Being an entrepreneur, a self-starter, and a self-employed worker is most often gruesome grinding through to-do lists that keep growing by the minute. Keeping the overview of daily tasks can become tedious work. Yet, it is essential to be self-organised to not miss the truly important things for your business.
How well you progress is often decided by the preparations the day before. This is especially true for teamwork, as we figured last week. If you plan the coming working day in advance, you are better prepared.
I distilled some tips that are helpful, and how I plan my workday. The aim is to figure out a workable structure that you can repeat day after day, while being flexible enough to not fixate on it too much. This is self-management, so you might start using a to do list or a calendar as your go to.
Following is an example day of mine. I have these about 70% of the time. Meaning, not having an evening event.
ca 06:00 AM to 07:00 AM (depends on the evening before)
Hello world, time to get up. I love to stretch a bit, stand on the balcony to get some air and drink some water. I tried the 05:30am thing, works only in summer, which is short where I live.
Lately, I have been trying to do a session of sport in the morning instead of in the evening, then you could add about an hour of sports in here. Easier in summer.
06:30 - 07:30 (am)
Attach with work
I hold a sort of daily stand-up meeting with myself
If you follow my blog, you know by now that I love stand-up meetings, because they can save you hours of communication during the day.
A stand-up meeting is a quick coordination check-in in the morning, at 15 minutes max. Some prefer it in the afternoon - I like to do them in the morning for various reasons, usually in front of the Team Kanban Board. Can be rough if you have a remote team, more on that another time though.
The same idea of a short check in with yourself can be used if you are working on your own as well.
In the meeting, answer the following questions:
How are you?
What are you working on today?
What worked well, did not work yesterday?
Do you need help?
Especially when everyone is working from home, such a short exchange can improve teamwork.
I use the results from the stand-up meeting to revise my to-do list. I revise it immediately after my meeting. Expecially the do I need help part was important to me when I was a solo-preneur and freelancer. Because that meant I needed to reach out to someone.
Back to the board:
If it is Monday morning, I try to roughly schedule the workweek.
I take about half an hour on to roughly plan the week, I might also check for urgent mails that may have come in over the weekend. This is when I schedule the big tasks I know will come and have to be done on time, like content creation, newsletter writing, pitching, writing bills and such.
I also set deadline blockers for these important tasks, so I always have a bit of leeway in for unforeseen events. This short planning burst will give you a first impression of what you have to do this week.
After this is done, I make myself a coffee and then start the day. Usually with the one big thing I want to achieve that day.
-> I follow the no caffeine for about 90minute after waking up rule. A study in the U.S military found, that this helps with the natural circadian rhythm and focus. Works for me as well.
For me, Lunch depends on how hungry I feel. sometimes I cook properly at 12sharp, sometimes I have a lunch with someone, sometimes I basically forget it and eat at 14:00 (2pm) and then crash 30 minutes later because of my blood sugar being all over the place. 🤷♂️
16:30 (4.30pm)
Check tomorrow's schedule in the afternoon.
About two hours before closing time, I take a look at tomorrow's calendar.
I check whether there is a necessary appointment that still need to prepared for and I simply forgot. If I have the time, you can do this before the end of the day.
Otherwise, I plan the preparation for the beginning of the next day.
Also, now is the time I remember or invite team members if they are necessary for a meeting, if I did not already do it.
At this point I am usually pretty busted and in need of a longer break.
16:30 - 17:30 (5.30pm)
Taking care of emails that need to be finished.
Shortly before the end of the working day, I will have another look my mails to answer things.
If they are difficult or will take considerable amounts of time to write, I consider planning them for the next morning. But generally people perceive speedy answers with trust, so even a short "Thanks for XYZ, will get back at you tomorrow" makes a massive difference.
I do this often with difficult mails, so I can write with a clear mind after having a bit of distance, to not act irrationally or make mistakes.
The last 15 minutes of the work day
Updating the to-do list
As the last task of the working day, I double-check to-do list. I check off completed tasks and ask myself the following questions about the open tasks:
Are there any tasks that need to be done in a specific order?
What do I absolutely have to do tomorrow? That is the one big thing for tomorrow.
What can I postpone something to another day?
I work a lot with my calender to make space for tasks, see my article about block times.
With this I don't miss tasks that need to be completed at a specific time of the day, or that need preparation.
The more that is out of my brain, the more chill I am in the evening.
Then I am usually off from my main biz.
I have other obligations that then often follow, some things like the board work and youtube or writing here I usually do on the weekend.
Thus, enough time for cooking, sport, reading, writing, hobbies and so on on a daily basis.
ca 20:00 (8pm)
Latest Detaching from work
When things go south and I have to keep at it, at this point it will be an effort of around 12 hours, which, generally, is too much for me. At 20:00 I hard cut whatever I am doing. Heck, I even programmed my desktop light to flicker a few times.
For me, such days work only for a very short time. I want time to myself and wind down, so that I can keep this up for long enough, to reflect on stuff, to relieve stress and anger, to network and see friends. Regular 12hour workdays are simply not worth it.
That is also why I keep a little booklet with my do list, so my head should be free in the evening. Some people even use diaries to let go of emotional distress after they finished the day,
Whatever works for you to detach, do it.
You will find yourself sleeping a lot better if you know you have an overview over the chaos.
Of course, the times are examples only. While I change the times, the events stay the same, find a rhythm that works for you and follow it through.
I often do the sports in the afternoon or early in the morning. In summer, I love to sit on the balcony for a moment, sometimes I even start the day with some reading and a coffee to bathe in some sunlight. Sometimes I go for a walk during a meeting to have a break from sitting still.
I also tend to keep dinner shorter than lunch, but then, I often have lunch with people so it does not feel like I had a break.
Nevertheless, it is always at least two hours in the evening that I take to detach, everything else does not work for me.
It takes a bit of trial and error to figure out what works for you.
All those "The best productivity schedule" videos are usually single sample days that are not repeatable at all. Sure, some people have a morning workout routine and meditate and write, some take a bath every night, some watch netflix... These habits have nothing to do with being productive itself, it's simply the system that works for them.
And your schedule will change depending on your focus and workload as well. When you train for a sports event, you will need more time to work out, and that's ok.
But should you, generally speaking, make space to get some exercise in several times a week? Yes, that's a no brainer.
Once you find some habits that work well, you will find a surprising amount of flexibility in your day. After all, your results stem from being efficient with your time.
What is your schedule?
Let me know.
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