Cheddarblog

The Swiss_Mouse posted this over on QuittingtheDayJob.com and rather than waste this tasty morsel, he presents it here as well…

Wake me up when September ends…

Seriously! What a month! Financial ruin and economic despair! Partisan politics and election turmoil! If only the Swiss_Mouse could see Russia from his house instead of that stupid double-wide!

Last month as Quitting the Day Job was getting off the ground, the Swiss_Mouse decided to use September as “bust my butt” month. His intention was to work as hard as the Swiss_Mouse could on all of his internet ventures. Priority, of course, was given to Quitting the Day Job, but the Swiss_Mouse divided up his time to each of his other projects as well. He split his time into 3 specific segments: Posting, Promoting and “Work” (meaning maintenance work on sites, plug-in upgrades, etc.). How did the Swiss_Mouse do? Eh. He did okay but not great. But he did learn several things, both positive and negative.

Positive: It really helps to lay out a timeline of work on a calendar. At first the Swiss_Mouse laid out what the Swiss_Mouse would do every day, splitting the time into lunchtime and nighttime, but was pretty general about what he needed to do. That was too much.  The Swiss_Mouse backed off to where he only planned ahead for a week. There are too many variables to account for: kid’s activities, sickness, hurricane aftermath, Molly Ringwald marathons on AMC…

Negative: Don’t think that you can do too much. Often the Swiss_Mouse would list out 3 items for a single evening and then barely get one done. He learned that He needed to be realistic about what needs to be accomplished in a set time period. Better to underestimate what can be done and then use any extra time to “get ahead” than to plan out a must do list and get nothing accomplished.

Positive: The best approach seems to be to concentrate all efforts in a single timeframe to working on one site or idea. That way all concentration is focused like a friggin’ laser beam from a shark’s head on your project.

Negative: Don’t make the assumption that you can actually get work done everyday. For example, by Friday the grind of the work week has taken such a toll on the Mrs Swiss_Mouse and Swiss_Mouse that we usually crash for most of the night. If we have the energy, we might go out to eat, but otherwise we vegetate and let the frustrations of the week release. While the Swiss_Mouse might hop on the computer to check emails or play a game, he really has a hard time doing work to Quit the Day Job. He might, might, do a little work. But the brain needs a rest. The Swiss_Mouse will plan this into future calendars.

Positive: The Swiss_Mouse has several sites that he will call “automatic”. In other words, a single days work will allow them to run for the entire month without any real intervention. He has learned that If he dedicates one day to them at the beginning of the month, he can ignore them for the rest of the month and work on sites that require more attention.

Negative: A lot of work went into September for very little gain. The $ never showed up. It can be very disheartening to do so much work and see nothing come out of it. So much so that it could be easy to give up. But the Swiss_Mouse won’t yet.

Positive: The Swiss_Mouse learned that while a generic list of “goal” and a calendar work great, he really needs a slightly more specific achievable set of tasks for the month. If the Swiss_Mouse sits down and plans them out, he can then use the calendar as tool to meet those goal.

October

The Swiss_Mouse will use September as a template for October. He’ll set up a prioritized list of goals. Turn the goals into tasks that can be put on the calendar and schedule his time more realistically. That way he should be able to use his time more effectively and hopefully profit from the experience.