I’m sitting in a little office-like room at my temporary home here in Gonaives, Haiti with a wicked fast internet connection and loads of stuff to do. Am I getting any work done? Hell no.

People who eagerly flock to supposedly dangerous places to shovel mud for weeks or months on end tend to be just a little bit crazy, and those are the people I usually get on with really well. The volunteering project I’m on right now has 22 people on it right now and the numbers will keep increasing from here on in until it ends in January. It might creep up to as high as 40 volunteers at once, all of whom are interesting in one way or another and most of whom enjoy chatting each night over a few beers.

It makes sitting here in this little office pretty tough. There are people to get to know outside and I am finding it hard not to pack up my computer and head out to join in the conversations. It’s really hard when the people I’m around are so much fun. It’s obviously a good thing but it makes getting work done pretty difficult.

People tend to come home and pass out for two hours during lunch so maybe I can use that time to get some productive stuff done. Unfortunately, I’d prefer to pass out durng lunch as well. I am going to set myself a goal of getting my living in Sydney site complete befor ethe end of November and then set another couple of goals for December. It’s the only way I think I will be able to motivate myself to sit in front of the computer instead of enjoying good company, a few drinks and the beautiful starry skys.

This working on the road thing is great but it can certainly be challenging at times like these. Ok, blog post done… time to go socialise!

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I’m busy and after a few months of cruising and doing a lot of lazing around, I’m certainly not used to it. I’ve got a friend staying with me who does a good job of dragging me out of bed to Olympics events and tourist attractions and also makes sure we hit the town pretty hard at night.

It means lots of early mornings and late nights and also means I have to think of someone else when I make my plans. Since I’ve always got somewhere to be, I’ve had zero time to devote to working which is why my blog posts haven’t really existed this month.

But it’s a good kind of busy so I don’t mind at all. It’s awesome to see my friend, the Olympics have been amazing and there will be plenty of time to devote to work and alone time in a few weeks so I’m going to live in the moment, enjoy the ride and hope that things don’t fall apart for me on the web front.

I sort of like this whole being busy thing. I’m almost laid back to a fault so having someone around to motivate me to get going and test how much I’m able to cram into a day has been a good learning experience, even if it isn’t work related. I’m not sure how much more I can take of it though!

Olympics updates to come at some point. I just got back from seeing Bolt set a new 100 meters world record which was very cool. Go Canada!

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Tim Ferriss is the guy behind The Four Hour Work Week, a book that gives advice on streamlining your work and making time to do what you want with your life. That’s a total guess because I haven’t actually read the book yet. I really want to but I can’t find the damn thing anywhere and I’m not a fan of audio books. I’ll get to it one of these days. (Hey does anyone know where I can buy the book in PDF format?)

So his book is really popular and he’s become a pretty well known guy. He does lots of talks around the US, he has a popular blog, and it’s pretty obvious that he’s super smart. I’ll admit that there’s something very punchable about him (the photos of him standing on his head or kung-fu fighting on the beach are a bit much, and watching a video of him break dancing made me cringe) but I find him fascinating at the same time.

I don’t admire him for his book, his successful businesses, his blog, his speeches or any of that stuff. I admire the guy because of what he’s accomplished away from the typical world of work. He’s all about freeing up his time to do whatever he wants, and it’s how he chooses to fill his spare time that has me in awe.

He is the most driven and motivated person I’ve ever had the pleasure to not know. The guy is a world champion tango dancer, holds some kind of tango world record, is a martial arts expert, knows a bunch of languages, travels loads, is super fit, raised money for schools in Asia and who knows what else (actually his site is down at the moment so all of this is off the top of my head and I really don’t know what else). He makes time for himself but, more importantly, he uses that time for personal growth in a really diverse number of areas. I make time for myself and then use it to nap. That’s not good.

I feel like I’m in a fantastic position in my life at the moment but the pressure is sort of on not to squander my time away. I’m eager to learn new skills but I always seem to have the attitude of ‘later’ or ‘next year’. I would love to take a page out of Tim’s book (after I read it) and find a way to aim higher, spend my time more wisely and motivate myself to achieve some big things.

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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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