Powerful productivity strategy recommended: How to leverage your ‘orphaned’ hours

Effective scheduling strategies, once reserved for the self-employed, are now crucial for professional creatives working from home. How can we—writers, architects, programmers, and designers —become more disciplined about the way we use our time, without sacrificing our creativity, when we’re already feeling burned out? That’s a question I’ve struggled with for years, and I set out to find an answer.

Stress is something my coaching clients and colleagues are reporting, caused partly by blurred boundaries between work and personal life. The benefits of technology, such as eradicated commute and travel times, have created the downside that we can hold meetings at odd hours and places, such as in our cars (to avoid waking up the family), extending work time into family and self-care time.

Working at home is plagued by increased interruptions. There is nothing more frustrating for a creative to have to switch gears once totally immersed and “in flow.” After discovering the difference between “manager schedules” and “maker schedules” thanks to an article by Dorie Clark, who introduced me to computer programmer Paul Graham’s post on the subject, I realized that the possibility of distractions made me unwilling to commit to writing in the first place. The half-day minimum was not enough for me. So, I started planning out my ideal week, dedicating entire days to my craft.

My Initial Strategy

My ideal week, I decided, would be split into three categories: self, work, and social/music. Within the work category, I applied what I learned from Clark and Graham. I turned two days into “maker days.” These would be for research and writing articles. I turned three-and-a-half days into “manager days” for appointments with clients, prospects, networking, professional development, and volunteering. I picked days these days around recurring appointments such as therapy, strength training and karate.

At first, it didn’t go as smoothly as I thought. After making Tuesday a “manager day”, I found it empty and I needed a day to go over the prior day’s writing. So, I turned it into a “maker day,” and converted my Saturday afternoon, which was reserved for the writing that I often missed due to admin, into “manager” time.

My Discovery 

Then, I found them. The orphans.

These were the sometimes present, odd, unclaimed, lone 45 unscheduled minutes. They were too short to do anything creative or to get into flow, but too long to just ignore. I wondered what to do with these outliers.

I looked at my commitments list. I had signed up for Dorie Clark’s Recognized Expert Course with its 50-plus hours of content to go through. I was enrolled in an IESE Business School financial accounting class. I realized that these commitments had been sources of stress, because I hadn’t been able to find the time to accomplish the course work. I had a lightbulb moment. Those “orphaned” hours were perfect for reading, and watching course lecture videos, and taking notes and quizzes. Yes! I would get through these courses after all!

A sense of relief overcame me. No, I didn’t have to sacrifice my free time to take those professional development courses. I could fit them into my workweek and keep my free time really free.

Now, I feel a sense of control and happiness when I look at my schedule and feel I’ve accounted for everything. Creating an ideal week and constantly updating it, helps me to juggle my commitments as well as my needs.

How would you, dear reader, apply this strategy to your calendar? Or what strategies have you used to deal with those orphaned minutes or hours? Why not schedule an introductory call if you are interested in working together to make your time even more productive and meaningful.