Before I could enjoy my very first Monday after leaving my job, I was already consumed with a new project: how to organize my time. Suddenly, the lines between work-me, student-me, and social-me were blurred. What was I going to do with no one telling me what to do?
If you’re going to leave your day job but know you are most productive when your days have structure, you have to be vigilant about establishing routines. I have spent the past six weeks trying to figure out the best method of managing my time, and the most important thing I have learned is to develop a morning ritual and stick to it.
Here’s what mine looks like:
- 6:00 – PT exercises
- 6:30 – free writing/breakfast. I set a timer for 30 minutes and write while I eat. This writing doesn’t have any particular purpose; I’m just getting ideas out of so they don’t distract me all day. When I go back to my notebook, I often find little tidbits that might inform a future project.
- 7:00 – calendar review; fill in my index card with my top three tasks and follow-up emails or calls; schedule tasks in planner (you can find my template here).
- 7:15 – writing sprint – I set my timer for 45 minutes and work on a writing project
- 8:00 – check email. I like to hold off as long as possible on checking email, and two hours is my limit. Besides, anyone who has a 9-to-5 job is not even in the office yet.
- 8:15 – writing sprint
- 9:00 – gym
Some of you may be thinking this schedule looks like your personal version of hell, but it worked for me. The underlying premise is that tasks that don’t get scheduled are harder to do, and we tend to underestimate how long it takes to do things. For now, this method is working for me.
Crap! it’s after 9 o’clock – I’m late for the gym!
this gruntled worker 