Self-Authoring Your Schedule

As a coach and PhD student, I noticed a number of people struggle with the loss of structure that comes with an opportunity to transition to working fully in your calling full time. While many people who have chosen to leave a “9–5” lifestyle are generally thriving in their move towards a self-authored life, they are grappling with stress that has manifested from the pressure to ensure progress and accountability in a self-authored schedule.

The eight-hour workday is an outdated and ineffective approach to work. If you want to be as productive as possible, you need to let go of this relic and find a new approach (Forbes Magazine).

Personally, going into my dissertation, I experienced a slow transition to creating my own schedule. I went from full time work with classes to classes without full time work. Now, my primary focus is my dissertation, without classes. I no longer have a full-time job because I left it to focus on my studies, so that I can hopefully launch myself into a new style of career. I also no longer have the semi-structured schedule of having classes to attend and assignments to complete by their deadlines. I have ventured into a schedule that only holds what I want it to hold. It is thrilling, invigorating, and exciting, now that I have addressed the stress and unconscious guilt of managing my own project and my own self-authored schedule.

For most of us, this natural ebb and flow of energy leaves us wavering between focused periods of high energy followed by far less productive periods, when we tire and succumb to distractions (Forbes Magazine).

I see that others who are transitioning careers, taking time for their own projects and ventures. I offer the following for those who may be experiencing an underlying discomfort with navigating their own motivation, accountability, and self-authored schedule:

• Create a structure in your week with standing obligations. Have key weekly events on your calendar to which you fully commit. These events will not be canceled if something “better” comes up. The events are taking the place of what might have been your corporate 9–5 weekly team meetings. However, instead of this item on your calendar being for the purpose of the team, the events might be for your progression or wellness. For me, these weekly events include my personal training session every Thursday. Those sessions are an investment encouraging me to commit to myself…and to the trainer, which offers a bit of accountability. The planned session gives a slight structure to my Thursdays and a healthy urgency in my morning. Other weekly events could be as simple as coffee at your favorite coffee shop every Wednesday at 9am, a weekly walk with a reliable friend. Pick the event based on your own financial restrictions and be honest about whether you need accountability with someone else or if you are highly committed to follow through on your own.
• Create a skeleton monthly schedule ahead of time, then fill the weeks. It can be overwhelming to look too far ahead. Have a general idea of what major events or deadlines you have in each month and note them. Look ahead for major conferences or networking events in your field and get those on your calendar early.
• Schedule socializing time with others who have a similar level of commitment that you do. In the office, we socialized throughout the day, we said our good mornings, or maybe we talked about our weekends with a few colleagues. Some Mondays were just to catch up on email. I don’t know how many hours I spent in the office talking, sharing ideas, and catching up with people, but I think it was an important part of the day. I’ve seen that I can have a 1–2 hour coffee with a friend that is full of connection, empathy, and inspiration and still progress towards my goals.
• Remember you are not in the 9–5 anymore, on purpose, so don’t put yourself under the stress of fulfilling a 9–5. If you work for 3–4–5 hours a day moving your projects forward, that is often equal to the progress made in a typical 9–5 day. You don’t have as much administrative overhead time, you are likely not spending time commuting, you might even be putting in a few hours on the weekend. After you make decent progress, go take care of other parts of life, guilt-free. That is why you are changing your lifestyle. Don’t blame yourself for being efficient or occasionally being slightly inefficient some days, as long as you are generally moving forward.
• Figure out what kind of project management style works best for you. Some people need a detailed daily schedule to chip away at projects, others need a general deadline and know they will finish by the deadline, in their own way. Reflecting on your own way of completing projects can help you stick to what works for you. Finding out and being confident in what makes you efficient helps reduce stress from wondering if you would be more efficient operating other ways that work for other people. For example, some writers recommend that to author a book, you must write X numbers of words a day. However, if you know you need to finish a part of your project by November, and you have a track record of finishing projects by writing way more than X words on days you are flowing and much less than X days you’re not, then don’t hold yourself to daily metrics that you don’t need. If you have a track record of finishing what you need to, keep working your work days your way.

As explained by the author of a Wired article on balancing this type of lifestyle: I’m a full-time freelance writer who works from home, so I’m responsible for setting my own schedule. This is great, and also terrible. Like many knowledge workers, I reach the end of many workdays thinking, Where did all those hours go? What did I actually do today? And unlike people who go to an office, I can’t say Oh, I went to the office! I don’t have an external measure of productivity to judge myself against, aside from the culturally ingrained idea that if I’m a “full-time” writer, I should be working for eight hours a day, five days a week (Wired)

Overall, authorize yourself to work how you need. Experiment with what works for you and what doesn’t. Instead of seeing a week or day that wasn’t the greatest use of your time as a “failure,” remember that the 9–5 is often inefficient. If you need a set daily routine, create it. If you need all your days to be a little different, do it. Be cognizant if you find yourself comparing your work style to the office routine or your time worked to the eight hour workday.