Not That Grumpy & Not All That Old

There are only a few things that are not overly abundant and easily accessible in New York City. One is space and the other is time.

Space is something that money can buy, time not so much. That's what I love about it, it's the great equalizer, setting everyone on the same level. With enough money, you can buy the biggest and best apartment in all the land, but you still have the same amount of time in the day as the rest of us. It all comes down to what we decide to do with that time.

Wander not

Starting your day without an agenda is like going to the mall without an agenda. You end up just wandering around for a while and not really getting much done. In the defense of the agenda-less mall-goers and day-starters, I do think that is the best way to find something you weren't looking for. And sometimes that's exactly what you need. But the rest of the time, you usually want to get in, get what you need and get out.

Benjamin Franklin's daily schedule

I've noticed a few of my friends (both Internet and real life) have been working with something that they refer to as The Old Man Schedule, an idea based on Benjamin Franklin's written schedule. Matthew Smith wrote up a nice blog post outlining his daily schedule.

It reminded me of something that I created right after I graduated college. I was in limbo, living in Boston but looking for a job in New York. I was staying with my girlfriend until I figured out what I was going to do. I was used to having a crazy busy schedule in school, (21 credit hours and an internship) and then all of the sudden, it all stopped. I didn't have anything to do. 

Making time

So I made things to do. I took on a few small freelance projects and decided that I wanted to learn more. I wasn't happy with my knowledge of and experience with design, and I felt like I needed to continue to learn and practice before I would be confident enough to land a design job.

I created a schedule for myself to keep me on track and motivated, while still being able to finally relax now that school was over. I was able to dig it up (this is why I never throw anything out). I titled it "Ideal Schedule" and I still think it sounds pretty ideal.

Ideal Schedule:

• 8:00am - 8:30am: Wake up & shower
• 8:30 am- 9:15am: Eat breakfast & read
• 9:15am - 10:00am: Coffee & sketch
• 10:00am - 5:00pm: Work
• 5:00pm - 6:00pm: Exercise
• 7:00pm - 9:00pm - Practice what I learned that day.

That was great. What an amazing day. It worked well for me at that time. But about a month after I graduated I landed a front-end dev job in New York City and made the move down. I was (and still am) working on amazing projects all day at Blue State Digital, but I still felt like I needed to keep advancing my design education and working on freelance and side projects. So I created a new schedule for myself.

NYC Stress Schedule

• 8:00am - 7:00pm: Commute & Work
• 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Dinner
• 7:30pm - 10:30pm: Work (freelance or personal project)
• 10:30pm - 11:00pm: Some sort of physical exercise
• 11:00pm - 11:30pm: Design Reading
• 11:30pm: Bed

That was a little aggressive. I was always tired. So I slowly started killing off my freelance clients and began focusing only on personal projects. I also took a few design classes to get some specific experience. 

Now I like to write, and work on personal projects. I usually don't have much time in the morning to get much done before I leave for work, so I've been leaving it all for the evenings. But by the time I get home, make dinner, and relax with friends for a bit, I really only have an hour or two before it's time to get back to bed. This is why it takes me forever to get anywhere with a personal project.

Take what you like, leave the rest

So what's the remedy? I like the idea of The Old Man Schedule. I don't know if I can handle getting up at 5:00am everyday, mostly because I don't see myself getting to bed before 11:30pm or 12pm. But 6:00am or 6:30am I can handle. That still gives me a solid two hours before I need to leave for work. So maybe a good hour of dedicated writing or designing whatever I need. 

My chalkboard desk

Really I think the idea is to just find what works for you. What I find helpful is to make sure that I have something specific to do in the morning, whether it's writing a blog post, returning emails or working on an iPhone app (All things I should be doing this morning). I am usually able to remember when I wake up, but I turned my desk into a chalkboard  so I can write it down just in case. So when I get up to turn off my alarm, I'll see the project written down and get jazzed to start working on it and not get back into bed. 

I've found that it's important to not take my schedule or expectations of myself too seriously. You can't get frustrated with yourself if you don't get to it all. Things happen and things take longer than you expect them to The important thing is that you tried. If you know that you gave your full effort at the end of the day, what could be better than that?

Only time will tell

I haven't written out my new Ben Franklin schedule yet. I've just been giving it some thought and getting up early every day. Once I figure out what is working best for me, and what is not, I'll be sure to post it. I'm curious though, how do other people with full-time jobs make time for their side projects? Does it really just come down to getting less sleep and being OK with it? I'm OK with that. I've got energy to burn.