Should You Keep Business Hours? (part 2)
October 21, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
Earlier today, I wrote about normal business hours and how it is my opinion that it isn’t necessarily better for every freelancer to work during the day. I work at night and, in fact, I’m writing this post well in advance and scheduling it to appear on Bizzia. As you’re reading this, I’m probably still sleeping.
Just because it isn’t perfect for every writer to keep traditional business hours doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t keep business hours at all. Let me tell you a short story:
A few years ago, I was dating someone with a schedule that was against every fiber of my being. As an accountant, he had to be at the office by 9:00 AM (most days) and got home between 4:00 Pm and 5:00 PM (most days). In my efforts to spend more time with him, I attempted to switch to his schedule, and although I usually remained in bed a bit after he left and went to be an hour or two later than him, it worked out fairly well. It didn’t come naturally to me, and I usually had to force myself to wake up and go to sleep, but I was willing to do that to have as much time together as possible. Sticking more to his schedule meant that we could meet up for lunch some days, for example.
Image: sxc.hu
Then tax season hit. For those of you who don’t know, tax season is hell for an accountant. As many do, he went from working until around 4:00 PM to working until 9:00 PM or later every night, in addition to working most Saturdays. He came home, took a shower, fell asleep, and did it again the next day. There wasn’t time to spend together regardless of our schedules. So, my schedule didn’t matter anymore.
The problem was, he would still wake me up in the morning when he got up (not on purpose, it would just happen), so I would get up with him some mornings to have a cup of coffee together. Other mornings, I would stay in bed. Sometimes, I would crawl under the covers when he did, even though it was only 10:00 PM or so; other nights, I’d stay up doing work until 4:00 AM. I napped often during the day. I didn’t have a set schedule for work, because I didn’t need one.
At least, I didn’t think I needed one. My work suffered greatly during this time period. I was so erratic with my schedule that I never got words flowing well most days. Social networking was sporadic. Clients didn’t know what to expect. In short, it was a mess.
What I’ve learned is that while you don’t have to work typical, normal business hours, you do need to keep YOUR business hours. Currently, my schedule is to wake around noon, answer emails and do other admin work (troll for jobs, update my records, read my feeds, etc) until around 3:00 PM. I do writing work from around 10:00 PM to 4:00 AM, and head to bed around soon after. Depending on my schedule, I sometimes work extra hours during the afternoon or evening. I usually work Saturdays, but take off Sundays and Mondays.
There’s still a ton of flexibility. For example, I’m traveling this weekend, so I’ll probably compact my work time as much as possible and fit it in as I can. In general, though, I stay pretty even with my schedule. My long term clients know when they can expect to see me online, I hit the job boards at a convenient time during the day, and I avoid distractions as much as possible. It has also helped me to get enough sleep, sometime that I’ve had problems doing in the past.
The moral of the story here is that you need to find a sleep/wake schedule that works for your lifestyle and then work in a play/work schedule for your waking hours. Don’t be sporadic, working an hour here and there depending on the day. You’ll get a lot more work done (and faster too) if you keep YOUR business hours.
Thank you SO much for this post! As a beginning freelancer, one thing I’ve struggled with is figuring out how to schedule my time to get in enough business hours each day and maximize my productivity.
Not only that, but to add to the equation I have a significant other who works nights. When we first started dating, I had a normal 9-5 office job and was used to that schedule. We didn’t spend much time together but the relationship wasn’t too serious at that point.
Then when I got laid off and started freelancing I had a really hard time figuring out how to get in enough hours but still take advantage of the flexibility freelancing afforded me. Plus, my relationship with my current night-hawk boyfriend progressed to the point of moving in together. I found that the more time him and I spent together, the more my own sleeping patterns changed. I ended up facing even more obstacles while I went through this transitional stage (only recently have I started to come out of this) – I wasn’t working enough hours and I found that when I was working, it wasn’t always at the optimal time for my creative juices to flow. I was trying to work that 9-5 day while still spending time with him. It was a mess…and I was burned out.
I started experimenting with a schedule I could keep. I’ve recently started playing with a schedule similar to the one you’ve posted and have had great success. My partner leaves the apartment at 10pm and returns around 8:30am, then he sleeps from about 10am – 5pm. In the mornings, my brain isn’t working at its best and I’m easily distracted by MSN conversations with friends, daytime TV, etc. I find that having morning coffee and breakfast with my partner and then hitting the sack until around noon works best. Then I can get up and work on admin stuff and job searching while he sleeps – activities that don’t require too much focus. I usually fit in a workout as well before he gets up. Then when he wakes up around 5pm we can have dinner and spend some quality time together before he has to go to work. Once he’s gone and I have quiet again, I can do my writing from around 10pm – 3am or so. My concentration is best during this time – nothing good is on TV, the apartment building is extremely quiet without the regular traffic going by and everyone asleep, and my friends are in bed and not distracting me. Then I can get a few hours of sleep before he gets home again.
I’ve learned that keeping business hours is extremely important. In the beginning couple of months, I was horrible at this. I was working too much at times and not enough at other times, my sleeping schedule was chaos and my mental and physical health was suffering, and I definitely wasn’t taking advantage of my most productive hours. Keeping a schedule is fundamental, but I love having the flexibility to innovate a schedule that works for me rather than have one dictated.
You childless people are really lucky, you know? You have the luxury to set a schedule that perfectly suits you and your circadian rhythms. Count your blessings. Seriously. Those of us with small children really don’t get that choice, and well, I bet I’m not the only one who’s a little wistful at the thought of getting to sleep late every morning and work into the night.
My own schedule isn’t nearly as flexible. I need to work around preschool hours, naptime and my husband’s schedule. That means that I tend to get up early to check and respond to emails, then later in the morning, I try to sit down and get some work done. I try to schedule interviews and writing time during the hours my son is in school. And whatever doesn’t get done then, I work on after his bedtime. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that neatly; I find myself interviewing someone while my son watches an episode of “Sesame Street” or dances in and out of my office with his Legos.
It’s not ideal, no. But freelancing is much more flexible than many other jobs, and I’m lucky to have the work that I do.
But oh, the thought of a nap every day…or sleeping ’til noon. That’s the stuff a freelancing mom dreams of!
That’s another question, isn’t it? Is being a freelancer dependent on the fact you want to work your own schedule, or simply want to be more free as a writer?
Of course it could be some combination in between.
All this could make good material for a poem, story, or continuing article, I can just feel it.
Interesting discussion. When I freelanced I kept regular business hours because that felt to me like I was *working*. Working late into the night, even if I’d got up later, felt like I was either working overtime or running behind. A hangover from university/salaried work days no doubt.
Btw, I notice you’ve used the word “trolling” several times in recent posts in the sense of “looking around the web.” I would have used ‘trawling’ for work or for information – fishing, drag-netting, hoping to catch something by casting a wide enough net over a likely area. I associate ‘trolling’ in web terms with lurking around a blog being obnoxious. I’m not American, so am curious if this is one of the AmE/BrE differences!