Reclaim ‘unproductive’ work time by time-tracking

January 23rd 2010

I have been running my own business full time for 2 and a half years now and one of the most difficult things to learn has been how little billable time you actually get done in a day/week. (I was reassured to read this week that the well established designer Jon Hicks is still getting used to this too.)

What I found most frustrating about this situation—aside from the fact that I’d have no bills to send out—was that I didn’t know where my time was going. I would spend 8 hours sat at my desk 5 days in a row and then look at a measley 10 hours of client work logged and think –

“What the hell have I been DOING?”

Then I discovered BubbleTimer. It took me a while to come round to the idea, but I have been now been using this little application for a year. In helping me keep track of what I have been doing, it has prevented me from completely losing my mind (and giving up on my business!).

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The importance of your morning ritual

December 3rd 2009

I seem to have too much to say about Darrell’s post about reclaiming the morning over on Web Worker Daily so I’m posting it here. My morning ritual is very similar to Darrell’s, though I learnt this the hard way.

There were times in the past where I’d be worrying about an email and so go to my desk to check on it first thing, and 2 hours later I’d look up and realise I was still in my pajamas and hadn’t even had a coffee. Worse, was when a client would ring while I was still in that state! This taught me to stick to the following ritual.

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