1DayLater - The Blog

Music and Motivation - manager

This one’s specifically for any managers out there, while my brother will be blogging the same topic soon for the coders amongst you!

1) The everyday grind

If you freelance or run a small business you will be faced with common tasks which need to be tended to a regular basis! It could be doing your bookkeeping, writing a proposal, or replying to a customers email query. Having some music to listen to can make all the difference to your mood and productivity while taking these things on.

It’s important not to listen to any old thing mind. Priority no. 1 should be finding something that’s not distracting. Songs with too many lyrics for example are no good, as they take your focus alway from what you’re doing too often. You need to be able to just float along with the music, serene and calm.

Which is why, when deep inside the underbelly of the business beast, I like to listen to some modern mellow trance, post-rock or some very downbeat drum n bass. Keep it at a volume which isn’t too high so your attention doesn’t shift from your work, but high enough to be able to bop along to happily.

Albums of choice: Tiesto - In search of Sunrise (1-7), Above and Beyond - anything, Commix - Fabriclive 44

2) Writing Tenders

When competing for a large software contract the usual thing is to go through a tendering process. 1DayLater have just been through this with local Quango (Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization) Codeworks who need a timesheet solution and a way of tracking their ERDF funding requirements from local funding body OneNorthEast.

Writing a tender is pretty similar to writing a business plan. In both cases you disect an activity to its individual components, which helps identify potential problems, skill gaps and ultimately its feasability. When there’s a deadline looming it can also be fairly stressful, which is why some chilled music is best!

Album of choice - Bonobo - Days to Come

3) Missing your weekend

A start-up company like ours needs to be prepared to put in a lot of hours. Work-life balance can become a distant memory if not careful. I like this article in the Texas start-up blog which illustrates the amount of time entrepreneurs need to be prepared to give up.

Ultimately missing a weekend to plough on with work can be tough, but when you love your work like I do, it’s not so bad. I’m fairly sure my brother shares a similar outlook!

Getting some bouncy happy music on the go at weekends is therefore a must. If you’re going to spend the weekend caning work, some uplifting music and an open window will at least provide a happy illusion. I like to use weekends writing our blog, and working on activities which fit our long term vision and goals for 1DayLater

Albums of choice: Billy Talent - Billy Talent 2, Zebrahead - MFZB

 In part 2 (coming soon) - music and motivation for coders

Time Management Tips - no.1 

Aggressive Prioritizing / extreme time management

Here’s one of the most effective ways to boost your work productivity. I do this every day and seriously - it works!

Bend time to your will…

Step 1-Create a to-do list every morning

First thing in the morning (after you’ve had your morning cuppa of course) spend 15 minutes constructing a to-do list of activities you feel should get done that day. This won’t be wasted time.

You now have a list of activities

eg.

• 20 activities

• 5 really need doing

Step 2-Use aggressive prioritizing.

If you had to pick just one of these to do today - which one would it be? That is your number 1. Repeat this exercise to find number 2, and so on.

Step 3-Get working!

Stick to the order of your list and make sure you complete each task as much as possible before moving onto the next.

Now if you only get some things done in your day, they will have been the most important ones. Simple but truly effective!

- coming soon: time management for programmers

An Update - “Analysis”

One of the core features of 1DayLater is being able to view your activities in a way that is easy to interpret and understand. This might be visualising time spent with clients, business miles or everyday expenses.

Alternatively it could be observing your day-to-day productivity by tracking time spent on tasks such as admin, finance, sales etc. This is the kind of thing I generally track, which you can see in my own analysis below.

I’m happy to give you a sneak peek into the first of our outputs, “Analysis”

There are clear benefits of being able to see your data in this graphical form. You know when you’re working too little on a job or if you’re working too hard! Or you can build up a good picture of your work/life balance.

At a glance you should be able to see where my weekend was, or the two days I was ill with a bug - and the subsequent drop in productivity that occured (spot the overall drop in height on the right hand side)

Our developers are now listening to the feedback of early testers and creating something which is truly beautiful to behold. I don’t think anyone works quite as hard as the 1DayLater developers to please our future customers - massive kudos and respect!

Speak soon

Paul

Developing a business mindset - Mental activity modelling

In order to start acting like a businessman you need to start thinking like one. A neat idea we picked up from one of our excellent mentors, Richard Hanage is to create and follow a mental activity model. The reason I love this is that it’s proactive rather than reactive!

The idea is that you create a complete list (or mindmap) of things which are necessary to the general running & development of your business. Depending on the nature of your business, your tasks might be something like:

• Make an appointment
• Make a sales visit
• Write a proposal
• Take an order
• Deliver some work
• Raise an invoice
• Update finances

Then SET SOME TARGETS & commit them to memory

For example: You could aim to complete one thing off your list every day, and all of them in a normal week. Or devise some practical targets for your own business.

Following this mental model will help you improve cashflow, organisation and working efficiency in the long run. If you’re focused on doing it properly it can also prevent you from neglecting those less fun but important aspects of your business.

I would love to hear about the kinds of mental activity models you all operate. Including any personal experiences with them!

Later!

Paul