Twenty ten! This year is going to be huge in so many ways – and one of our first goals as a business is to spend time each week working on increasing our passive income. After some consideration, we concluded that the only way to reach our goal is to put aside an entire day where all we do is work on our passive sites, link building, traffic etc…
We also concluded that to make this work we would need to regroup and come up with an efficient time management system for the office, as well as our personal “home” tasks. Considering we don’t have kids or a mortgage, we still tend to bounce of the walls every now and then – and having better time management will prevent that from happening!
The video was spontaneous – and Veronica wasn’t prepared for my intrusion.
Cheers,
Elijah
I had the same realization early going into this year, so glad to see you exploring how to be more productive and manage time. I’ve installed RescueTime on my computer which automatically tracks what I’m doing – http://bit.ly/8gUSSg. I’ll let that go for a month or so and then go analyze where I waste time and where I’m most productive. I also have a whiteboard – but I use it for keeping track of projects, both ones I need to track down and follow up, and ones planned already or in the queue. Daily, I have a little notebook that I write the days tasks. Almost always never finish all of them, but keeps me focused so when I wake up I’m not all over the place. The biggest thing that helps me though is somebody, like my wife, slapping me over the head when I’m on Facebook or Twitter and not doing anything in particular. I can also get a bit perfectionistic on tasks, instead of just cranking them out and moving on.
Glad to see you guys on video – hadn’t had a clear idea of who the “at home couple” is. Veronica, you did great!
.-= Nathan Clendenin´s last blog ..Some “Catspiration” with a CATcerto =-.
@Nate – Good to see you around! I can relate 100% on the perfectionist side of things, I catch myself often spending way too much time trying to perfect something rather than trying to finish it… There’s a huge difference in the mindset.
Gonna check out RescueTime for sure! Freshbooks has helped us with invoicing and keeping track of our freelance income before it hits Quickbooks (which we’re still trying to get comfortable with).
Rescue Time sounds like a tool that I could use as well.
It’s good to see that you two aren’t some super couple sitting in an apartment just cranking out the work. I can totally relate to having time management problems.
One thing that I have found that works for myself when I do it is to break down projects into tasks. Also, keep your task list down to 6 items every day. That way you don’t seem overwhelmed and turn your brain off when you look at your task list of 20 some items in the morning.
Brenda
.-= Bcarter´s last blog ..Making Money Online Takes Creativity =-.
Ha sure know what you mean with working on time management skills.
I think you a on the right track by WRITING it down even if it is a loose outline it definitely helps to physically commit it to paper.
I like the whiteboard idea puts the things to do in your face more.
So glad to read you guys are making a go of it, it is a reassuring thing to see that the ability to earn a living online does have real people having a go and is not just full of the Million dollar a day buy my product crew.
@Brenda – 6 items per day kinda sounds like what we’ve been doing. Because of the size of our whiteboard we’re limited, in a good way of course. pffft… super couple.. far from it! We’re on the 5 year plan 🙂
@Russell – We love promoting products (not always the million dollar kind) but this blog was never about that. We set it up as a networking tool for that same reason – to find real people who are trying to do this. It’s f**king hard. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it will be worth it in the end.
.-= Elijah´s last blog ..The At Home Life: Time Management Challenges =-.
Dude, are those antlers on your clock? Love it!
I’m actually on the opposite end this year. I’ve spent too much time stressing and spinning my wheels- feeling like if I don’t have the laptop on that I should, and if it is on like I’m working even when I’m not.
So. I’ve changed my mind. I no longer turn on the laptop in hopes that sitting in front of it will suddenly jog my brain and motivation and make me productive. If I don’t think I’ll be productive, I leave it off (unless I want to play on skype or facebook on purpose instead of as procrastination). Actually watch movies, read books, and play board games with my husband. I’m making about the same money as I did when I was “working” all the time, but enjoying life a lot more.
Eventually I need to kick it into gear and get to work again, but I’m done with the spinning my wheels. Either I’m working or I’m not- no more in between.
.-= WordVixen´s last blog ..Condescending =-.
@nathan – staying organized takes a lot of work . . . but it’s so important. i think i was afraid of it for a while. everything feels so much clearer now. thanks for the props, videos make me nervous because i hate the sound of my voice on tape and eli just popped up with this one.
@brenda – i totally agree, breaking our tasks is making getting them done so much more manageable. and it’s nice to feel “finished” for the day.
@russell – we are definitely trying. what better time then now?
@wordvixen – you know those are antlers! part of my budget christmas decorations. i think i’m the opposite, i need to have the computer on to feel productive. prior to this “list strategy”, i found myself working on a million different things at once. now at least i know that everything is scheduled in and has a time. things are starting to pick up with more work coming in, it means we really need to stay on top of projects and due dates. i’m happy to hear that you’re spending more time doing fun things, after all that’s the whole motivation being being your own boss.
Time management is extremely important. In the realm of having passive income you must make the best use of your time to establish your market on the many channels of the internet. 🙂
@Walter – Absolutely. Very textbook advice but it’s textbook for a reason… it works. That’s our goal: increase passive income, outsource more and decrease time spent working.
Not so much the 4 hour work week, but a 4 hour work day would be ideal!
.-= Elijah´s last blog ..The At Home Life: Time Management Challenges =-.
Hey Guys,
Was good to see you on video, only chatted to Elijah on Skype before.
This year has been quite messy so far for me as have had friends visited just getting better from being sick and my passive income has suffered a little.
However I got my debts in order and now know how much cash I need to draw on a monthly basis and I am pumped and ready to make 2010 a big year…… And time management is an important aspect of that.
.-= Forest´s last blog ..How to Build a Cash Reserve Worth 3 – 6 Months of Salary =-.
I consistently work on my passive income sites along with my part-time income sources, staying focused is definitely a challenge
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Making money from a blog or website is not easy.You have to do lots of tasks for this.The most important thing is mentioned in this post that is “management”