Yeah, you’re probably sick of the 9-hour workweek stuff I’ve been writing about lately. This is the last of them, and it’s quite important as it lists the shortcomings of my crazy system. Here are the links to the previous articles of this series, for those of you who are just tuning in:
- How I Got to the 9-Hour Workweek: Part 1 On defining work and being an email ninja.
- How I Got to the 9-Hour Workweek: Part 2 On outsourcing and focusing on the critical few.
- How I Got to the 9-Hour Workweek: Part 3 On schedule experiments, geoarbitrage, and frugality.
Now, for the problems I encounter with my 9-hour workweek:
There are some tasks I want a VA to handle, but haven’t found the right one yet. Mainly because most of the available reputable VA companies are charging in US dollars and don’t really do non-US based tasks (or there’s an extra charge). Like if I want tickets to a show here, in the Philippines, they can’t get it for me. Plus, their rates are more pricey. I want to look for a local VA but it’s frigging hard finding a good, trustworthy one.
I’ve a hard time with productivity for more creative tasks. This includes my comics. I’m not the slacker type who waits for “inspiration” (although that helps a lot), I just try to get the work done as well as I can, no matter how long it takes. But creative tasks aren’t something you can time. I can’t say “I’ll finish this comic in 2 hours”. It just doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s 2 hours, sometimes it’s an entire day. It’s all fine by me as that’s the nature of the process, I’m just saying it’s not something I have the ability to incorporate into my schedule a structured way.
Like I mentioned before, since I focus more on more critical work, I’m put in a precarious position. If I’m fired by my biggest paying client, my income will decrease dramatically. I’ll find a workaround, which might lie in income diversification. My income is already diversified, but I’d like to earn some money through a physical product or an information product.
I’m still scared sh*tless.  It’s scary to suddenly be nearly totally responsible for your time. You’ve got no one else to blame if you waste it. If you only have a 9-hour workweek, what the hell do you do with the rest of your waking hours? This is where personal goals come into play. I tell you, if you haven’t laid them out before you cut back on your work hours, you’ll be lost and end up reverting to trivial tasks or losing hours of your life in mindless entertainment. Thankfully, I’ve tackled the problem before, so I’m only 30% lost.
Any of you tried cutting back on your work hours? What problems did you run into?
Photo Credit: Image from Andrzej Gdula from stock.xchng
Tags: 4 hour workweek, four hour workweek
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