Assigning working hours for the week
When I first began designing websites it was mainly as a hobby and one which I hoped would take off as a business. That has now come to pass and rather than trying to fit in my web design around other activities, other activities have to fit around it. I could be working on more than one site at a time, doing research for a site or simply making phone calls. Coding can be done at 3.00 am but dealing with clients cannot. And what if I’m charging them by the hour? How do I keep count if my hours are all over the place?
I need to define my working hours. It’s as simple as that. Then I know when I’m working and when I’m not working. I do web design part-time and along with that teach yoga part-time as well. I need to be clear when I can offer my clients yoga classes and how long it will realistically take me to complete their website project. And due to the fact that I work from home, my wife needs to be clear when I’m at work. That’s not to say that I can’t do any overtime or just to do it for the fun of it, because that’s how it all started. So it’s a question of working out the minimum number of hours for the week and then creating a schedule.
On Sunday afternoons I spend 20 to 30 minutes planning the week to come. I look at my goals for the year, the tasks carried over from the previous week and forthcoming appointments. All that remains in to schedule my working hours for that week. Last week I did most of Monday, Wednesday morning, Thursday and Friday morning. Why not just keep it like that? Because my week changes. If I’m doing more yoga teaching then I won’t have as much time or the same hours each week.
But isn’t this all obvious? I mean if you went to work somewhere the first thing you ask about are the hours. No? And the pay; the hourly rate. But that is the problem you see: I don’t go anywhere. I work from home. So both work time and leisure time are at home. And without clearly defining these boundaries they seem to merge into one. You can end up overworking or indulging wholly in leisure pursuits. A balance has to be struck which depends upon current demands.
Well, it’s time to clock off. But this is leisure, isn’t it?