Riding on the words of my last post and interest from a few readers I thought I’d take the time and give a fairly detailed account of how I’ve actually used the previously mentioned lifestyle design tactics (found here) to free hours of time at my job and make myself extremely valuable. The response received from my co-workers and boss were not what I expected. It seems odd because the point of learning these tactics is to eventually build yourself out of a 9-5 all together, but the fact is, the singular focus and effective productivity methods will down right make you a better, more valuable, impactful employee (for yourself too). Consider it practice. It’s the complete opposite of what I thought would happen and a perfect stage setter for preparing yourself to create income on your own terms. (Note: Nowhere do I recommend ditching your work responsibilities, in fact the opposite are what so far seem to be required in positioning yourself to get out of the 9-5 scene.)
What specifically have I been doing?
- Checking work e-mail twice a day, web service e-mail twice a day, personal e-mail once a day. Same with voicemail, even work voicemail. Unless it’s the company owner, or my boss, I deliberately let my phone go to voicemail.
- Using a notepad and calendar daily to schedule tasks as they come. This creates peace of mind when I honor my calendar.
- Interrupting interruptions. You CANNOT please everyone. If you are trying to be productive, stop people mid-sentence, let them know you’re busy and if this isn’t an emergency, to e-mail you. I’ve never pissed anyone off, and get a lot less requests doing this.
- Not checking e-mail first thing in the morning, instead I find and do the most important thing for the day immediately. This tactic alone increases productivity and employee value greatly.
- Answering all work related calls with “What’s up”, or “How can I help you” to prompt quick action.
- Asking for forgiveness instead of permission with boss and clients. I’ve ended up impressing most of the time and having to undo almost never.
- Constantly and literally asking myself, is what I’m doing important? Be conscious about singular focus, you cannot multitask no matter what you think. Use priorities instead of the multitasking concept. I have a huge piece of paper staring at me all day that states “IF YOU COULD ONLY DO 2 THINGS TODAY, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
- Giving 80% of time to the top %20 of design and IT service clients. The remaining %80 percent get %20 of my time mostly because they are not generating income, or consume more time than necessary; they are not efficient clients. It may seem harsh, but you’re not trying to make friends in business, let that soak in. Use speech as a tool, deal with everyone politely, use the same evasion tactics and productivity tools when you’re the boss or employee to produce the best results.
- Batching cooking meals. I cook generally once on Sunday and once on Wed for all meals. Saves hours nightly and makes lunch cheap.
- Batching cleaning. I find this one the hardest. It sometimes actually pays to not clean something until more mess has accumulated. Weekly.
- Non-finishing. Information is useless if you can’t apply it right away, stop taking in nonsense, follow a short list, fill in on the go.
- Batching and scheduling when to absorb information. In general, a low information diet boosts singular focus, there’s too much media around us. I struggle with this, so I schedule times throughout the week to devote solely to reading blogs I stumble on that I like, books I want to take in, audio I want to listen to and so on. I use Evernote to pack it all away so I know where to start reading when I get to that point on the calendar. This week, I finish the Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
The actual processes I’ve used and continue to use are the same in concept if you’re self employed or working for the man, and they continue when you’ve broken free. You eventually want to build yourself out of “work” all together. The end game with lifestyle design (as I understand it and demonstrated by Tim Ferriss) is to create a lifestyle so effective that it’s nearly automating itself income while you live out dreams daily. I play both the self-employed and employee fields and have seen huge gains in both lately. I’ve noticed time gaps opening up in both areas by eliminating time wasters and increasing effective productivity givers. The “bonus” time provided by implementing elimination tactics have allowed me to do this project, find and consult with fellow life designers/entrepreneurs (post on who coming soon) and start developing the next stage of this project, the literal bread winner, creating a business solely for profit.
WHAT ABOUT FRIDAY OFF?!
Okay Okay. Yes, I have asked for Friday off, with pay, from my boss before. I did it in a very calculated way. Why? First because it was a challenge in a recent book I read, and secondly because I wanted to use the time to create other sources of income! I suggested it to my boss one day after implementing some of the above and aforementioned productivity improvements. I cited recently accomplished goals (actual e-mail) due to working when no one was in the office, or on Saturdays or when simply ignoring others for a short time (selective ignorance). I mentioned it would be a trial to see if I could continue to improve productivity, and I would of course be reachable by phone and able to come to work the second I was needed. I was absolutely set that my boss would laugh at this, but it couldn’t hurt to ask right?…to my utter surprise he looked at me and said, “I know what you mean, without everyone hounding you every second of the day, you could get a lot more done”. I staggered a bit trying not to act surprised. I mentioned trying it out in a few weeks. He nodded. I should have jumped on the idea right there, but I was satisfied with myself and backed away from the subject. It sounds completely absurd and I’m sure not all jobs could afford to trial out sending you home for the day, but is it possible? The answer is yes.
Who’s ready to start being more valuable at work, and in your own efforts to break free?
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J. D. Thanks for the Google tips. I’ve actually been experimenting with just that ironically. I’m a long time .Mac/MobileMe user but Gmail continues to be the de-facto for e-mail needs. I’ve recently set up a really great system for funneling all my mail through Gmail, yet retaining sync from a mail client (Apple Mail) and Gmail, all with the ability to respond from any e-mail address, and receive mail in sync on all accounts. It was driving me crazy before, but with some proper labeling tricks its worked out. I bet you have something similar going on. Thanks for the comments, see you again soon!
Good luck on getting Fridays off! I have a friend here in LA who works as a webmaster for a handful of websites but still works on-site 9-to-6 every day. He started working from the coffeeshop below his office all afternoon for 3 days a week, and then all week. Now he’s asking to work from home a few days a week on a trial-basis, and I think his boss is going to let him. I hope the results are as positive for you in the end (or more so!).
I use Evernote to keep track of EVERYTHING. I’m getting rid of my iPhone when I leave the country (in just a couple of weeks, yikes!), however, and the unlocked Razr I’m replacing it with can’t handle Evernote, and the iPod Touch I’m taking doesn’t have a camera or microphone (which is part of what’s so useful about the iPhone version). Hopefully the rumors are true that Apple will be remedying these problems with the Touch before I head down to Argentina.
In any case, keep up all the good work, with the blog and with all of your efficiency-based projects. I’m a big personal project person (PPP?) too, and it’s always interesting to see other peoples’ results (mostly to determine which projects to undertake next, but partially just curiosity
Evernote is a great tool for limiting information consumption. I’ve never thought to use it this way, but I do use it to save posts and resources I find particularly helpful.
The Batch Cooking is actually a really good idea. I might have to try that.
Something you might think about… forwarding all your email to one account. Gmail can collect emails from all the accounts and separate them. When you have to reply to an email, it will use the address it was sent to as the from address. It would simplify the process a little more.
I’m looking forward to doing the most important thing first. I have to try that. My most important thing is typically the one thing I don’t want to do. After I finish the thing I hate the most, I already feel so productive that everything else I have to do is a breeze to get through.
Great post, Rob!