Writing on Freelance Folder, Lexi Rodrigo cites Parkinson’s Law as the underlying rationale for her argument. The principle, first recognized in regard to the ever-expanding British civil service in the 1950s, declares that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

For web workers, the principle means that however many hours we allot ourselves to work, we will find activities to fill them. And the opposite, Rodrigo contends, is equally true. Limit your hours, and the time it takes you to complete tasks will shrink to accommodate the new boundaries. Set yourself a deadline and you’ll feel more urgency, more adrenaline and less perfectionism.

Rodrigo backs up her ideas with arguments that would be true for a baker or cobbler, but there’s evidence that quantity does not necessarily translate to quality, especially for knowledge workers. Happiness-at-work expert Alexander Kjerulf, for instance, has rounded up research that shows that knowledge workers “are the most productive when they work 35 hours a week” and “productivity decreased by half after the eighth hour of work.”

So how can we shorten our workdays? Rodrigo offers several suggestions, many of which are classic time-management techniques that we’ve covered before. But three of her ideas are particularly pertinent.

• Keep your deadlines challenging but realistic. A too-generous deadline won’t make you more productive. On the other hand, a deadline that’s impossible to meet is counterproductive as well. When you feel you’re too late for something, it can de-motivate you from working faster and more efficiently. So you want a deadline that puts pressure on you but that is still humanly manageable.
• Reward yourself for meeting deadlines. Imagine all the other things you could do if you had a shorter workday. You could go to the gym, hang out with friends, play video games, work on your novel. What would you do if you didn’t have to work? Plan to do some of that after your work is completed every day. And I mean put it in your schedule … Type it into your Google calendar. That’s the only way it will get done.
• Stick to your deadlines — but remain flexible. Of course, deadlines only work if you actually stick to them. Yet at the same time, you need to have some flexibility. Unexpected things come up, often through no fault of yours. If it’s necessary, adjust your deadline.

These tips merge well with some that we’ve talked about before:

• Select work hours that are the most efficient for you.
• Schedule breaks and time off.
• Avoid going online before breakfast.
• Mark the end of the day and finish on time.

How do you manage your work schedule?

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Timers, alarms and stopwatches

Sometimes, all we need is a little added motivation, like an egg timer or alarm, to challenge us to remain focused and get to the finish line. If that’s the case for you, a simple online alarm clock or timer can help boost productivity.

• Naked Alarm Clock. A simple and free online alarm clock, Naked Alarm Clock makes it easy to lose yourself in the task at hand without worrying that you’ll miss your next appointment.

• Your Meditation Timer. If you get annoyed with more-traditional-sounding alarms, a meditation timer might be music to your ears. A soft gong or Tibetan bell can let you know it’s time to change tasks.

• Online Stopwatch. For every type of timer imaginable, look no further than this Online Stopwatch.

Pomodoro timers/trackers

The Pomodoro Technique involves breaking work up into timed 25-minute chunks (known as pomodoros), separated by short breaks to help improve concentration. There are several apps based on the idea.

• Focus Booster. This app helps eliminate the anxiety of time and enhances your focus using the Pomodoro Techinique.

• Pomodoro (Mac only). Another Pomodoro supporter, this app helps you to avoid procrastination and get things done.

Time monitoring/tracking

For the analytical among us, more-detailed automated time tracking and monitoring may do the trick for increasing productive time online.

• RescueTime. This tool lets you track your Internet usage while also allowing you to voluntarily block distracting websites.

• TrackTime. This app allows you to track the time you spend on projects, as well as your web-browsing habits.

Time-out/break reminders

Sometimes the problem with getting things done isn’t our lack of effort but rather constantly overextending ourselves. This is where a forced break or time-out can help.

• Time Out (Mac only). Time Out gently reminds you to take breaks on a regular basis.

• SmartBreak (Windows only). SmartBreak also reminds you to take breaks when working on your computer for long hours.

Website-blocking tools

For many of us, the Internet is filled with tempting distractions that keep us from the task at hand, which is where website-blocking tools come in handy.

• StayFocusd (Chrome extension). This productivity extension for Google Chrome restricts the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites.

• Anti-Social (Mac only). Anti-Social keeps you focused by turning off the “social parts” of the Internet, such as Facebook, Twitter and any other sites you specify.

• Freedom. This app locks you away from the Internet for up to eight hours at a time.

• SelfControl (Mac only). SelfControl blocks email and websites for a predetermined period of time.

Concentration/work environments

For those of us who need complete isolation in order to get focused, there are certain tools that hone in on a single task until the job is done.

• FocusWriter. FocusWriter provides a simple, distraction-free writing environment.

• Think (Mac only). This tool limits your attention to one application at any time to keep you from getting distracted.

• Quiet (Mac only). Quiet allows you to focus on a single window while simultaneously fading out others.

• Haze Over (Mac only). This app helps you stay focused on your main window by dimming inactive windows.

• Concentrate (Mac only). Perhaps the most robust of all the apps, Concentrate allows you to create “activities” (for example: design, study, write) with customized actions that run every time you concentrate on a given task.

• Isolator. This tool helps you concentrate by covering up your desktop, its icons and the windows of other applications.

While the Internet has its advantages when it comes to work, it can also be a distraction. But with the right app to help maintain concentration and focus, it’s a lot easier to stay on track and get things done.

What are your favorite focus-boosting apps and tools?

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1. Email. I have a bad tendency of going straight to the computer as soon as I get up in the morning and then easily losing one or two hours to email and news feeds, which causes me to work in reactive mode and end the day feeling like I’m behind and that I didn’t do what I needed to do to move my business forward.
2. Long days. I’m not against working long days now and then, but I am against working for work’s sake, and on many days, I have a bad habit of not staying aware of the hours I’m putting in or paying attention to whether or not I’m even getting anything worthwhile done.
3. Ignoring natural rhythms. For a long time, I’ve considered myself an insomniac and have experimented with tons of ways for getting to sleep and staying asleep, all to no avail. In truth, I might just be a night owl trying to be an early bird or only need six hours of sleep instead of eight. By ignoring my natural sleep-wake rhythms, I’ve set things up to be a constant struggle, and it’s established a routine that doesn’t seem to work with how I’m hard-wired.

Breaking bad habits and routines is a real challenge, which in my case I knew would require a complete system reset. That’s a lot easier to do when you’re on vacation or when you make a major change in your life, like moving or starting a new job, but how do you hit the reset button when everything is the same in your environment?

A Complete Break in Routine

My system reset started accidentally. After several late nights before and during the holidays, I found myself staying up even later than usual, often until 4 or 6 AM. For the first few nights, I was frustrated by it, but after I couldn’t get back on schedule, I decided to take advantage of the time and get a little bit of work done. After a couple of days working that way, I started to see that I was actually getting more done, and I wasn’t falling into my old and established habits.

My new (and experimental) schedule looks something like this:

• Somewhere between 10 PM and 12 AM, I start working, and I work until 4 or 6 AM.
• I sleep from 6 AM until noon and then get up, eat a light breakfast/lunch, and get ready.
• I spend the entire afternoon and evening however I want, catching a 30-minute nap some time between 6 and 8 PM, and then I’m free again until it’s time to start work.

Here are a few of the positive changes I’ve noticed so far:

• I go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow (a nice change of pace from my regular two to four hours’ of tossing and turning).
• I eat when I’m hungry (since I have no idea when I should be eating!), which has proven to be a good way to lose weight and eat healthier.
• I’m working six to eight hours a day instead of ten or twelve, a major improvement that keeps me focused on the most important tasks that need to get done.
• I have a lot more free time to spend with family and friends or even by myself, and as an added bonus, shopping and running errands is a lot easier because of the hours I’m free.
• I’m breaking old habits. When I start my “work day,” I’m not falling into my old routine. When I say that it’s time to start working, I actually start working right then and there on the most important things, since I know that I’ll actually be tired at 6 AM and ready for some sleep!

In the end, it’s probably just tricking myself into a new routine. I don’t know that I’ll stick with this schedule in the long term, but I can say that this is the one thing I’ve tried that’s actually fixing many of the ongoing problems I’ve had until now, including insomnia and bad work habits. The real test will be seeing if this hard reset has a lasting impact on my bad habits, even when back on my old schedule.

I know major life-shifting like this isn’t possible in all cases, but if you’re having trouble breaking bad habits you’ve established for yourself, it might be time to try finding ways to disrupt your routine and give yourself a system reset.

Has there ever been a time where you’ve had a major life shift that impacted your work schedule in a positive way?

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The diagram put the big unknown of one’s social media marketing time commitment into perspective. Kanter’s diagram was by no means discouraging, but led people to say “OK, I will start with listening — that seems manageable.” And that was just what many of us advise people to do when just starting out with social media marketing: Listen.

Two years later, and things have evolved in several ways:

1. There are more tools available to help us take part in social media activities.
2. There are more best practices for newbies to find and follow.
3. There are many tips published online on how to be more efficient in one’s efforts.

I have a new presentation coming up this week to an audience at varying stages of social media adoption, but mostly on the early end of the spectrum. I’m sure I’ll once again get the question “But how long does it take?” So I played around with Kanter’s original diagram to create my own. I wanted to illustrate not only how long each activity should take, but also to identify additional tools that can be useful in each area:

This diagram is by no means perfect, but I’m striving to keep it easy to understand for the layperson. I also wanted to address some of the efficiencies we’ve worked out the more we’ve used these tools. For example, I blogged about how to mine Twitter’s wealth in 15 minutes a day. I wanted to show that you don’t need to spend hours a day on Twitter or Facebook or the like to be effective in your efforts.

I reordered “Participate” and “Generate Buzz” activities from Kanter’s original diagram, and renamed the latter “Promote.”  I reordered them because we now have tools that make promoting something (generating buzz) so much speedier. Participating — even at a cursory level of engagement — really takes more time and consideration even though useful tools are also there. The tools may make it easier for us to monitor and participate in our social media channels, but we are now monitoring and participating in many more channels than before.

What I tried to avoid was listing all of the hundreds of apps that could fit in under each category; instead I referenced the more popular and effective tools to give a sense of what one can use. The main goal of this is to show the person new to all things social media that it doesn’t have to take an unmanageable amount of time to handle your social media activities but as you want to connect more deeply and leverage your social channels more strongly, you will cumulatively rack up the need for a greater time commitment.

I hope this diagram — or a future iteration of it — becomes a useful slide in any Social Media 101 presentation. Eventually, this, too, will become obsolete or irrelevant, but until then, how can it be improved?

What is my diagram missing? Where is it off base? Where is it right on the money?

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First Step: Set Days for Set Projects

I had several main projects that were most important to me at the time, so I decided to reserve certain days of the week for each of them. Here’s a rough overview of how I set up my week.

• Mondays: Project A
• Tuesdays: Projects B and C (since they’re closely related)
• Wednesdays: Writing and Project D
• Thursdays: Projects B and C
• Fridays: Project A

Second Step: One-Stop Organization

It was important that I had one way of tracking what needed to be done, rather than using five different tools to manage bits and pieces of my schedule and to-do list, so I started condensing things down until I was left with just a couple of tools to keep me in line.

I started using Tom’s Planner (which I also use for managing my editorial calendars) for organizing my recurring weekly schedule: those things I have to do every week on a set day (for example, write my WebWorkerDaily article every Wednesday).

At the start of each day, my first stop is Tom’s Planner, which gives me an overview of the “big rocks” that need to be moved that day.

In addition to Tom’s Planner, I use Google Calendar for managing set appointments and events (for example, phone calls and birthdays), and I try to only book phone calls and other set appointments during specific time frames on certain days of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 3:30 PM, for example). This makes me far less likely to overlook something or get my days mixed up.

Great News, It’s Working!

Immediately, I can say that my mind is a lot clearer lately, but there are several other advantages I’ve found so far for compartmentalizing my days.

1. I’m focused and staying true to my priorities. A quick glance lets me know what my top priorities are, as well as the rough percentage of time I’m giving each one. If I want to take on a new project, I quickly think, “What do I have on my plate right now? Well, Mondays I have…, Tuesdays I have…,” which keeps me from over-committing and straying from my top priorities. If I want to take on something new, something else has to go.
2. I’m not constantly shifting gears. Before I started using this method of organizing my time, I jumped from one project to another and felt like I wasn’t giving enough time to any of them. Now, I don’t worry about not giving enough time to any one project. I know, for example, that I will work on Project A tomorrow, so there’s no rush to take my attention off the project I’m working on today.
3. I’m getting more done. At first, I was worried that this strategy might leave me working less on my top projects, and while that has proven to be true in terms of the absolute amount of time I spend on them, I’m actually getting more done for each project, since I’m a lot more focused.

I’m also way more particular about the things I do for each one. On a given day, I know I have to pick the top tasks and hustle to get them done, since I’m not going to pick this project up again for a few days. I’m a lot less likely to get distracted by email, lower priority to-dos, or other things vying for my attention.

The proof is in the pudding. In the past three weeks, here’s what I’ve accomplished.

• Designed a new logo/banner for a new project
• Created a business plan for the new project
• Built a website for the new project
• Wrote and published 13 articles
• Created and published seven audio pieces
• Created and published two newsletters

In the three weeks prior to starting this strategy, here’s what I accomplished.

• Wrote and published 12 articles

Big difference! Plus, I’m spending far fewer actual hours working on any given project, and I feel like I’m working less, even though I’m getting more done.

So, what’s your strategy? Do you have a set way of working to help you move more rocks in less time?

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As more demands are placed on you, tasks that once seemed extremely important become trivial. You have one hundred things to do and a limited amount of time to do them, so you have to become very selective with what gets your attention, but the question becomes, what do you give up?

In many ways, the answer to that question is unique to each of us. It requires a lot of consideration and, most importantly, realignment with our intentions for our lives and businesses.

What to Expect

Before deciding on what to give up, here are a few things to expect when making the shift away from “busy-ness.”

• Some tasks to give up are obvious. You probably already have a list of tasks you wish you could snap your fingers and have a genie appear to handle for you. Those tasks are probably low-priority or are simply not well-suited for your interests and personality. Outsource or eliminate them, if at all possible.
• Other tasks to give up are not so obvious. For some things, it might not occur to you that they should be off your plate. You might underestimate or fail to even realize how much time they take you to complete, which is why it becomes important to track everything you do on a daily or weekly basis so that you have a better idea of exactly what tasks are hiding within your routine that could be outsourced.
• Some tasks to give up are painful. Let’s face it. There are tasks that we think no one can do as well as we do them. While that might be true in some cases, usually it’s just our ego getting in the way, and we have to be willing to let those tasks go for our businesses to succeed.
• Some tasks to give up require faith. Sometimes, it can be hard to let go of certain tasks out of the fear that something bad will happen if you aren’t the person handling them. At the end of the day, though, if we want to grow our businesses and not hit a plateau, we have to build a support team and have faith that things will work out OK.
• Some tasks to give up make you feel like a jerk. Chris Brogan mentioned this in a comment last week, and I’ve struggled with the concern myself, but this is another good time to check your ego at the door and say, “I’ve thought this through, and this is not the best way to spend my time.” Accept that you may feel like a jerk and may even be called a jerk sometimes, but it’s very necessary for you to spend the bulk of your time adding value to everything you do. Is the task you’re considering giving up really adding real value?

What to Give Up

Once you’re OK with letting go, you have to decide what to give up. Here are some of the tasks you might consider.

• Email. As I mentioned in the first part of this series, email is usually one of the first things that has to change when business owners make the shift away from “busy-ness.” Once your business reaches a certain level of success, you might consider routing some or all of your emails to an assistant or simply using an auto-responder or message on your website to manage expectations.
• Blog comments. Many business owners choose to completely disable blog comments at a certain point, in order to eliminate comment spam and focus on the content. Leo Babauta and Seth Godin are just two examples. It’s a touchy subject with clear proponents on both sides of the debate, but managing comments and comment spam can be a real time drain. A word of caution before making the decision to cut out comments completely: Know that it may cost you some readers. An alternative might be to hire an assistant to manage comments for you.
• Social networks. Many business owners are deciding to get out of the social networking game, whether partially or completely. Seth Godin, Darrell Etherington, and many others are leaving or never entering social networks like Facebook and Twitter, both for time management and privacy reasons. It’s definitely easy to allow social networks to overtake your work days; the more popular your business becomes, the more you have to keep them in check.
• Requests. As your visibility increases, you’ll receive more and more requests to review books/products, participate in joint ventures, speak at events, or otherwise contribute to projects outside your business. It can become very hard to say no and stay the course with your own priorities, so it becomes increasingly important to be selective with the outside requests you take on.
• One-on-one work. The bigger your business becomes, the harder it is to justify working with individual clients without charging a small fortune (leaving you seeming and feeling like a jerk sometimes). It’s a hard line to walk, but the best way to handle it is to be direct and upfront about why you have to work this way.

Deciding what to give up through outsourcing or elimination is a deeply personal decision and a hard one to make, but as your business grows, you’ll definitely have to modify the way you manage your workload or risk hitting a plateau or burning out.

What to you foresee having to give up as your business grows?

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In this first part of the series, I’m going to talk about the shift that tends to happen to business owners once they hit a tipping point, that place where their businesses snowball seemingly overnight. One day, they’re managing their businesses a certain way, and then they come to a point where they have to make drastic changes in how they handle the increasing demands being placed on them.

Here are a few of the more well-known cases of business owners who’ve had to make drastic shifts away from “busy-ness,” in order to make the most of their time and see to it that the top priorities get the bulk of their attention.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of WineLibraryTV and author of “Crush It,” is a big proponent of working hard, putting in the time to build your business, and appreciating the people who support you along the way. He makes it a point to (attempt to) reply to every email he receives, or at least that was the case until this past  year or so. After his book published and things started becoming more demanding, he had to rethink his approach to email, and while he still has the intention of replying to every message he receives, his strategy is completely different. Now, if you email him, you get an auto-responder message along with a video explanation of why he had to change how he handled email communications.

Chris Brogan

Social media expert Chris Brogan had a similar situation. He wrote a book (“Trust Agents“), started a few new business endeavors, and became very popular over the past couple of years. Eventually, his strategy also had to change in order to manage his growing workload. He hired an assistant and developed a new way of handling email communications. Now, if you fill out his contact form, you’ll have to pick one of several options for why you’re contacting him, presumably so that his email filters can route those submissions to one or more people who can streamline those communications.

Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta is probably the most extreme example here, although that’s probably understandable, given that Babauta is a master of minimalism and the founder of Zen Habits. Over the life of his blog, he has ditched email (almost completely), turned off comments on his blog so that he no longer has to weed through comment spam, and made a variety of other changes in the way he handles communications and requests.

Timothy Ferriss

Timothy Ferriss is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” and believes in making the most of his time as a business owner. He has a virtual assistant handle a lot of his email communications and outsources as much of his work as possible so that he is free to do other things besides manage a business. A visit to his contact page will give you a glimpse into how he manages his communications and time.

Making the Shift

At a certain point, each of these business owners had to make a decision about how to improve the way they managed their time. Any one of these people might receive a couple thousand emails per day, as well as several hundred blog comments and social network messages. If they spent all of their time responding to these communications, they would hit a plateau with the success of their businesses and eventually burn out.

As a business owner, especially as the demands on your time increase as your business grows, you have to find ways to work smarter so that you make sure the biggest and most important rocks get moved. It’s not the easiest of tasks, but it’s definitely necessary, if you hope to have lasting success.

Have you experienced a shift in your business and in the way you manage your workload? What changes did you make so that you could ensure more time was reserved for the most important tasks?

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I’ve been working on several big projects in recent months, and after the whirlwind started settling down, I realized how important it was to take time away from the demands that can wear us down.

In “The 4-Hour Work Week,” Timothy Ferris talks about spending two months on big work-related projects and then taking one month off for intense training of some sort or travel. For most of us, that can seem a bit extreme, but I do think he has the right idea. It’s so easy to just plow through the work, never taking time off to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and rest after accomplishing something. Keeping at that pace will surely lead to frustration and burnout.

The problem is, the work never seems to be done. In my case, after re-launching one of my sites, I now have to think about building it up with promotion and content, which is another big undertaking in and of itself, so where does it end? I guess the answer is, it doesn’t. There will always be something to do: A big project to complete; a new client to sign; a big promotional push to get underway. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, the reality is, the work is never done, so we just have to force ourselves to respect our own limitations and take time to recuperate and rest.

So, how can we ensure that we get enough time away from our work before burning ourselves out? Here are a few ideas that might help.

• Schedule time off first. A business owner I know schedules her time three months out, and the first thing she schedules is her time off. She decides three months ahead of time when she’s going to be off and schedules her work and availability around that. Really, I know that I can easily lose track of time and not remember the last time I took a vacation day. There are times when it seems that the only time I get off is when I’m sick, but if I would only schedule in my time off before scheduling anything else, it would be a lot easier to stay on track in the balance department.
• Keep weekends Internet-free. For most of us, our businesses and work are largely web-based, and when we spend the weekends surfing the web, hanging around social networks, or even checking email, it’s hard to feel like we get a real break. When I go completely Internet-free, it’s actually a nice relief, and it’s an easy way of making sure I don’t spend an hour or two each day of my weekend replying to work-related emails or thinking about work projects.
• Stick to a set wrap-up time. It’s easy to work “just a little longer” to the point that we work an extra ten hours a week. Julie Morgenstern has a great solution for this problem in her book “Never Check E-Mail in the Morning.” She suggests using a wrap-up alarm to remind yourself to start wrapping things up so that you leave the office at a set time each day. If you want to be out of the office by 5:30 each day, set your wrap-up alarm for 4:30 and start winding things down when it alerts you.
• Stick to a set start time. It’s just as easy to let work start creeping in too early as it is to let it keep us working late, so have a designated start time each day. Know your own weaknesses, and if you can’t resist the temptation to respond (or even check) work-related emails early in the morning, then don’t even put yourself near the temptation. Wait to check news and blog feeds until lunch instead of first thing in the morning so that you avoid being tempted to start work too early.
• Know when you’ve had enough. When you feel yourself getting too worn down, take a day off or at least limit your working time to the “must-dos” only. Wear yourself out completely, and you’ll end up sick, burned out, or frustrated with work. If you notice yourself snapping at others or becoming easily agitated, it might be time for a break.

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, it can be easy to allow the work to take over, leaving little room for breaks and down time, but it’s important to stay balanced. We need time to rest and recuperate so that we come back to work recharged and with a renewed energy and enthusiasm. Know your own limitations and make sure to schedule enough time to take care of yourself. Without your health and mental well-being, it will be much harder to see your business to success.

How do you make sure to get enough time away from your work to avoid burning out?

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1. Control your phone time. Web workers tend to have  an”open door” phone policy. For example, when a relative calls, my husband takes the call only to fall into the trap of the person going on and on. I suggested he find a nice way to end the call. Some fear sounding rude in cutting a call short, but you can do it politely. Pick a couple of friendly phrases to use to end a call when it has served its purpose. Try: “I hate to cut this short, but I need to prepare for a meeting. It was great catching up with you.”
2. Use the Internet with purpose. I’m guilty of surfing aimlessly on the Internet or not making the most of social media time. With practice and mindfulness, I’ve cut this wasteful time — not completely, but good enough. Accept that it’s OK to skip social media when you’re too busy, and read Celine’s methods to end compulsive Internet fiddling.
3. Manage your after-hours time. Stay in control of your schedule by being proactive with your after-hours time. There are some ideas in “How to Stop Clients from Invading Your After-Hours Time.”
4. Change direction when procrastinating or distracted. We all have moments when we can’t complete tasks because we just can’t get into it. The reason could be tiredness, distractions or something else. Rather than dwell on the task, go do something else. Here are tips for fending off procrastination.
5. Review your meetings. Have you been attending the same weekly meetings for months or even years? Are these meetings really needed? Regularly scheduled meetings can lose value. Ask for an agenda when people request your attendance. This gently reminds them to create an agenda, if they don’t have one. If they still don’t provide one, explain that you need to prepare yourself for the meeting and an agenda helps. Check out Imran’s tips on running effective meetings.
6. Hold conversations at a better time. Having a conversations that’s going in a circle with no new information? That’s the time to put the brakes on the conversation and follow up later.
7. Save time in your calendar. If you need to work on a project uninterrupted, put it in your calendar. This way you can easily say, “I’ve already got something scheduled at that time.” It makes it easier to say no. If you need to spend time with the family, add that, too.
8. Outsource or delegate. Can you delegate some of your work? Outsource personal chores and errands? Amber provides delegation tips.
9. End commitments. I used to join Twitter chats three nights a week on a regular basis, but stopped when my eyes ached. I also switched from being a regular player in time-consuming tennis matches away from home to substituting. Maybe it’s time to step down from a nonprofit board position, or to ditch some bad clients.
10. Be mindful about television time. Like surfing the Internet, it’s easy to waste away time flipping through channels during work breaks and after-hours. For years, I’ve recorded select TV programs and watched them at a convenient time such as while folding laundry, exercising and on a lunch break. Also, when a show bores me for too many episodes, I quit watching it.
11. Carry a book with you. I always have a book in my car or bag to prepare for unexpected idle time. Having a book with me at all times ensures I don’t waste free time by grabbing some reading time.
12. Manage in-person interruptions. This might not be so much or a problem for some web workers. However, those working in coworking centers, and those working from offices in family homes, might find their time invaded by people desiring a friendly chat. Have some phrases ready to rescue you from unexpected visitors. Try: “I hate to cut our visit short, but I am about to enter an online webinar. Thanks for stopping by.” Home office workers’ interruptions might include significant others, children and others living in their home. Check out my tips for meeting deadlines while keeping your kids happy.

How can you find more time in your day for things that matter?

Photo by stock.xchng user Kristian Stokholm

The best time to deal with this situation is at the start of a relationship. “I treat my consultant/contractor work like a regular job, and set expectations when I first speak with a prospective client. I explain what my work hours are and that I’m not available in the evenings or weekends,” says Deborah Edwards-Onoro.

Like most web workers, you may be flexible and accept occasional out-of-hours work. Still, it could snowball into a regular thing. “Frankly, if you don’t set the parameters ahead of time, you’re setting yourself up for expectations that aren’t going to be acceptable,” says Michele Wilcox.

What if you have multiple clients and they all decide to call on you at the same time, or you bite off more than you can chew? Draw a line under your time by being proactive with these tips.

• Discuss work hours at the start of a relationship. Specify your hours of availability and your flexibility. Set guidelines for special projects and emergencies that require out-of-hours work. These guidelines could include number of days or hours of advance notice for after hours work, list higher rates and how to handle emergencies. Get all of this down in a simple contract template that you can re-use.
• Keep separate phone lines. Web workers should have separate phone numbers for home and business. It’s not professional to use one line for both, especially as there are plenty of telephony options available that can make it possible without a big expense.
• Find a voicemail tool with features you need. Some voicemail providers offer features that give you more control over how the service handles your calls.
• Let calls go to voicemail. Your client may be calling to share a thought without expecting you to answer. Let voicemail take the message and then check to see what the client has to say. Answering every time gives the impression you’re “always on.”
• Turn off the phone. The phone should be there for your convenience. Despite this, some people struggle to ignore a ringing phone.
• Set email guidelines. Tell your clients when they can expect an email response. You can set a rule that you reply within two hours during working hours and then a different rule for after hours and weekends.
• Post your business hours. List your hours on your web site and in your voice mail, or indicate the best time to reach you. Prospective clients will respect your hours if they see your schedule before hiring you.
• Turn off instant messaging, Facebook chat and similar tools. If clients contact you by instant messaging (IM) or on other platforms such as Skype, remember to switch your status to “away” as needed — or turn off the service.
• Be proactive and present. Some clients don’t think to ask if you’re available for after-hours work. Rather than waiting for it to happen, tell the client that you’re flexible and would appreciate advance notice if something comes up. “If a client feels taken care of, he or she may hesitate before picking up the phone on weekends or after hours,” says Michelle I. Zavala.

Some people believe “always on” is the way to stay ahead of competitors, but it can harm your health and work quality. “How can you give your best to a client if they’re calling you, say, in the middle of the night and you’re asleep?” asks Teresa Nolan Barensfeld. “Another point is that your clients won’t see you as a professional if you don’t set any boundaries about your availability.”

Some freelancers say they compromise with after-hours work by taking time off during the day. You may run into clients who need 24/7 support. Steer away from such a set-up by asking questions and understanding their expectations. “Not everyone needs to set these boundaries for themselves and not every business model allows them. However, I have found that I am far more productive if I have a clear distinction between my office hours and the time I spend with my family,” says Laura Sultan.

How do you manage after-hours work?

Photo by stock.xchng user Hans Thoursie.

You don’t need to work hard to figure out the simple interface, either. A calendar sits on the left side of the screen that lets you go back and review any day, week, month or selected timeframe to see how you spend your time. Categories appear below the calendar. The rest of the interface splits into two sections: Active Time and Away Time. That’s it.

Chrometa's Main Screen

Initially, all activities appear under “Uncategorized.” You can leave it like that, if you’d like. Or you can create new categories by project, client or others. If you want an application to always appear under an assigned category, Chrometa can do that. For example, you could tag Hootsuite and Tweetdeck so those entries always go into the “social media” category, or tag Thunderbird and Outlook  entries for the “email” category (note that if you use a web-based email app like Gmail, this won’t work unless you use a unique browser for Gmail only). Chrometa not only shows how much time you spend in email, but also it gives you an idea of what emails you worked on based on the subject of the email. Web browser activities work similarly, relying on the web site’s title.

Sometimes it’s hard to identify an activity. That’s not Chrometa’s fault. For example, say you start a new Word document that you have not yet saved. Unsaved documents show up in Chrometa as “Document1,” Word’s default name for an unnamed document. Confusing web site items are also out of Chrometa’s control. Furthermore, you can’t edit Active Time descriptions. This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because clients who need to see where you spend your time know that they can trust the information. It’s bad because not everyone needs to share data with others.

Chrometa runs minimized, sitting in your system tray out of your way. When you step away, you don’t need to do anything to track your non-PC time. Chrometa knows you’re idle when you stop using the computer for a set time. Upon your return, an alert box appears so you can enter how you want to record the non-PC time or ignore it. This is the only time the app pops up without your involvement.

You can easily block applications that you don’t want to track. Additionally, we all visit web pages or look at an email for a few seconds. This can add up to a lot of activities, but you can hide activities that are shorter than one minute, five minutes and 10 minutes. Like blocked applications, this cuts the noise and concentrates on the real activities.

Other features include the ability to export data to an Excel spreadsheet, and Timestamps for showing a chronological record of your daily activities in one-hour blocks.

Chrometa's Timestamps Screen

You may pause the app when you use the computer for activities not related to work that you don’t want to record. But be warned that it won’t remind you that you’ve paused the time in case you forget to turn it back on. A future release will need to address this.

The program has only a couple of niggles. The Active Time data sometimes disappears, and the only way to get it back is to close and open the application. The app could also stand some usability improvements to make it easier to change categories, or to move things around. However, the time management application is ahead of many others in its ease of use and effectiveness. The impressive thing about Chrometa is that you can benefit from the collected data without doing anything.

You can download Chrometa for free. The free version has all of the features of the paid version, and works for 30 days. After 30 days, you’ll need a license key to continue using the app either by purchasing Chrometa for a one-time fee of $99 or qualifying for a free license.

What do you think of Chrometa?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

Divide and Conquer

To get started breaking down what needed to be done so that I could effectively delegate or outsource certain responsibilities, I first had to figure out what I did all day. (Oddly enough, this wasn’t exactly easy, at least not at first.) How do you name all the things that have to get done in a business each day?

To get a handle on it, I started at the top. What did I do immediately after coming into the office each day? From there, it would be easier to move through my day and week.

• First, I generally did a quick check of my email to see if there were any time-sensitive to-dos or messages waiting for me, but there was nothing there to delegate, really, at least not at this point.
• After that, I went to my Backpack account, where I keep all my recurring to-dos. (I have a template that houses a weekly checklist sorted by day that I simply copy each Monday for the new week.) Within my checklist, I had a variety of tasks. Some of them had to do with things like planning and accountability, others had to do with my writing, but most of them were administrative in nature (prime territory for delegation).
• At some point each day, I had to go back to my email box to sort through any new appointments and book guests for my radio show, magazine interviews, and podcast, which meant adding data to my calendar, as well as other locations to keep my content production schedule running smoothly.
• I also needed to sort through pitches and press releases each day, figure out who I wanted to book, and coordinate interviews.
• Then there came the actual production of content, which included things like editing down recordings and transcribing some of the interviews.

On and on, I went through my days, figuring out all the steps required to do every job I do. I noted each task on a separate index card and then divided them into groups based on context (grouping scheduling/booking tasks together, editing and publication tasks together, lead generation tasks together, and so on).

Once I had all the roles and responsibilities divided, I could decide what would be most beneficial to outsource or delegate at this point, but that required me to break things down a little more.

Focus on Highest and Best Use

To keep everything in perspective, I had to think in terms of “highest and best use.” There were certain tasks that were absolutely the most important things for me to be doing in my business. They weren’t the urgent fires. They weren’t the tasks that needed to somehow get done by someone at some point. They were those tasks that directly generated income or interest in my business, and there were only a few of them. Those few tasks were my “highest and best use” tasks, and I knew that they should have the majority of my attention each day.

In an ideal setup, I would only focus on those tasks 100 percent of the time. Of course, perfection was out of the question, but I could at least organize my workload, as well as the workloads of those who work alongside me, to focus on our individual highest and best use tasks as much as possible.

Obviously, the administrative tasks were not my highest and best use activities. I could quickly eliminate around 25 percent of my workload by delegating those to someone who charged 25 percent of what I made, so that had to be the top priority.

Organize and Execute

I decided to start with getting help in two main areas — scheduling and editing/transcription, but before I could do that, I had to organize all the tools and resources and develop a specific system around each role. That included things like:

• Setting up a branded email address for my scheduling assistant.
• Creating an email signature to clarify to guests her role within my organization.
• Creating canned email responses within that assistant’s email account to communicate in a consistent way with guests
• Creating a step-by-step checklist of “how-tos” that outlined each and every task the assistant had to do.

Once I had all that in place, the rest was pretty easy. Each time I got a new appointment confirmation email, for instance, I simply forwarded it to the new scheduling assistant with the following action in the subject line, “[Book].” There are only five or six actions that my scheduling assistant takes care of each day, and I start each email type with one of those actions so that she immediately knows what to do.

Until I know she has the hang of it, I’m saving all of the emails I send to her in a separate folder. Once a day, I’m running through them and making sure that nothing is fallen through the cracks. There have been a few hiccups, but nothing earth-shattering, and I’ve already seen a major reduction in admin time each day.

What steps do you take to make your outsourcing and delegation as painless as possible?

Photo by Flickr user Wonderlane, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

1. Plan your exit. Productivity for tomorrow starts today. Set a time to leave the office and stick with it. An hour before that time, have a wrap-up alarm remind you to start wrapping things up for the day, a great tip from organizational and productivity guru Julie Morgenstern in her book, “Never Check E-Mail in the Morning”.
2. Plan tomorrow. Set your intentions and priorities for tomorrow during the last hour of your day so that you hit the ground running.
3. Set your boundaries. At quitting time, turn off the computer (completely off so that you’re not tempted to “quickly” check your email), turn off the light, and shut the door. Don’t return until it’s time to work tomorrow.
4. Honor a bedtime routine. Two or three hours before you want to be asleep, begin a routine of winding down. This will be different for every person, but it might include: no more phone calls or connectivity with the outside world (unless it’s an emergency, of course), no more talk about work, a bath or shower, a cup of hot tea, light reading, journal writing, no television, and lights out at a set time.
5. Start the day off right. Wake up at a set time. Exercise or do yoga for fifteen or twenty minutes, unless you have another workout routine that you prefer. Eat a healthy breakfast (don’t skip this, as it affects your energy levels for the rest of the day). Set out with the right intention for your day by taking care of yourself first.
6. Maintain your boundaries. Don’t immediately go to your office and start checking emails or news feeds. You’ll be at your computer all day. Take some time for yourself and other priorities in your life, or they’re less likely to get done later in the day, especially after work.  Have some coffee, write in your journal, read, or go for a walk. Just take some time for yourself before jumping into your work day.
7. Avoid or limit email time. Avoid checking your email right when you go to the office, or if you prefer seeing if anything important is waiting, at least limit your time to fifteen minutes so that it doesn’t distract you from more important tasks. Email is a huge time suck; if you don’t control it, it will control you.
8. Avoid or limit news feeds and social networks. This is another time-suck that easily distracts from other priorities. Set specific times for keeping up with the latest news and updates, and then be diligent about staying away from the distractions.
9. Start with your list. Jump right to your list of intentions and priorities that you jotted down the previous day. You were probably much more focused and honest about what needed your attention when you were planning it out with a clear head. First thing in the morning, it’s easy to want to procrastinate or give too much importance to trivial tasks and to-dos.
10. Check in often. Set yourself an alarm for every hour or two. Don’t let yourself get too far off base from your intention/priority list. If you do get derailed, at least you’ll not lose much time this way.
11. Work in blocks. In a business, it’s easy to have a wide variety of different types of tasks. There might be client work, writing and publishing, and marketing-related tasks to be done. Groups these tasks and complete them in scheduled blocks of time, say two- or three-hour sittings.
12. Stay disciplined. When you finish with a particular type of task, like work for a specific client, don’t pick up that client’s work again until his/her designated time comes back around again. It’s easy to be tempted to do “just one more thing” for a project, especially when clients are emailing feedback and updates throughout the day, but avoid the temptation. Treat all time blocks with equal importance, whether you’re working on client projects or doing lead generation tasks. It’s all important, and if you don’t maintain a balance between current work and future prospects, you’ll experience peaks and valleys with your revenue as well.

It’s not always easy to stay on track. Time flies, distractions can beg for your attention, and deadlines loom, making you feel pulled in one hundred directions and unable to keep up with the demands, but by approaching your work with purpose and discipline, it’s a lot easier to get things done and feel great about what you’ve accomplished.

What steps do you follow each day to stay on track and productive?

Photo by Flickr user SC Fiasco, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

However, at some point, a business gets too big (hopefully) for one person to do it all. Choices have to be made about starting to delegate tasks to other people. Which areas of responsibility should an entrepreneur hand over to others, and at what point in their business’s growth? Those can be hard calls to make.

I’m currently at the point of having to make some of those decisions myself. My business, which up until recently I’ve been running basically by myself, has grown exponentially in the past 12 months. I have come to the reluctant conclusion that I need help, but I’ve been struggling with how to best go about getting it.

I did make one recent change, which means I’m not doing absolutely everything myself. I brought a contributing writer onto my web site to help me produce content. But that decision was more the result of happening upon the perfect opportunity than of strategic planning, and now I need to figure out how to move forward with more delegating of responsibilities.

As I’ve weighed how to go about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are several prime factors to consider in deciding what tasks to offload and how to do it.

• Know your value. Remember to focus on what your true value is to the company. In my company’s case, my personal brand is closely tied to the brand of my company. Readers equate me with Scrapbook Update. It would be counter-productive to the success of the company for me to hire writers to be the visible face of the company while retiring into a behind-the-scenes editorial role. (The writer I recently added expanded the site’s offerings rather than taking burden off of me.)
• Know the true cost. Some types of help will cost more to bring in than others. But these costs must be weighed in relation to how much time will be freed up for you to expend on income-producing activities. Help that seems expensive but which provides you a lot more income-producing time that you are able to take full advantage of may actually be very cost-effective. Also, don’t forget that paying for an expert to take on certain responsibilities could lead to those tasks being done in a way that saves the company money (for instance, an accountant might be able to find tax savings for the company that would offset the costs of accounting services).
• Know your abilities. As our businesses grow, some of our company’s functions may get complex enough that we really have no choice as a smart business person but to call in experts to perform them. There might be other tasks that you could more cost-effectively outsource, but if your needs in a certain area are getting too complex for your DIY skills, then you need to make getting help in that area a priority. Experts that you may need to hand off responsibilities to might include accountants, lawyers, web designers and sales people.

Don’t forget to factor personal tasks in your evaluation as well. There are only 24 hours in a day. Since time spent on non-work related tasks can’t be spent elsewhere, examine everywhere that you are spending your time and consider whether responsibilities can be delegated. Perhaps it would be cost-effective to outsource cleaning your house, or mowing your lawn. (And I’ll bet you wouldn’t miss doing those tasks, either.)

At some point, we have to admit we can’t run every function of our business ourselves. Even a control freak like Steve Jobs has help. Admit you need help, then go about getting the right help for you and your company.

What responsibilities would it be a good idea for you to delegate?

Photo by Flickr user ralphbijker, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Applications For Individuals

@wordpost  — Andrew Swenson

Google Calendar + Tasks because it’s free, easy to use, and syncs up everywhere (including on my iPhone).

@maryshaw — Mary Shaw

I use iCal for time management because it syncs with my iPhone and I set reminders to beep me at all hours. It’s a lot of beeping.

@nickf — Nick Finck

I have iCal running on Google Calendar with Teux Deux for task level stuff. It just works well. Simple, easy to use.

iCal comes with Macs and lets you keep separate calendars; you could have one for work, one for each client, one for home and another for school.

@Jchristopher — Jonathan Christopher

I chose OmniFocus after going back and forth between it and Things for at least two months. I became more attached to certain higher level features of OmniFocus, and came to realize that a preference between the two is simply of a personal nature from designer to designer. Some people feel differently, but I’m actually a huge fan of the OmniFocus interface design and find that it caters to the complexity (or simplicity) you prefer.

OmniFocus and Things are also Mac applications.

@gregpincus — Greg Pincus

My favorite time management app is old-school: the timer/alarm clock. (I use it on my iPhone to make it cool) :-) I have a broad schedule and my issue isn’t where, but how much. Blog reading could be three hours if I didn’t time it.

@arikhanson — Arik C. Hanson

I like Remember the Milk because of its full integration with Google and phone.

Remember the Milk is a nice task management web app. However, it works with Google Calendar and has iCal feeds available for those who want to tie tasks to a calendar for time management. The app can send reminders and notifications through many avenues including IM, Twitter and email.

@anoop_sahgal — Anoop Sahgal

I use Outlook for both professional and personal uses, and it syncs with my phone. Since Outlook is already set up on everything, it worked for me.

Applications For Teams

@gregmcqueen — Greg McQueen

I use Backpack from 37Signals for just about everything — writing included. It’s simple. 37Signals designed it so you don’t need to read a manual on how to use it. They succeeded.

Backpack is another popular web app.

@stenoknight  — Mirabai Knight

I like ididwork.com (Twitter-style task logger) and ManicTime. I use it because of the efficiency of Twitter, plus privacy and weekly reports, without having to set my actual Twitter feed to private. Accountability is key.

Ididwork is a web app that has team-based features, reports and tagging. ManicTime is a Windows app that collects computer usage data and provides graphic reports.

@prchicago — Toni Antonetti

Love SmartSheet — it helps track projects for clients and team. It lets us share project sheets with clients, input time and info in web form that goes into Smartsheet and it’s easier than emailing spreadsheets.

SmartSheet is a web apps that works similarly to Backpack, in that it tracks individual work, lets you collaborate with a team and updates clients. It also includes tools for sales management, marketing and human resources.

Two Things Consider in Your Decision

Many things can factor into your search for the ideal time management application. You can narrow the list by looking at two things:

• Team or individual: Do you need an app solely for your own use, or do you need to manage a team or update clients?
• Type of application: Do you need a web app that you can access from anywhere? A desktop app that can automatically collect time tracking data of all of your activities? A mobile app that you can use from your phone?

What time management app do you use? How did you choose?

The concept of outsourcing can go beyond using virtual assistants, web designers and programmers. By outsourcing chores, you can remove the stressful things in your life, and as a result, have more time to do the things you love.

Deciding What to Outsource

Web workers often do many tasks that go beyond their areas of expertise. It may be worth investigating the possibility of having someone else take on those energy-sapping chores. How do you decide if you should outsource chores, and which ones? Here are some factors to look at:

• Take an honest look at your life. Is your mind constantly racing because you have too much going on? Do you miss important events or milestones of friends and loved ones? Are you losing touch with friends and family due to an overloaded schedule? Do you keep thinking about work when you’re not working? What’s the point of earning money if you’re not going to make the most out of your life?
• Evaluate the time and cost. Figure out how long it takes you to complete the chore. Then, calculate how much you would earn if you drop the chore for more income-producing work. Use that number to help you determine how much you would pay someone to do the chore.
• Account for possible training time. Some chores may require initial training. To shorten the training time, document the process. Even though the freelancer might do this type of work on a regular basis, the process may not be identical for all clients.
• Review spending habits. You may find areas where you can buy fewer things and invest that into outsourcing to gain more time. It’s a sacrifice, but the extra time can be worth it.
• Consider chores you despise. These exhausting chores interfere with your emotional state and energy levels, which affect work and personal activities. Hiring someone else to take on hated chores could give you extra energy and time to do the things you enjoy.

Available Outsourcing Sites and Services

You can enter your zip code or city on many of the following web sites to receive a list of services in your area. Other web sites ask you to answer a series of questions and serve up a handful of matches. However, in researching sites that provide these services, I have seen some serious complaints. As with everything else online, do your due diligence.

For live advice, try LivePerson, a marketplace for chatting live with experts in many topics ranging from health issues to spirituality. Browse for the service you need for a list of experts along with their bios, their cost per minute and whether they’re currently available.

You can enter chore requests in DoMyStuff and RunMyErrand. RunMyErrand is limited to Boston, but other cities have similar services. TaskUs not only lists administrative and sales and marketing services, but also personal services such as event planning, selling stuff and travel help. Then there’s craigslist.

Another option is to use a search engine. If you have a specific job in mind such as a chef preparing meals or a dry cleaning service that picks up and drops off dry cleaning, a search engine can help you find local resources. For example, enter “dry cleaning delivery service” to see a list of local services that provide delivery. Some search results include ratings and reviews. If you’re traveling and in need of a suit pressing, use your laptop or cell phone to search for a local delivery service to take care of it for you.

What chores do you outsource or want to outsource? How do you find and evaluate the contractor?

Photo by stock.xchng user Sanja Gjenero

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