flex your strictly-work-time to get your errands and non-work stuff done to your best advantage.
If you're reasonably normal, there will always be times when you have more energy than others. Sometimes you may be barely able to contain your strength and enthusiasm; sometimes you may just feel "so-so"; other times you may not feel like doing a damn thing. And I assume that you have tasks to accomplish outside of running your business. With some planning,
I generally have always set for myself a "default schedule" of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, and it is important for me to keep somewhat regular office hours so that clients, and potential new clients, can reach me by phone without too much trouble. But I've learned to vary that so that it suits my energy-moods, as well as my needs to do non-business errands and tasks.
For instance, I like to do my "workout" (a long walk) in the middle of the day during the chillier half of the year, so it works well for me to take a long lunch. And if I do have errands to do, I much prefer to visit stores and other businesses in the middle of the day, rather than at 5:00 or 6:00 PM, for instance, when traffic is terrible and those businesses are full of people who have to visit them on the way home from work. So it's not uncommon for me to be out of the office for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon. Then, of course, I usually need to spend a couple of hours in the office working right around dinner time and/or afterwards, but that can work really well for me; I often can concentrate better at that time anyway.
The point is, if you're the boss, it really pays off to be creative and conscious with your use of time.
If you're reasonably normal, there will always be times when you have more energy than others. Sometimes you may be barely able to contain your strength and enthusiasm; sometimes you may just feel "so-so"; other times you may not feel like doing a damn thing. And I assume that you have tasks to accomplish outside of running your business. With some planning,
I generally have always set for myself a "default schedule" of Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, and it is important for me to keep somewhat regular office hours so that clients, and potential new clients, can reach me by phone without too much trouble. But I've learned to vary that so that it suits my energy-moods, as well as my needs to do non-business errands and tasks.
For instance, I like to do my "workout" (a long walk) in the middle of the day during the chillier half of the year, so it works well for me to take a long lunch. And if I do have errands to do, I much prefer to visit stores and other businesses in the middle of the day, rather than at 5:00 or 6:00 PM, for instance, when traffic is terrible and those businesses are full of people who have to visit them on the way home from work. So it's not uncommon for me to be out of the office for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon. Then, of course, I usually need to spend a couple of hours in the office working right around dinner time and/or afterwards, but that can work really well for me; I often can concentrate better at that time anyway.
The point is, if you're the boss, it really pays off to be creative and conscious with your use of time.
posted by Patty Ayers at
12:44 PM
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