What are your working hours? How do you structure your work time?
I've been running a business selling website template solutions for several CMS platforms for a few years now, but I have yet to "optimize" my working time.
How do you folks structure your work times? Do you have deep work sessions and structure everything, or do you just work when work comes up?
I have so many ideas that I want to implement but I can't seem to find the time or energy to implement them. It doesn't seem to be an issue with the number of hours in the day--it's just I find many of my hours go to waste or are spent unproductively.
I've met some solopreneurs whose time management is a work of art--they schedule absolutely everything and seem to enjoy very balanced lives.
I've also met folks on the other extreme who don't schedule anything and just chug a ludicrous number of espressos, then pull all-nighters until they get things done.
I find time management to be my biggest weakness so I'm curious about how you all approach time management.
Cheers!
As a "solo indie hacker" there are just inevitably so many responsibilities that some degree of structure is necessary, I think (at least for me, personally).
The more different "construction sites" you're currently working on, the more important this is. Right now, for example, I am balancing (or trying to, haha 🙈) freelance work plus two app projects, I've been work on and a recently launched website to promote my apps.
One of the things that helped me is using a time tracking system for everything. I do that anyways in order to bill my client accurately so I just started doing the same for my own projects.
So whenever I sit down to work for a given amount of time, I start by picking the project to focus on (such as "Website" or "Zenitizer App" or "Lateratmator App" or "Admin Work" or "Client Project XYZ") and then really aim to focus on that.
This way, I can easily keep an eye on how many hours I've been spending on what project to hold myself accountable (for example, I caught myself spending too much time polishing details for the website, when I should've been working towards getting my first app ready for public beta instead - this strategy allowed me to critically reflect and "course correct").
Most importantly though, this helps with setting an intention to focus on one given thing at a time which does wonders for me, personally.
On the "macro level" I just loosely plan a "main theme" for each day of the week. It usually helps me to not context switch too much. I may also block something like "two hours of admin work every Friday afternoon" in my calendar, for example. Will I always spend those two hours exactly as planned? Of course not, but setting aside this time to do "boring but necessary stuff" helps to not worry about these things for the rest of the day/week 🤓
As far as working hours go, it is, as others have pointed out, a matter of finding a good balance. "Being your own boss" is both a blessing and a curse. It means you can structure your life and work as much or as little as you want. You can take advantage of days where you feel productive and well rested and do overtime if you feel like it and take some time to care for yourself when you feel unproductive or tired.
This does require to listen to your body (and mind) though and reflect about when you're most productive.
This is a learning experience for all of us I think (it sure is for me!) and I wish you best of luck and great success on the journey 🙏
Works for me.
Lately I've been reading Deep Work by Cal Newtech, It give some good insights into how to think about your time and work, making sure that even if you don't have as much time as you'd like you spend it wisely by eliminating activities that can cause issues to your attention. there's also some good tips on how to timeblock, i.e split up sections of your day. For me personally i try to work beteween 7-8pm before i go to work in my actual day 2 day job. Then in the evening from 8pm to 10pm i try to get another Deep Work session in. It's not necessarily about the time spent as how it's actually spent that matters.
I work full time, but everyday I spend at least 2 hours for my own business. Doesn't matter what day is today or how I feel myself. It helps me be in tune every day. Moreover, sometimes I work before sleep. I have been an entrepreneur all the time, but a year ago I failed my main business. I noticed this not only for myself, but when you are an entrepreneur, there are no working hours and days off for you. There are tasks and goals, between them is your life.
This is probably the case for everybody:
"I have so many ideas that I want to implement but I can't seem to find the time or energy to implement them. It doesn't seem to be an issue with the number of hours in the day--it's just I find many of my hours go to waste or are spent unproductively."
The point is you have to find balance between body, mind & spirit.