What’s your time worth to you? 

I know what my time is worth to me, and I can tell you that if I can get my tasks for the day completed in either three productive hours or seven so-so hours, I’ll choose three every single time.

It wasn’t always this way. 

When I was new to working from home [a remote day job for a company plus running my own business], I thought I knew what I was doing but I struggled to get everything done. I thought I was being productive, yet I felt like there was never enough time.

Some days were okay. Most days sucked. I would keep moving tasks from one day to the next more than crossing them off.

Worst of all? I was so busy ensuring I completed everything needed for my day job that I was putting little time toward my business. This led to reaching only a small fraction of the results I desired.

I knew there had to be a better way.

I knew I wanted to put more time into my business, but I had to find the time first. And I thought if I could figure out what I did better on my less sucky days, I may be able to forge a smarter path to success.

I took in a deep breath of humility and took an even harder look at how I was really spending my work hours at home. I logged every minute of my workdays for two weeks - just like my ever-dreaded food journal. Once I logged how I truly spent my work hours there was no space left for busyness to hide. 

And I mean I logged Every. Single. Minute.

What did I find?

Yes, I was doing things. Lots of things.

But completing tasks? And getting the results I want? Uh… not really. 

Maybe this wouldn’t be so important if I worked from an office [as long as I met my deadlines], but while I work from home this is no good. I mean, if I get all my tasks done more efficiently, then I have more time to do all the other things like putting more into my business or spending more time with loved ones. 

Just a few things I now had to question:

Is spending over an hour scrolling through Instagram and another hour or two on Facebook daily necessary when my goal was to schedule out a week’s worth of posts? Nope.

How about picking up my phone every time a notification popped up? Trust me, 98% of those were not work-related…

Oh, and standing in front of the fridge looking for snacks at least a half dozen times per day. Maybe worth it?!! You tell me.

And, what makes my more productive days special?

One word: FOCUS.

Not deadlines, like I thought.

On those more productive, less sucky days I was able to buckle down and focus more because I knew what I absolutely wanted to complete that day and with that clear definition, I didn’t allow for as many distractions.

This one learning was a game-changer.

With this new insight, I took a serious note from one of my absolute favorites, Natalie Bacon, and began scheduling out the results I wanted - not the general task I wanted to work on. 

Instead of “social media posts” on my to-do list every day of the week, I now schedule a 2-hour block on Monday mornings and write out exactly what I want to complete in that calendar block: “Create 4 Instagram posts, create 5 Facebook posts, proof for errors, schedule all 9 posts.”

This might seem like a lot for 2 hours at first. But when I sit down, I know exactly what I’m going to work on. And I know exactly how long I’m going to work. 

It’s kind of like magic when this clicks, and it really clears the space for focus. 

And when I truly focus, I get sh*t done. 

Yes, it may still be two hours on social media, but it’s not 2+ hours each day on mindless scrolling. It’s 2 productive hours of results per week over, well, just busyness.

That’s 8 hours off my work week already.