In preparation for business school applications, I updated my resume the other day and paused upon the section for “personal interests”. It was hard to know what to put because it seemed to me that my interests, aside from watching television and eating good food, was to work on my blog. The need to balance my day job with my blog has resulted in such tight time management that I really didn’t have extraneous time for “hobbies”.
It is almost hard to remember the first 1.5 years of working full time when I didn’t have my blog. For the last 3+ years, my life has consisted of work, blog, and family and friends. Even when I am on vacation, the thought of content creation is still on my mind. Over the years, I have learned how to balance working a 50-hour day job with working on building a blog and a brand. One of the most important things I have learned is time management. This post is dedicated to breaking down my top tips for how I work full time, create content for my blog and YouTube, write a book, and find free time.
Tip 1: Know your limits
Before even getting started, it is important to know your limits when it comes to how much work you can do in a day. Finding that limit may take some practice and test runs, and it is important to note your limit may change from day to day. However, it is super important to create some ground rules for yourself to work off of. Some of my ground rules include:
- A minimum of 8 hours of sleep is non-negotiable
- 30 mins of exercise minimum during weekdays is non-negotiable
- I need a minimum of 1 hour of free time each evening to have “me time”
- Quality time with my partner and loved ones are non-negotiable
Each day, I look at what I need to do for a given day and map out what I realistically think I can get done on a given day based on what my schedule looks like and how I can account for my limitations (i.e. my ground rules).
Tip 2: Know your priorities
Knowing your priorities may be a general life tip, but the reason it is so applicable to time management is that focusing on the most important items to get done in a day will allow you flexibility and give you motivation. When you are laser-focused on what specific things have to be done, nothing else matters except getting through your priorities. Some may like to find their priorities through the “Ivy Lee Method”, but there are a million different ways to set priorities. Personally, I love to create a business plan and get super micro with every little thing that needs to be done, which conveniently leads us into the next tip.
Tip 3: Set clear goals and milestones
At the end of each year, I take some time and reflect on what went well and what could be improved during the last calendar year. Borrowing a term I learned from work, I then create a “business plan” for myself for the upcoming year, full of long-term and short-term goals for the year.
Everyone’s plans and organizational styles look different, but because of my background in finance, I love creating spreadsheets and to-do lists. Here is how I create my goals and make daily to-do lists.
My Goal-Setting Steps:
- I ask myself the following questions:
- Where do I see my blog going?
- How can I turn the work I do for my blog into a sustainable, full-time business?
- What is the next step I can take to take my blog to the next level?
- I work with Rachel Grim as a Ditch the Clique community member to ensure that someone is keeping me accountable each week
- I map out the key goals I want to accomplish over the course of a calendar year
It is important to note that goals can and will change. That is why it is super important to have a very clear idea upfront of what you are working towards. The moment you find yourself shifting is the moment you need to ask yourself whether you need to change your goals or change the work you are doing.
Creating a Daily To-Do List:
There are two separate ways I create to-do lists, and each of these is based on the type of work I do.
- If I am undertaking a massive project (such as writing a new book), I will map out exactly what high-level goals I need to accomplish against a timeline.
- If I am working on my daily to-do list, I look at my time 2 weeks in advance and map out what things I need to get done over the next 2 weeks in order to keep on track with the goals I set for myself
The strategist and project manager in me loves Excel, and for everything “project” related, I create a massive Excel spreadsheet for myself to keep track of all my notes.
Whenever I am setting up my daily to-do lists, I track everything on my Google calendar so I am never caught in a situation where I plan more for myself to do each day than my schedule permits. I also love jotting things down in my notes (I use Microsoft OneNote) to brainstorm for the future!
Tip 4: Learn how to set yourself up for success
There are two things I have learned over time that has changed my productivity levels:
- Time-blocking
- Using the right tools
Why You Need to Time-Block
Time blocking has massively changed the way I work, and it is perhaps the number one thing I can recommend, especially if you are balancing a side hustle on top of your day job. On any given day at my day job, I usually have an idea of what my schedule will look like at the start of the day. Each morning, I take 15 minutes and start blocking off my time to do certain things, whether that is for work and for my blog and book.
During each time block, I look at the things I have to do and the time I have and start working on similar items that I can complete all in one chunk. For example, if I have allocated myself 1 hour of free time and my to-do list consists of creating graphics for my blog, answering emails, and writing three new blog post, then I will work through creating all the graphics I need, then write everything in one sitting, then answer all my emails in one sitting. By sectioning off items based on the task type, I save so much time than if I were to create one graphic, write one blog post, create another graphic, and write another blog post.
Finding the Right Tools
Something else that we overlook is the tools at our disposal. During quarantine, I have found that these tools have helped me the most in staying productive and have good time management:
- Having an extra monitor (one monitor is for the day job, the second monitor is for the blog)
- Utilizing my work calendar to block off free time I have to work on my blog
- Saving all my data onto the Cloud so I can download files onto my phone if I am on the go
- Having a dedicated workspace to being able to sit down and get things done (no more trying to balance your laptop on your lap as you type in bed)
Sometimes we overlook the smallest things, such as having a keyboard and a mouse you love, or buying a bigger monitor so we can have multiple windows open at once. From experience, I know firsthand how important it is to make sure that you are set up for success right from the start of your day!
Tip 5: Start fast and adjust
Lastly, I am borrowing a term I often hear on The Skinny Confidential Him and Her Podcast (a phrase that is frequently used by Michael Bosstick): Launch fast and adjust.
Instead, I am urging you to “start” fast and adjust. Rather than overthink how to best manage your day, simply start, look at what worked and what didn’t work, and adjust. My routine during quarantine was only one that I found after a lot of trial and error. Who would have known that having a keyboard that isn’t flimsy (I have the Microsoft Surface that is designed for on-the-go) would have been game changing?
Too often, we let ourselves be overly consumed by needing everything to be perfect before we start. If you find yourself drowning because you don’t know how to manage your time, take one baby step at a time because all of us, world leaders and CEOs included, started off small. Time management is easier than you think!
If you would like to see an in-depth view of what my day looks like, check out my YouTube video below:
All in all, I hope that this post helped shed some light into how I manage my time and helped give you some ideas for how you can be more productive in a single day!
If you would like to see what my schedule looked like when I work in the office, then check out this post! A lot has changed in my time management since then, so definitely check out my YouTube video for more tips!
