How can you put 60 hours of work in one day by yourself?
I remotely operate 3 businesses and a dozen of serious partnerships from the comfort of my seat. My 8 hours of work per day will equal to 60 hours of work that a typical CEO will have in the same day in his office.
If you want to know how I stay productive beyond my own understanding and how you can be too, youll want to read this.
We have a pretty large office space here in NY, but many of you probably did not know that I spend more time working in my home office at home, ok ok I spend all of my time working at my home office.
About 2 years ago, my wife gave birth to Angelina and she demanded that I can no longer work 8am-10pm at the office because she may need help and I should see my child grow up. I agreed to set up a secondary mini office at home and spend more time here. Over time, my days at the real office were getting shorter and shorter. I went from 5 days in the office to 2 days in the office and a few months later, I would visit the office once every 2 weeks.
This is actually the reason why I got partners to run my other businesses because I was unable to monitor the employees that used to run them at the office (ex:www.autoaccessorystore.com). You know its real nice to get up and have breakfast, than go to another floor work for a few hours, than go back to spend some time with the family and have healthy lunch and back to work, etc.
Yesterday, however I decided to the work at the office for the first time in 1 year. Yes I havent visited the office in one year. So if your a recent SCE client, I did close you from the comfort of my home (probably in my underwear lol just kidding I always dress for work even though I am home to feel sharp).
Anyway after spending a day in the office, I could truly appreciate the difference.
FIRST OF ALL I HATE THE OFFICE! I AM NEVER COMING BACK THERE AGAIN! I hate the trip to the office (1 hour drive) I hate the environment I hate being bothered while I am in the middle of something seriously I couldnt even work there. I spent more time getting comfortable than actually working.
(Note: The servers where your websites are hosted are located at a Data Center in NJ, not my office. Here is the exact location - http://www.isprime.com/)
Now for anyone who thinks getting BIG as in getting a ton of employees with a big office is a success for your business, take my word for it youll hate it before youll love it.
I have been on both sides of the table, I ran my own operation with 70 employees only a few years back and I am comfortably working with my virtual employees today. WHERE I AM TODAY, IS HANDS DOWN THE BEST ENVIRONMENT for PRODUCTIVITY.
Enough about me lets talk about you. Lets get to the productivity part:
While sitting at the office yesterday, I start evaluating why I am so much more productive at my home office.
1. FAST COMPUTERS - I have a pretty fast machine at home, i7 CPU, 12gb ram, SSD drive, etc. If you are not using a fast computer, you just lost half a day of work. Seriously! Invest $1200 and you wont regret it. Here is a nice one on Newegg.
2. DUAL 28 MONITORS - I would recommend three, but than you need another video card. I have (2) 28 Monitors. This is honestly the best investment you can make. I can literally fit everything I need on the screen without minimizing and maximizing every 2 seconds. If you have 17 - 20 monitor, there goes the other half of your day of productivity make your windows bigger and smaller every 2 seconds. - $200 EACH refurbished.
3. FIOS INTERNET - If you have anything less than Broadband, go ahead and lower your hopes in being productive because you will spend the other 1/3 of your day that you already dont have waiting for things to load.
4. GOOGLE CALENDAR - Everyone must have a Boss. My boss is my Google Calendar, whatever it tells me to do, I do it. :) well I schedule everything I need to do into it, which syncs to my iPhone and that pretty much drives my day to make sure I am on track.
5. COMFORTABLE SURROUNDING - IT MUST BE QUIET, YOU MUST NOT BE BOTHERED BY ANYONE!!!!!!!. That means if you hear any kind of noise, or if your working from home and your loved ones are bothering you (that includes your dog), its time to put a lock and move to another floor. I also recommend having lots of light in the room, constantly drink GOOD 0 TDS Reverse Osmosis Water and have some kind of green scenery in your room (Trees, Green wall, etc.)
6. Finally my favorite. Multitasking more than you can handle. I literally have 5 tasks that I have to do at one time on the screens. At first I found it overwhelming, but I finally realized why I do it like this. I find myself getting bored doing something that I might not want to do at the moment, sometimes I have a writers block for that task or I just find that another task is just more fun to do at the moment. By having all the tasks in front of you, you can pick and choose which ever one you feel like doing (of course unless Google Calendar tells you to do something else :)) A lot of times I will find myself in a virtual zone. Where I am literally not here but inside of the computer just clicking away and getting things done kind of crazy.
7. PRIORITIZE WHAT MAKES MONEY FIRST My calls and followups to new clients go first, than everything else goes second.
8. MY TEAM - I try to work with superstars. Even though they are not in the same office as I am, they are literally another set of my right hands. I cant name everyone but whatever I need help with, someone is covering that task. I always prepare the work for my team a day ahead and if something urgent comes up during that day, I simply pass it along. If you hire the right people, you wont find yourself running around like a chicken with two heads.
Now I am not saying my day is calm. Actually its the opposite. I am also not saying that I am doing everything by the books, where a manager has to look over another manager etc. But what I am doing is working and things are getting done. Most importantly, I am happy and productive with my time, without taking a lot of time away from my family, so that is what matters to me.
Now first thing YOU MUST DO, is implement #1,#2, and #3 then come back here and thank me in the comments on this very same blog post.