Jun 11 2008
Finding a Good Work/Travel Balance
Since leaving home in January I’ve been a serial slacker, only doing the bare minimum to keep my sites alive and keep the money rolling in. Fortunately, the nature of this business means that I can get away with it. Sweet.
The only problem with my slacker ways is that if I don’t eventually put some work in, I won’t ever get ahead. I’ll be stuck in a rut with the same sites, no new content, festering problems that I never seem to fix and eventually my little empire will start to crumble. It’s nice to have the option to take it easy from time to time, but putting in such a pitiful effort from February to April did nothing to get me ahead.
So now I’m here in Beijing, have a decent work space, a good internet connection, all the time I want, and no excuses not to produce. Well I’m not looking for excuses because now my problem is that I’m working too much! I seem to have skipped right past the fine balance of work and travel that I was hoping to strike and lately I’m spending all of my time chained to my desk, typing away, motivated and full of new ideas.
I’ve got three sites on the verge of completion and a time limit and that’s turning me into a bit of an obsessive workoholic. It scares me but I like it. I can’t imagine this will last for too much longer so I might as well enjoy the productivity while I have it. I’d better get ready to slump into a routine of website neglect from July onwards, especially since I’ll be either volunteering or going to Mongolia in July and embracing all things Olympic in August.
This new level of productivity is great news for my sites, but not so good for my travel and social lives. I just hope I don’t end up regretting not spending more time exploring Beijing.
Do you guys have phases where you just go for it and work all the time or are you more balanced in your approach?
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
Hi Kirsty,
sure enough I have these times. And the slacker times, too.
I like to think of the web business as a creative activity, and like in most creative jobs the 80/20 rule applies: 80% of your work is done in 20% of your time (sometimes 90/10 actually). Use the momentum while you have it. And then enjoy the free time on your hands when you don’t feel like being productive - with no bad feelings either. Actually this _is_ work/travel balance.
I go back and forth as well Kirsty,
Sometimes I’ll be sitting down, looking over my sites and just get geared up to do work. It’s fast, exciting, and fun, and I’ll be able to sit at my desk for hours without much thought to much else. At other times I’ll decide I have to do work, reluctantly sit down and try to focus, only to get distracted by other blogs, news, brainstorming, etc.
May as well utilize the productivity while you have it!
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that your troubles are the same that all internet entrepreneurs face. I’ll make 15k one month, and then slack off for the next two while I reap the benefits. If I were just able to make that much cash, and keep on working while it was sitting around collecting interest, I’d have an entirely different story to tell.
I think we all get complacent from time to time… comes with the territory. Enjoy Beijing!
Um, can you guys tell me how to make money online without doing anything? My one blog feels like a full time job!
Ya I should embrace it because this level of productivity doesn’t hit me very often. I still spend a lot of it surfing around, reading blogs but the difference is that in the productive times in between I’m getting stuff done for a change.
Christine I put a stupidly huge number of hours into my sites before I started travelling. I had gaps where I didn’t do a thing but when I first started out in 2001 and was learning everything by trial and error, I spent way too much time on my sites. This was back when there was no hope in sight for making money… it was just because I loved to do it. Then I neglected things for years and once Adsense came on the scene in 2004, I think, the crazy work ethic came back and I was at it for hours each night on top of my nine to five job.
So keep at it now because you’ll start to see things pay off down the road. Although most of my sites aren’t blogs because they’re too much work. Get a few static content type sites up there and leave them to rot for awhile. Once the initial work is done, they don’t need as much babysitting as a blog and if you decide to slack off, nobody will notice.
Add another to the ‘flipping from one extreme to the other’ camp. I tend to work really hard for 6 weeks, then spend 2-3 weeks doing very little economically productive.
Like Christine, I put a stupid amount of time into my site…but im hoping the new latour I am working on will make things optimized better….
where are you going to be in September? Sorry to say I decided to move back to Southeast asia!
Ok, so I went all professional with my website and now you should be able to comment just fine!!!
Like you said, it’s a lot easier when you are motivated. I think it’s always best to jump on those good ideas and get the work done there and then. I’m a workaholic as you know but it is not only hard, but sometimes a waste of my time if I am lacking creativity or motivation. I am learning how to down tools and relax.
I totally agree with both Frank and Xias.
Matt your new site design looks good! So you’re heading to SE Asia rather than China? I’m hoping to be volunteering in Sichuan up until my visa expires in mid October but after that it’ll probably be volunteering in Thailand or hanging around on a farm that teaches sustainable living stuff. Or Laos maybe just backpacking. Or maybe Indonesia. Ah who knows!
AP I know that writing is a total waste of time for me if I’m not motivated. I am capable of writing decent stuff but if I’m not motivated it all comes out pretty half-arsed.
I think that you’ve hit upon a strong cord here with the slacker/worker sharing of time. I find that I have uber-productive time and then time when I can’t get myself to do anything other than vaccuum the carpet repetatively. (ok, so that’s a bit of an exageration - I really watch TV!) I’m still learning to go with the uber-productive time when I get it, it’s hard to do with a husband who likes to have a regularly set schedule!
Sadly, my super motivated state of mind has left me. Although now I’m more motivated to go to the gym which can’t be a bad thing. But those site’s I’ve been nearly finished for weeks are still on the verge of being done.
This weekend for sure…
Suz, I think it would take a lot to motivat eme to vacuum! Ah it’s great having a cleaner.