Since a few people have asked me…yes, I’m still doing the 10 hour work week and loving it. Besides Blogworld in Vegas for a day, I’ve been pretty good about sticking to my goal. I appreciate (so does my family) the daily challenge of increasing my productivity and maximizing my time.
Yes, I was on vacation last week and so the temptation to work was lower, but that normally would not have stopped me from working…I would have usually still put in a couple hours a day before/after Disneyland (and yes, I WAS tempted, however, I was good, I checked email fast and got off). I have to admit that it was a very nice 5 days. But there was a consequence because I didn’t know about the trip until the last minute and didn’t have pre-scheduled posts ready, our site wasn’t thriving here, I’m afraid and RSS traffic decreased slightly. However, what DID work well was the Startup Princess team back here in Utah. Leslie Smoot, our new VP of Business Development was in charge of the Startup Princess event and Laurie Ann Thomas our admin support at the UVSC SBDC ran the show while I was gone and I literally got back at 2 am and showed up to the event at 10 am…it was a beautiful thing!! Having a team is essential!!
I spent my 10 hours last week at Startup Princess Networking Tea Party 2 hours, Editing our conference DVD for 4 hours (nearly done!), daily emails, updating finances, planning and strategizing for Startup Princess 2008.
Today’s Magic Wand: When you go on vacation, really GO on vacation…don’t check your email more than 1x a day and I challenge you to take Thanksgiving completely off!
You are exactly right and thanks for the reminder. Vacations are great for me and my family especially when I forget the laptop. I accept the Thanksgiving day challenge (reluctantly but willingly)
Chris
I am really wanting to master this! it is so TEMPTING to tap in frequently during the day, thinking I will get more done that way. WRONG! focussed, set aside spots of time are so much more productive. Thanks Kelly!
Hi Chris,
Great to see you here! Thanks for taking the challenge…let us know how it goes!
SUP Sarah Jane! Glad you’re trying to be disciplined with email as well, it’s harder for me than chocolate. Let us know if you have any tips.
I wholeheartedly agree! Why is e-mail so tempting and hard to get away from? I did not check e-mail at all Monday morning, and this crazy thing happened- life still went on. I sat down at four when my husband got home and answered all of them in one shot, taking far less time than when I try to keep up with them one or two at a time during the day.
It is so hard to NOT check it all day, though.
Thanks for the visit today…I was thinking about how difficult it is to draw the line of what is work and what isn’t work. For me, “work” is Startup Princess, but the “work” I do as mom, wife, church nursery teacher, life-long student, etc. is endless. Really, how do you “stop” working completely? If an idea comes to me about something I want to implement or do for Startup Princess but it’s not official “work time” or if it’s beyond my “hours”, I don’t shut if off and tell the thought to go away, I write it down and keep it for when I’m ready to move forward with it.
Plus when I was at the beach recently on vacation I thought about the cafe on the pier and wondered how difficult it was for them to get a license to set up shop there 20 years ago and I thought to myself, why am I thinking about this now? I’m building a sandcastle! Just the way life goes…when you’re passionate about something it’s integrated in every part of your life.
And even if I AIM for 10 hours a week and it becomes 15, well, then at least it’s not 50 when I was AIMING for 35!