I thought it would be fun to share what a typical day looks like in my life.
While I travel a lot, and my days vary according to what's going on in my life and business at any given time, this is a typical "boring day". 🙂 Just a Thursday, even.
I actually kept a Time Log yesterday, which is an exercise I do from time to time to improve efficiency and productivity.
I'll share more about that with you as well. As you can see, my day starts with coffee - and I usually enjoy my first cup outdoors. If I wake early (and I usually do), I enjoy my coffee on the back deck and enjoy the sunrise. Otherwise I sit on the back steps out back while I take the Danes out. Either way, it's always a moment of reflection with that first cup, thinking over the day before and the day ahead...
I'm a creature of habit, and I love my quiet morning time, so if I have to be somewhere first thing in the morning... I'll get up ridiculously early (4am even) just to have those quiet moments over coffee.
Next, I thumb through my mobile device, still enjoying the morning outdoors, and see what happened with business while I was sleeping. I check each of my email accounts, blog comments, Facebook notifications, Tweets, etc. Just to get an idea what might need my attention first.
Before I actually sit down at my desk, I start or finish laundry (which is an ongoing process around here with a teenager, lol), water my plants - and pluck off any bad leaves or old blooms, take the Danes out, then straighten up whatever mess I left on my desk the day before. All before 7am.
And I usually don't get up until 6-6:30am, by the way. Though I do enjoy the rare earlier hours.
By then I'm making my second cup of coffee, wide awake, and ready to dig in to my Priority Tasks. I always start with the top three things I need to accomplish for the day, and get those knocked out first.
Yesterday (which is the Thursday I was referring to), my top three priorities were:
- Edit & Upload Video for my Vlog
- Answer Questions on my Forum
- Write Guest Post that was due (that day! ack, lol)
So on this particular day I watered the plants, folded a load of laundry and started a second, paid some bills & transferred some funds, did the video editing then uploaded & shared it, answered a few important emails, wrote & published a guest post, and answered all the open questions at my forum - all before 9am. 😉
9am to Noon
Once I got all that out of the way I did a few more emails, coordinated with guest bloggers for multiple sites, edited & published a guest post here on ClickNewz, checked in on my forum again, worked on the backend of a new site I'm launching, and then at 11am (my time) hosted Brainstorming Hour with my Elite Members.
To be honest, Thursday's are always a longer morning for me - given I have Brainstorming Hour scheduled at 11am every week. So I tend to stay at my desk and do tasks or work on creative projects until 11:00 - where I might be out of the office a lot earlier on other mornings.
12:30 - 3:30pm
After Brainstorming Hour, I tidied up my desk and uploaded the recording, and was out of my office within a half hour. I enjoyed a quiet lunch, wound down, and then took my usual 2-hour afternoon nap. 😀
If nothing else gets done in a day, I always sleep easy knowing how much I've accomplished before lunchtime...
3:30 - 5:00pm
After my nap I make another pot of coffee. I do love my coffee!
I took the Danes out, checked in on my forum (again) and tended to the few important emails that came in while I was sleeping. Then I answered Facebook messages while enjoying my coffee.
I did a bit of necessary housework after that. Threw in another load of laundry, swept the floors, loaded the dishwasher - just the basics. And by the way, if you can come up with a product to make out of dog hair... I could be your primary source for materials. No charge, but you'd have to come "collect it" (sweep it up). 😛
5:00 - 11:00pm
I finally grabbed a shower and got myself together. And since I was clean and dressed I decided to shoot a video for my Personal Video Blog.
Of course, Slim (my Great Dane) has to have his cuddles in the evening, so I combined the two and made that the topic of my video - LOL.
The house was quiet, and I had some free time, so I went ahead and downloaded the raw video and did the editing so it would be ready to publish when I came back to my desk the next morning.
By then my company arrived and I enjoyed a really nice evening. The weather was fabulous so we hung out on the back deck, then ordered out a nice dinner, and I watched one of my favorite shows: Person of Interest. I basically spent the rest of the day winding down and enjoying the evening.
Six + Two
Typically I sleep around 6 hours at night, and then 2 hours in the afternoon. And most days I'm done with my work by 10am, though I'll often find things to do (non-money tasks, or creative projects) if I happen to be home and the house is quiet. Otherwise in the afternoons/evenings I'll enjoy dinner & movies with my teen daughter. And on many days an hour long talk with my grown son in the late afternoon. He's doing fabulous out on his own, by the way. 🙂
There's enough flexibility in my schedule to go to the city for long lunches (this past Tuesday), or take off and go hike Burgess Falls (last Tuesday). And of course I travel often, and when I do - I simply work mobile, if/when work needs to be done.
I'm very happy with my schedule and my lifestyle...
Keeping a Time Log
If you're feeling frustrated with your schedule, efficiency, or productivity... keeping a Time Log is a great exercise. I decided to do it again this week because I had a heavier work load than usual. Mainly because we're doing some upgrades & updates across several sites right now. I'm in hyper-productive mode!
My advice is to track everything you do, when you do it, and how long it takes you for 3 straight days. I simply use a notepad by my desk, but Evernote is great too (especially if you're doing a lot of things mobile, or away from your desk).
It's incredibly eye-opening. You'll immediately start to see where you might be wasting time, what your most creative/productive hours are in the day, what you're doing during those hours (are you doing social media or reading blogs when you're at your creative peak, or trying to do creative projects when the house is noisy & distracting?!)... and changes you could make to improve the flow of your day.
I encourage you to try it out for yourself!
I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into my typical Thursday. 😀
Best,
Next see: Ready to Get Serious About Making Money?
(I've included a new video at the end of that post)
About Lynn Terry
I enjoyed reading about your typical day, Lynn. It is refreshing to see that the quality of life stuff gets high priority with you, as it does with me. I like your idea of the time log. I may just give it a try. 🙂
If you decide to give it a try, I'd love to hear how it goes!
Question: how granular do you go with this, Lynn?
Me? Very. But that's because I like a detailed overview of how I'm spending my time. I only do it for 1-3 days. It's easy to see where you need to make changes, right off the bat, so it's not something I do often or for long periods of time.
LOL - 3 days of that kind of detailed tracking sounds like a long haul to me. I will give this a try one day this week and see what turns up. Thanks for passing along the idea and also for the encouragement.
You can do it as detailed or as basic as you please. It's a short term exercise and I really like to get the most out of it. 😉
Awesome! I love your day.
I haven't done the time log in awhile and I seriously need to, but I have this nifty little computer program that spies on me and tells me everything I do---on the computer.
If I walk off to do something and return, it will pop up and ask me how I want to log that time. "When" I use it, it works wonders for my productivity, but I've been slacking. I think I'll use it next week, just to feel like I'm being spied on by a big over-bearing boss. LOL
It's called Chrometa. When I got it a few years ago, all I had to do to keep it for free was write a review. I don't know if they still do it that way or just make you pay, but I'm sure you could write a review. 😉
It's listed at $19 per month. I don't remember those terms when I got it, but can't hurt to check it out.
Very cool! I may look into that. I love paper & pen, because it's so *tangible* for me - and right in my face all day as it sits beside my keyboard. 🙂
That was fascinating to read, Lynn - I'm in awe of how much you get done!
Grindstone 2 sounds like it does the same as Chrometa, but it's free 🙂
Isobel - Grindstone 2 looks very nice. I'm assuming I got in with Chrometa when they were still new and only required a review. Sad it's a monthly fee now. 🙁
Lynn - I love pen and paper too. I have spirals and folders tucked away full of writings, scribbles, notes and ideas. But when I really need to buckle down, I like something that pops up if I've been idle and basically asks me what I've been doing.
The one thing I really like Chrometa for is tracking all computer activity---if I check email, all of the websites that get me sidetracked, how long I was there, etc.
Great post, Lynn! I've been struggling with adding new projects and changing my business model (for the umpteenth time), so I like the examples of how you fit in time for yourself, your family, your fellow and the Danes! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thank you Kate! Every day is different of course, but that's what I love about what I do - the flexibility. And if I get my priority tasks done first - and early - it frees me up to enjoy other things in life. 😀
Wow Lynn I just started following you - this is actually the first blog post I read and I'm already hooked!
That sounds like THE perfect day - I will aspire to that.
Thanks for letting me see inside.
Val
Your newest fan.
Thank you!
Welcome, Val 😀
I often suggest time logs to my new coaching clients so they can figure out what it is they actually do before they try to hire help. I have a nice spreadsheet time log if anyone wants a copy of it.
(I enjoyed our long Tuesday lunch! I've been on a role getting stuff done this week since we got started. 🙂
I enjoyed it as well. Looking forward to our next Tuesday! 😀
I would love to take a peek at that spreadsheet. 😉
Here are the download links to the spreadsheet. An example and the template. You can change the categories at the top. 🙂
http://theinvisibleoffice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Time-Log-example.xls
http://theinvisibleoffice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Time-Log-template.xls
Thank you! 😉
Some day I am going to drive to Nashville just for a long lunch with you two! Interested?
Not sure why I can't respond directly to your comment but I'm in whenever you're ready. 🙂
It's because the nested comments only go so deep. 😉 You're more than welcome, Bridgett! We have Murfreesboro Geek Breakfast one Friday of the month, and we meet for writing once a week too - but that's a non social quiet time, lol.
ANYtime you're in the area, just shout - would love to meet up!
Thank you for a sneak peak into your day! I too work from home and it was interesting to see how someone else's day is laid out in comparison to mine! I have done Time Logs before and this was a great reminder to try that again!
Are our days very different? I would love to hear how yours typically go! 🙂
I love the Time Log idea. I'm one of those people who tries to schedule too many things in one day. I really need to learn how to prioritize from you.
I haven't been able to put any priorities on my blog for the past two days because my desktop isn't working right. I've been running scans, chkdsk, reboots, system restore, everything I know. I need to find someone with a Win7 dvd so that I can do a repair install. *Sigh* Technical difficulties can be such a challenge and a time consumer, can't they?
Oh my gosh - YES. A serious time suck. I have my share, lol. I hope you get it worked out asap! 😉
Hi Lynn! Thanks for the sneak peek. It's always refreshing to see the "real" side of someone.
You've now inspired me to go back and do a time log properly. It's kind of like Weight Watchers, where you have to track everything you eat and you only get so many points in a day. You have to make the most of each one and save some for a treat. When I worked for clients, I had to track each minute of my work since it was billable. Without that kind of discipline it's easy to let the work spread to fill more time. It will be interesting to see my log after a few days.
It's SO enlightening! And it has really helped me become more efficient, more productive, and have more free time to do the things I ENJOY in life. 😀
Hi Lynn, first time here. I like how you organized your time and work.I can see how every thing smooth and almost perfect you've done all your commitment complete and done. You inspire me to stick to my schedule and make sure to complete everything on time. thanks for the inspiration.
It takes time to really get it down. I'm in my 16th year in business. And every time life and routines change (as life does), I have to transition with it. But it gets easier over time to keep things efficient and productive. 😉
Hi Lynn. Knowing how successful you are, you seem to fit the "work smarter, not harder" mold. I thought you would be working non-stop...from sunrise to sunset - and beyond. This is a true testiment to the great benefits that can be realized when you generate passive income...such as that with affiliate marketing.
Passive Income IS a big part of how my business operates. I try to do at least one thing every day toward long-term revenue. Sometimes it's simply a well optimized blog post that will rank well in bring in clicks/sales for years. But I am always forward-looking, as that really helps when you *can't* work on active income tasks - which does happen.
My client recently hash doing this with an excel log. Awesome you're able to take a daily nap.
I do love my naps! 😀
Thanks for the sneak peek Lynn! It is really helpful. I just downloaded Grindstone 2 and will be using it this week. I want to see just where my time goes and how much time I spend on my freelance clients! Will be interesting to see the results.
Enjoy! I find it SO helpful! 🙂
Lynn, what a great day I am having, and I have you (and everyone here at ClickNewz) to thank for it! It was very inspirational to see how you prioritize your tasks, get things accomplished, and have fun enjoying it all. I work from home and used to feel guilty about tasks like doing laundry first thing in the morning, but, it is a priority task. Who wants stinky clothes lying around? 😉 And it isn't interfering with my time for setting up my blog afterall. This is my first day with my time log, and wow, I am feeling very empowered already.
ps. I even took 15 minutes with my favorite inspirational book and my cup of coffee and enjoyed a beautiful morning on my back deck. Gosh, I haven't done that in years! duh! 🙂
Awesome, Judy! 😀
Time management is such a BIGGIE! Thanks for this wonderful post about how you manage yours, very thought-provoking.
I had to laugh when I got a newsletter this morning talking about how people think you work 16 hours a day after our conversation yesterday!
P.S. I love the idea of having multiple screens. Last night I spent a bit of time trying to think how I could rearrange my workspace to make room for that.
You aren't the first to bring it up, lol - but thank you for the inspiration. 😉
I started out with dual monitors, which really increased my productivity. I now work with three screens on one desk, and two on the other - plus two mobile devices (iPad and Android). Total overkill, but somehow it suits my personality to have different things on different screens. Which, by the way, I turn off when I am not doing certain tasks, so I can focus on the screen where I am working. Other times I keep them all on if I'm monitoring conversations & updates across multiple sites & channels...
Wow, that is a very productive day. I think I need to get up earlier after seeing all you got accomplished by noon.
I am going to try to record my day tomorrow,I hope to see some ways to optimize my time. Great post.
Thank you Tom - I think you'll really enjoy the Time Log exercise. 😉
Fabulous Lynn, thanks for the peek!! Ugggg I am not sure I want to actually see how much time I waste, but I know I must! I am on to it 🙂
LOL it can be shocking! If you aren't paying attention, or working in time blocks, you can literally spend an entire day and wonder what in the world you actually did. 😛
Spending time with cool breeze, moist flowers & leaves, rising sun & a cup of hot coffee can lead to a mind blowing day overall. If you are happy since you are awake you will have a nice day no matter what. I really enjoyed reading about you & I would love to start this from tomorrow itself as I am very excited. Tomorrow's day is going to be wonderful for me as I'll be making some new pals, the breeze, the flowers and leaves, the sun & of course my coffee.
Good stuff Lynn. The only thing that left me scratching my head was the 2 hour nap. But obviously you’ve created a life that YOU enjoy…and that’s what counts.
I totally dig your early morning coffee routine. Good stuff. I have my 1st cup around 5:05 a.m. then I’m off to my computer to write and I’m in the gym by 7:00, then back to my work day or college classes. However, without the 5:00 a.m. coffee…my entire day would blow.
Thanks for sharing this Lynn. This is actually one of the questions I asked internet marketers when I interviewed them for my interview series. I wanted to know what the day in the life of a successful internet marketer looks like. Even though I wasn’t able to land the interview with YOU (yet), you answered my question in this post.
Thanks 😉
Good times fuzzy bunnies!
I wasn't always a napper. That started when my kids went back to school (I had previously home schooled them when my son was ill). I always got up with them to see them off, which was of course early. I worked during the day while they were in school - and as a single mother also did all the chores myself (yardwork, dishes, grocery shopping, housework, maintenance, etc).
By the time they came in from school it was like a second shift starting. Homework, dinner, laundry, baths, bedtime, and whatever else needed to be done - after school activities & events, etc. I just didn't last, and there were times I felt exhausted and edgy. Or even cranky lol.
I didn't want to feel that way. I wanted to be fresh, and at my absolute best when the kids came home in the afternoon. And so I started taking a solid nap every day after lunch and before they got home. It made a HUGE difference for me personally, and so I kept it up.
Of course the kids are older now, but I love the habit. And since I'm most productive in the mornings (hyper productive even), it's just that much better to have TWO mornings in every day. 😀
Hi Lynn. Great model for a great day! Thanks for sharing — I'm inspired.
I use the time log sometimes. I've noticed that when I do, I'm more productive and smarter about my priorities because I know I'm gonna have to write it down. 🙂 And sometimes it becomes a kind of "done" list, and it feels pretty good when I can actually see how much I've accomplished.
I am a napper too. Evidently we're in good company. I love to share, so here's an excellent podcast about napping: http://michaelhyatt.com/011-the-secret-power-of-naps-podcast.html.
You can also download the transcript.
Thanks for the link, Judy!
I love the "done list" too. 😀 Talk about a sense of accomplishment!!
Terry,
I am just starting on a journey of affiliate marketing and WOW You appeared. Thank you for all the information and especially the diary of your day. I can see the discipline and hard work has paid off and continues thru the weeks and years and you have a comfortable life. Inspiring
Aloha, Dan