No, I haven’t gone mad and deluded myself into thinking I can save money on wages by working less!
What with all this credit crunch lark and a merchant or three starting to perform in a dashed rubbish fashion, I’ve been feeling really stressed about the different revenue streams I have on the go. Before you all pass the hat round to help me out with next month’s mortgage there’s a couple of facts you should know about me:-
- I get stressed at the slightest deviation in “normal” merchant performance and instantly get myself whipped up into a doom-mongering frenzy.
- My idea of a “rubbish and depressing” sales month is still somewhere in the region of 4 times what I used to get paid in my day job. This is a dreadful character defect and one of the reasons I’ve just implimented the above strategy. There really, really is more to life than money and I need to start realising that before I end up “unwell”!
So What Exactly Are You Doing Kirsts?
Well, when I get worried about what direction to take and a dip in performance I have a dreadful habit of:-
- Sitting worrying about it and not getting much done.
- Setting myself stupidly high work targets, failing to meet them, getting depressed and demotivated, and then getting a lot less done than I would have done if I’d just footered along as normal.
So this time when I started to get concerned I wanted to stop that pattern of behaviour in its tracks. It’s not uncommon for me to spend 4 to 6 weeks in a stressed out mess, working 14 hours a day, and getting very little more done than usual.
So anyhoo… here’s my plan!
Using the workplan I talked about previously I decided to ramp things up a few notches and make better use of my working hours. Each night I’ve been sitting down and planning out EXACTLY what Duncan and I will do the following day and when. So no Facebook, no A4U, no nipping off online shopping or and of the other distractions I so often fall victim to. In doing this, I’ll actually meet my work targets for a 5 day week but:-
- Work between 8.30 & 4pm with an hour off for lunch (which I have NEVER done before).
- Only work Monday to Thursday.
And Did It Work?
I have to say its been a massive success so far. I’ve never stuck to a work plan so rigidly because I don’t need to sit and think about what I’m doing during the day. Its amazing how much time you waste thinking of what to do next! Not only am I having a lunch hour but I’ve been able to get out and do some gardening every evening and usually spend some time on my housework during the lunch hour. This all maximises my weekend leisure time.
I think all this will make me more productive in the longer term and help me to push things in the most efficient direction in 2009, making my business stronger than ever.
I don’t feel stressed any more, I feel good and in control. I guess I’m lucky my recession solution was so simple, it’d have been a bit of a different story if I was Gordon Brown!
February 10th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Good to hear your work smarter plans are working for ya!
About the only thing that really depresses me these days are server outages which are beyond my control.
Tai-chi worked wonders for me, taking a day out every week to chill and exercise at the same time has been the best thing I ever did – 5 years and counting now.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I’m exactly like you Kirsty. When something goes a bit abnormal with stats / visitors / any old darn thing then I used to stew on it every hour of the day and keep fiddling when I was meant to be doing other things.
Over the last week I decideed enough was enough, and have been setting myself plans that have seen me be far more productive and producing much better content than the panic rubbish I can throw out when stressed!
One thing we haven’t been doing the same though is gardening. I’m still waiting for the snow to clear off it first!
February 10th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
“I’ve been able to get out and do some gardening every evening”
- what do you mean Kirsty? It’s cold, dark and damp, how can you do gardening in the evening?
Sorry, I forgot you moved to glorious Aussieland. I hate you!
February 10th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I’ve seen this type of schedule and more importantly, philosophy, work so well for people in the past. Just be careful not to get sucked back into working longer hours when a crisis occurs. Stay on the “wagon” per se.
Congrats.
February 10th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Interesting to here that the planned worklist the evening before really works. I have read various “productivity” books etc which preach this method but never implemented. maybe it is the time to start
February 10th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Hi Kirsty,
I’ll bet there are many reading this post and see a bit of themselves in it – me included!
I have been doing something similar since Christmas, although my lunch hour involves either a long bike ride in the forest, a workout in the garage or, on my day off exercise, an hour of ‘Loose Women’ – sad but quite humorous.
Not only that, I took the drastic measure (no pun) and stopped drinking during January – not even on Burns night!!
I now feel so much better, get more done in my day and do like you, avoid time wasting distractions like the ones you have mentioned – 2009 is on the up.
Hamish
February 11th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Thanks everyone, except Nadeem – Imagine being jealous of me doing backbreaking gardening
Its good to know that I’m not the only one getting the old affiliate knickers in a twist and even better to know that my method is useful / relevant!
February 11th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Good tactics! I worked from home for awhile and having a bit of structure really made me so much more efficient. When I have a plan in front of me, it’s easy to tick off the boxes, so to speak; without the plan, I sat swimming in front of my desk working ever more hours…
February 11th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Great to hear this is working for you Kirsty.
It’s something anyone being their own boss should take a look at. Especially in affiliate marketing as there are endless opportunities out there it’s easy to try and do too much / get sidetracked.
As per some of your previous advice the best thing to do stress wise as well as results wise is get organised, stop the distractions and get stuck into finishing off a project, as much as you can ever “finish off” a website but I hope you know what I mean ?!
I hope you continue to have a “soft landing” in the recession!
February 18th, 2009 at 11:41 am
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