My chief learning for the first quarter of 2009 is: Things Take A Helluva Lot More Time Than You Realize.
Each project includes numerous tasks and even entire areas of activity that do not come immediately to mind when we're mentally assessing the time required to complete it.
Even when we accurately assess the amount of time required to complete a project, we invariably overestimate the amount of time available for that purpose.
In professional services firms, it's common for the principals to log, at most, 50% billable time. The other 50% is administrative.
For most Accidental Entrepreneurs, billable time includes service delivery and product development. That would mean that, in a 40 hour week, we have only 20 hours in which to generate income from service delivery and do the creation and production work for generating future income.
And when you factor in chaos, it's more like 16 hours. A little over 3 hours a day.
I'm figuring 1.5 hours (max) for direct service and 1.5 hours for creation/production.
At that pace, it takes a lot longer to complete a project than I expect.
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Jan and Feb have been my favorite months for years, not only because I love the snow, both to paint and to shovel, but because of the peace and quiet that is a relief from my chaotic life. We all cause some of the chaos by our choices but the more success and popularity, the more interruptions and demands,e-mails.phone calls,etc.with which to contend. Focus is not as difficult as choosing on what to focus. Do you believe in serendipity?
M.E. Your point is well taken. I don't so much believe in serendipity as experience it. And serendipitous interruptions (also known as happy accidents) are, for me, an essential part of the creative process.
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