I own two businesses and have a ‘9-5’ job. How I spend every day really matters. This is how I spend a typical day.
I would be willing to bet you have been a part of a similar conversation lately:
Friend 1: So how have you been? Friend 2: Busy. So, so busy.
Busy
I hate the word busy. It is often a vague attempt at covering up the habit of not prioritising or focusing your actions.
It is a lazy answer in almost every situation and we would all be better off if we could eradicate it from the English language. Whilst that might seem a little extreme let’s take it back a notch and have a look at the cause instead of the symptom.
If being “busy” comes from not being focused in your actions then the solution is to reflect on where you are currently spending your time and making the appropriate adjustments to ensure it matches with your priorities.
Do you know where you spend most of your time?
Following a lesson on the 100MBA Podcast I recently tracked what I do throughout the day.
From this data I was able to reflect on what a “typical” day looks like for me. This post is the result of a thought experiment on where I spend most of my hours in the day.
My Schedule
Here’s my daily schedule:
6am: Wake up & make a cup of tea (Earl Grey, One Sugar, Dunked 42 times).
6.15am: Doomsday Tuna Tasks. This generally consists of completing any client work, sending any correspondence needed and writing blog posts (generally in that priority order).
7.30am: Shower & get ready for the “day job”.
8.30am: Drop my partner in life and in business, Ivy, off at Ivy and Joe.
Then it’s straight to The Learning Resources Group where I head up the Digital Department.
9.00am: We have a daily Scrum where we talk over what we achieved yesterday, our plans for today and if anyone is being blocked from another persons tasks.
9.30am: Once the Scrum is done we get straight into it. I focus on getting the most important tasks done during the first half of the day.
12.00pm: LUNCH TIME! This consists of me scoffing down a sorry excuse for lunch and hammering out some emails or blog posts.
12.30pm: Back in front of the computer hammering out tasks.
3.00pm: Mid-afternoon break for a coffee & re-evaluate the afternoons tasks.
Note: I notice that during this part of the day my attention begins to wane and I have to shift my focus to less intensive tasks.
5.30pm: HOME TIME! I will head home, make yet another cup of tea, and get straight into some Ivy and Joe work.
Whilst Ivy is busy making magic out of hair I head up the other side of the business (see the pun I put in there). This consists of social media marketing, bookkeeping, writing blogs and content to support our clients.
7.00pm: Time to pick up Ivy (yay).
7.30pm: Dinner and general hang out times with Ivy and Moo.
9.00pm: Open the computer up again. Work on blog posts for stef.ninja (like this one) or finishing assessments for my Diploma in Web Design and Development.
Note: I find that once I have had some time to unwind after the day I am able to hammer out some work in an extremely effective manner.
10.00pm: Start winding down (no more screens) for the night. This means getting my outfit ready for tomorrow (generally a white shirt, dark chinos and gold winged shoes), reviewing my calendar and writing a ‘to-do’ list.
10.30pm: Lights out.