Question To The Full-time Hustlers...

Lloops

Lloops

Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
82
Likes
92
Degree
0
So we've got a few holidays coming up and I'm keen to use these as days where I can switch to full-time hustle mode without having to think about the 9-5 day job.

I'm just interested how those who do this full-time structure their days and how they measure the successfulness of their day?

With say 10 hours to play with, I'm keen to make sure I get the most from my time each day.
 
We all do 100 million different things. You won't get a direct answer to this.

You should have your goals set for whatever your doing. Figure out where you want to be in a year, then figure out what it's going to take to get you there. Then breakdown those goals into 4 phases. Each phase will be 3 months. Then, break each of those phases down to monthly goals, then weekly tasks.

And there ya go. You now know exactly what you need to be doing each week.
 
Lloops said:
I'm just interested how those who do this full-time structure their days and how they measure the successfulness of their day?
Click to expand...

I used Google calendar religiously. It's great because I can send out invitation to meetings very easily, but mainly I use it to keep myself accountable with a popup for when I should change task.

I even schedule in my hour of exercise in the morning, 30 minutes to shower, change and eat, 30 minutes to take a rest, what exact time I should be in the coffee shop to work, when I should eat lunch etc.

It is a personal thing, but I find that I'm not having to make any conscious decisions during the day I just follow my Google overlords. It's made me a lot more productive and helped to get me into a healthy routine.

I'm a big believer in working outside of the house. I did the work-from-home thing for a few months and I was horribly unproductive. As soon as I stepped outside and worked elsewhere I was far more productive. I'm a city boy, I love the noise anyway. Figure out what location works best for you, make sure you're there. Schedule, schedule, schedule. Then have some willpower.
 
Prentzz said:
I used Google calendar religiously. It's great because I can send out invitation to meetings very easily, but mainly I use it to keep myself accountable with a popup for when I should change task.

I even schedule in my hour of exercise in the morning, 30 minutes to shower, change and eat, 30 minutes to take a rest, what exact time I should be in the coffee shop to work, when I should eat lunch etc.

It is a personal thing, but I find that I'm not having to make any conscious decisions during the day I just follow my Google overlords. It's made me a lot more productive and helped to get me into a healthy routine.

I'm a big believer in working outside of the house. I did the work-from-home thing for a few months and I was horribly unproductive. As soon as I stepped outside and worked elsewhere I was far more productive. I'm a city boy, I love the noise anyway. Figure out what location works best for you, make sure you're there. Schedule, schedule, schedule. Then have some willpower.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Do you find that your entire schedule gets thrown off when there's a wrench thrown into the works?

Things like:
  • Family members demanding attention / needing help
  • Friends just stopping by
  • A Vendor screws something up and requires your immediate attention.
This kind of shit throws me off my game like whoa. And...I LOVE my routines. Whenever something unexpected is introduced, I'm thrown off mentally for at least the rest of the day. Nothing is more frustrating!
 
When I first started work I definitely needed the Google calendar thing with the pop ups keeping me on track, so I think that's the best advice for you starting out - otherwise it's too easy to procrastinate. I'm more into a flexible Trello based approach now but with strict deadlines for doing certain things.

One thing you'll learn is that given any hour to use, doing SOMETHING that ticks things off the list is always better than thinking about how to do that SOMETHING better. You need to find that 'good enough' sweet spot where you don't waste time and are always moving forward.

I had my first advertising sales lead come in for my case study project this week and I've basically done nothing on that project so far... but every time I've had a spare hour, I've just done ANYTHING that is on the list. Is everything done optimally... nah... but if I'd sat down and say... coded a new CMS extending Django CMS or Mezzanine because 'more optimal in the end' instead of just grinding out some writing on Wordpress it wouldn't be anywhere at all.
 
stackcash said:
  • Family members demanding attention / needing help
  • Friends just stopping by
  • A Vendor screws something up and requires your immediate attention.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty brutal to be quite honest. If noone is going to die because of it, I'm not moving. If I'm not losing business because of it, I'm not moving.

I'm not even going home for Xmas, because it would end up being a week event and multiple 12 hour flights.

If it can be sorted in 1 - 2 minutes I'll usually squeeze it in between tasks, but never stop tasks to do it.

If it's going to take longer, they'll have to wait unless it fits the criteria above.
 
Prentzz said:
I'm pretty brutal to be quite honest. If noone is going to die because of it, I'm not moving. If I'm not losing business because of it, I'm not moving.

I'm not even going home for Xmas, because it would end up being a week event and multiple 12 hour flights.

If it can be sorted in 1 - 2 minutes I'll usually squeeze it in between tasks, but never stop tasks to do it.

If it's going to take longer, they'll have to wait unless it fits the criteria above.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is pretty much where I'm getting to in my professional life. There aren't enough hours in the day...but I'm still feeling bad about stonewalling friends / family when they reach out when they're not part of the schedule. Guess I gotta stick to my guns..
 
I've shed any friends that aren't in my inner-most circle. Only they get face-to-face time with me on any regular basis. And they understand what I'm trying to do and have been happy to isolate our meetings during certain times that work for both of us. We don't even try to meet up outside of that time period.

I also rarely mess with my phone. Most texts and calls go unanswered, I never respond to group messages, and if I must respond, it comes around 24 hours later.

What happens is you begin to manage expectations and deprive rewards and people start to choose other people to bother for immediate gratification. They begin to respect your time more. For those that can't take that hint, you simply have to set very overt and obvious boundaries with them and explain why. If they can't accept the reason then they don't respect you as a person who gets to make choices for his or her own life.

Beyond that I can't say much. My sleep schedule constantly rotates around the day. I have little discipline for stopping working, going to bed, getting out of bed, etc. But when I'm in the saddle, I'm approaching the speed of light.
 
This is all awesome guys thanks for the feedback!

If I was going to take away anything from this thread it would be that the key is planning consistent actions that take you towards your weekly and monthly goals.

I like the ideas that @Prentzz and @Steve Brownlie suggest about using a calendar to plan out days while the content from @eliquid is just pure gold!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back