My 4 Hour Workweek

This is something I struggle with on an annual basis (during tax season).  I have a real job – one that exists very far away from my internet projects.  I have no problem meeting the obligations of that job, even if it’s stressful at times.

Sometimes, however, the real stress isn’t about what I’m doing at my job – it’s what I’m not doing outside my job because “I’m too busy.”  I have projects that I’d like to be working on, but at the same time, I also want to enjoy what little free time I have outside of work (which tends to happen when you’re working 60+ hours a week).

So how do you fight this urge to simply say, “I’m too busy”?  How do you maintain productivity with your side projects when your “real” life is consuming most of your time? This post will be short and sweet, but hopefully it’ll generate some good discussion.

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I’ve spent the better part of the past two and a half years trying to build a business online while holding down a full-time, 9 to 5 job (and during parts of the year, working much more than 40 hours a week).  This blog, My 4-Hour Workweek, was born like many others – following the reading of The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.

Since that time, I’ve had a strong desire to build an online passive income business, and those of you who have been reading this blog for the past couple of years have seen my many ups and downs.  Recently though, I’ve called into question my own motivation: Am I really trying to succeed? Or has the once lit fire finally died out?

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In the interest of extreme productivity, I’ve decided to perform an experiment for the next week (starting today and ending a week from today).  I’ve come to the conclusion that there is far too much noise in my life – I don’t mean this literally of course, but there are far too many distractions.

There are so many things going on, too many blogs to read, too many e-mails to respond to, etc.  I’m not overwhelmed emotionally, because none of it directly impacts my immediate well-being.  I still go to my 9 to 5 job every day, do a good job, and get my paycheck every two weeks, so it’s not like I’m in any sort of immediate danger.

Every day that goes by where I’m unproductive outside of work, however, probably has a larger impact on my future.  I’m a believer that hard work today will pay off in multiples at some point in the future, so each day’s lack of productivity is probably more detrimental than it seems.

Keep reading for the details of the experiment…

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I’ve never published a guest post before on this blog – I’m not entirely against them, but I generally believe those who follow my blog do so because they want to read what I write, not what someone else writes.

With that said, I’ll always make an exception if one of my favorite bloggers wants to write a guest post for me (especially if they’ve let me write a guest post for them before).  This is a guest post by Maren Kate – if you’re not familiar with her, you need to become familiar with her, because she’s nothing short of an inspiring entrepreneur who currently has big plans within the virtual assistant industry.

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You know how TV shows play reruns during the summer?  Or how radio shows run “best of” segments while the radio show hosts are on vacation?  That’s what I thought I’d do today, while I’m fishing up in Canada for the week without internet access (at least, I don’t think I’ll have internet access).

When I first started this blog back in January (wow, these 6+ months have gone by quickly) I wrote a lot about work and productivity.  While I will still write about those topics from time to time, I’ve changed my focus more toward passive income, focusing on my own case studies and experiments, as well as interviews of others who have been successful.

A lot of the posts I wrote early in this blog’s life weren’t viewed by many, due to what little traffic I had back then.  So, this is my opportunity to share with you some content I’ve previously written, that you may have not had the chance to read.  For those of you in a “9 to 5″ job like me, you’ll want to read some of the tips I wrote about.

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Lately, I’ve had a bit of trouble focusing on my to-do list outside of my “9 to 5″ job.  I often find myself creating these massive to-do lists that never seem to go away.  I’ll come up with a to-do list today of ten items and only get through three.  Then tomorrow, I’ll have another 7 item to-do list, and the items begin to pile up.

For the most part, these items are never crucial.  They’re things I’d like to do (generally related to my muses/making money online), but if I never get to them, it’s not the end of the world.  I even try to trick myself by prioritizing items that are less critical, but more interesting to me.

At the end of the day, the to-do list is overwhelming, and I spend more time managing the list than actually crossing items off.

Starting today, I’m going to utilize a one item to-do list.  Each day, I will list one item that must be completed.  I will focus all of my energy on completing that one item.  Generally, it will be something substantial (i.e. not something minor such as “reply to e-mail” or “go grocery shopping”).

If I complete that one item, which I always should, then I can spend the rest of the day relaxing or adding another item to the list to knock off that same day.  The key is that in any given moment, I have one to-do item on my mind.  The objective is to tighten my focus on each task, and to lose the feeling of the overwhelming to-do list that I come across quite frequently.

I’m not sure if this will work or if it’s practical, but it’s something I’m going to try.  I’m sure I’ve read of this technique somewhere else, but can’t place my finger on it.

What do you think – can this work for me? What works for you?  Share it in the comments.