This year I’ve turned things upside down in my working week, and it’s all to do with gaining productivity. I’d love to admit that this system was born out of an epiphany of intelligence, however, like most moments of brilliance, it just kind of came about.
My three-year-old daughter was moving from family day care to a commercial day care and I just assumed that she would love it. When she didn’t love it I was initially thrown. Then….since I’m my own boss, rather than digging my head in the sand and saying, “She’ll just have to learn to love it,” I decided to look at it laterally. Instead I asked, “How can we do things differently?”
Productivity Timezones
When I really analysed my current working week set up I realised it wasn’t actually working that well. I had day care lined up for 3 days a week and did the odd big of work around my husband’s shift work and grandparents babysitting. By the time you’ve factored in a few errands, a lunch break and the odd emergency, those three days were starting to feel more like a few hours here and there. I was always feeling behind in my work and I was consistently looking for ways to improve my productivity so I could get more into those few hours.
Last year I’d listened to Rick Mulready talk about identifying your most productive times of the day. This was something I was starting to apply already. I identified my most productive times were thus:
- 6am-8am
- 11am-7pm
The 9-11am timeslot was consistently a time when I found myself drifting to my Facebook page. I know I don’t do my best work in the mid-morning. When the school bell rang I always found myself disappointed to be pulled away from my work because I was feeling ‘in the zone’. Your most productive times are actually quite easy to identify once you make a choice to keep an eye on them.
Now I’ve found a way that my daughter can be looked after in times that suit my productivity timezones…and I’m really excited about how this is going to work out.
The New Working Week Schedule
This is how the new working week schedule is going to look:
Working hours
Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri
- 6am – 7:30am before getting ready for school (6 hours per week)
- 11am checking emails and little tasks (2 hours per week)
- 11:30am lunch break and hanging out with Mabel before she goes to bed
- 1pm – 2:30pm working while Mabel sleeps (6 hours per week)
Thursday
- Meetings day – working from 9am to 3pm while Mabel has a nanny (5.5 hours a week with a lunch break)
TOTAL WORK TIME = 19.5 hours work time. I approximate this to be 6 hours more productivity a week. Happy days!
Exercise hours
Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri
- 9:30am – 10:30am
That’s 4 sessions a week! Two more than I was achieving last year. 🙂
I can hear you thinking that this schedule is a bit tight – I think you’re right. However, it’s better to put down your best case scenario and then test it out. The beauty of working for yourself is that you can change things around to suit your perfect work week.
The New Working Week Mindset
This is a pretty hard concept for me to get used to only because I don’t usually love routine. It’s not my core makeup. I live by the philosophy, “Variety is the spice of life!” However, the reality of having children and a husband who’s a shift-worker is that routine is a necessity to make sure you’re getting it all done, and done without the stress. When you’re trying to fit work in around whenever you can find the time it becomes stressful. Whereas if you have dedicated time periods that are work time, then it becomes a much easier task to get things done. Even though my favourite working times are in the early evenings, due to family commitments that just has to be a time when after school activity, dinner, bath and reading time happens. No matter because I’ve found other ways to maximise my best working times when it does work for the family…and sometimes I’ll even get a bit of bonus time. In fact, as I write this article, it’s 4.45pm on a Monday when the kids are playing and winding down…and it’s not even a part of my working week schedule. It’s bonus time 🙂 Dinner starts soon.
Summary
None of this could have been achieved if I continued to work on autopilot. I had been using the 3 days a week routine for the last year and I thought it was working. It wasn’t until I really looked closely (or rather took a step back) and analysed my time in detail that I realised it could be done a better way. I know a lot of you reading this are lead by constraints that are out of your control. However, if you’re feeling like a hamster on a wheel I encourage you to really throw away the playbook, turn things upside and down and test out new ways of structuring your life. It could be your saviour.
