Yesterday I started off with Part 1 of this 3 part article. Just as I was getting to the section on “budgeting your time”, I had to take my own advice. Today I’m back with more time, so here we go.
Budgeting Your Time Wisely
As a person gets older and gains more resposibility, time becomes more and more of a factor. I am absolutely terrible with time. Over the next few months I am going to try and break some of my bad habits and become a little more efficient. Here are a few of my problems.
- Lack of a Laptop (problem solved)
- Having a laptop allows you to be anywhere and post. You can keep content fresh and fix issues from anywhere in the world. It allows you to be in the same area with your family and still get some work done. By having a laptop, I can work 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there instead of waiting to get home and locking myself in the computer room for 3 hours. (My 3+ year old Gateway laptop died the other day, so I went out and bought a Toshiba Satellite. $1000 + a $300 warranty, I would reccommend the Satellite to anyone.)
- Tied to a Laptop
- A laptop should be used to help you out when needed. You should not be on the net doing nothing for hours just because you have a laptop. Get outside, go shopping, clean the house; make sure your life comes before your laptop. Laptops are very addictive, be careful.
- Create a Daily Schedule
- If you have several websites (or just one), creat a schedule. Force yourself to be productive. If you want to create 5 posts on your forum a day, do it from 9:00 am - 9:30 am everyday. Don’t stray from your task at hand. Make a schedule like this for every task you do and stick to it. If your daily website work takes 1.5 hours, then you should not be working on them for 5 hours everyday.
- Limit R&D Time
- Research and development is very important, but it cannot be done all the time. Give yourself 15 to 20 minutes a day to brainstorm. Surfing the net is not always the best way to do this. Think out of the box, get off your computer. Most likely you are just rehashing other peoples ideas if you find something online. Go sit on the beach with piece of paper and pen. THINK! The most unique and successful ideas are born in peoples imaginations and transfered to the net.
- Go to Bed
- As soon as you feel tired, be done with the computer. This is a no brainer, you’re not productive when you’re tired. If you’ve had a coffee, 4 Mountain Dews, a Snickers, and you’re eyes are bugging out…it’s time to go to bed (or run around the block 6 times and then go to bed). Make sure you have regular sleep patterns.
- Leave Time for Your Real Life
- I’m starting all these sites for a purpose, to live with less stress and have more time for my life. Everything takes work, but don’t kill yourself everyday to create average websites. Good sites take time. People don’t work 24 hours just because you do. Write quality content, stick to your schedule, and give the net some time to work while you’re at the beach. What?!?…that’s right go to the beach, by the time you get back you may just have a backlink.
I have to budget my time again. I’ll be back tomorrow with Part 3, “Create Sites You Know & Love”.
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