Well, for the first time ever I am writing this post on the morning that I’m meant to be publishing it. I’ve only been blogging for five weeks so it’s not that dramatic but I am wishing that I had been more organised. My time management has not been up to scratch this week!
BUT, the silver lining here is that it’s given me a golden opportunity to write about how I want to be managing my ‘self-employed time’ and look to set some goals.
If I think about my various commitments in life, I need to make sure that I’m budgeting enough time for;
- Family (in particular my wife, Lydia)
- Friends
- Building and running my independent consultancy, Seedling Consulting
- Likewise, building and running BigAir with my business partner, Hayden Bishop (I’m realising how much of a different ball game running a B2C business is!)
- Serving on the board of FARA NZ
- Myself (!)
Coincidentally, Hayden and I decided this week that we need to have an ‘office’ day each week instead of just ad hoc meetings. With each of us having separate personal business commitments (speaking of, if you need a great photographer – Hayden is your guy!), our weeks can get quite busy. We decided we’d make Monday our office day – which mean we’re just working from the same space (combatting that lonely #solopreneur feeling!) and can do a bit of work on Big Air as well as any other stuff we’ve got on.
Moving forward, I’m guessing client visits for BigAir will mainly happen in the weekends. (This is where we take all the photos and gather information for client Airbnb listings)
So, that’s BigAir sorted.
Then, I’ve decided I’m going to have a mid-week day at home with no meetings each week. This day aligns with Lydia’s day-off which changes depending on her shifts. Lydia often works weekends and it’s easy enough for me to work through the weekend too – our calendars are pretty non-traditional so I’m not really losing any time by doing this – just making sure I have a day at home with Lydia every week. This day also helps cover off the fact that I need to give ‘myself’ time.
Then that leaves 3 weekdays for Seedling Consulting and the time commitment for FARA NZ is pretty small – while the charity is not a client of Seedling, I’m finding that if I treat the work I’m doing as if it is for a client, it keeps me on track.
We regularly see friends in the evenings and try to get up to Palmerston North to see our family for a weekend roughly once a month.
It’s a busy life but I think I’m getting the hang of managing my own time. It will be interesting to see how I get on when I get into a busy patch. Given it’s only been 3 months since we got back to NZ, it has all been smooth sailing so far. I’m marking this most recent week as a temporary blip caused by the short-week (I spent Monday celebrating Wellington and listening to the dulcet tones of Fat Freddy’s Drop!).