Self-management for the self-employed
Self-management for the self-employed
Why I'm tracking everything I do this month
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Download the free Notion template I’m using as a timesheet HERE.
As I was doing my monthly alignment practice at the start of the month to re-establish my priorities, I contemplated the number one question most self-employed creatives ask themselves daily: where is my time really going?
This question felt especially important because only a few months ago I accomplished a goal I had been working toward for two years: launching my online Substack community. But upon launching, I found myself spread thin. I yearned to grow and spend more time writing long-form content, but often found myself defaulting to logging onto the apps, aimlessly posting, and scrolling into the abyss. And I asked myself the scary question - just how long am I spending every day doing this?
Yesterday, I tracked everything I did for the first time this month as part of my goal to log every task I’m doing in June in a timesheet. And what did I discover? I spent a total of 40 minutes logging into each app I post on and checking analytics, comments, and messages. And then I did some math.
If I spent 40 minutes a day doing this 5 days a week, that’s over three hours a week, or over 13 hours a month. Even worse, I only worked for 3 and a half hours total that day. Meaning I spent 20% of my work day checking analytics, a task I really only need to do once a month.
This information shows me just how important collecting data is for your business. Don’t get me wrong, upon uncovering this data, I was mortified. But I was also thrilled to see how much room I have for improvement. This information is critical in helping me facilitate a much-needed shift away from scrolling into the abyss and toward my ultimate goal of building this online Substack community to be a home of inspiration, inclusion, and confidence for every subscriber here.
As a person with multiple chronic illnesses, this practice doesn’t only feel important for my business, but like a form of self-care. For anyone, but especially people living with disabilities, our energy is often extremely limited. I was reminded at a recent webinar I took on managing fatigue with arthritis, that we only have so many productive hours a day in us before the fatigue hits and we need to lay the fuck down.
A big part of fatigue management is identifying our priorities and leaving the rest behind. For disabled humans, it is especially important to make sure we are working toward our goals every day, instead of getting distracted by the mindless depressing elevator that is short-form content apps.
The important thing here to remember is that managing your time efficiently is about creating more time and space to do things you want to do. It is just as much about what you want to add to your life as it is about what may be wasting time.
Here are some reflection prompts:
What would I do if I had more time in the day?
What hobbies do I really want to spend more time on?
Do I know how much time I am spending on certain tasks each day?
What do I want to invest more time into this month? (Ex. Finances, spiritual growth, doing art, relationships)
What relationships do I want to invest more time into? (Inspired by Mallory Rowan’s latest newsletter)
TLDR: I’m tracking my tasks and working hours this month so I can invest the majority of my time into building this substack community. If you are here and have been enjoying this content, I would really appreciate your support and feedback. Subscribe, share, or like this post or send me an e-mail reply about what resonated.