Thirty three years ago, I started my full-time career.
I was studying for a Computer Science degree and I got bored!
I dropped out.
I decided to leave.
I wanted to earn some money.
I gave up the degree course.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just knew I didn’t want to go to college anymore.
I visited the job centre for a few days.
There was a job in the banking area of London. Right in the city of London. The job was for a Pensions Clerk.
£3,600 annual salary plus free lunches. That’s equivalent to £9,000 in today’s world if we use 3% inflation – that is less than the minimum wage!
But I was happy and I got free lunches. I was offered the job.
I took it.
I also had a couple of little part-time jobs at weekends and evenings collecting football pools money and valeting cars.
I certainly wasn’t afraid of working hard. I enjoyed the extra money.
My Salary Went Up By Ten-Fold
Within a few months I joined the IT department of the same London company and my salary doubled overnight.
I moved around a few companies and ended up having a great career in IT.
I was Head of IT for a large world wide corporate company. A great salary, company car, bonuses, health care, private pension, free shares.
I don’t want to mention the company I worked for but, for me, they were great. I put in long hours working for them and they treated me really well.
Then there was a lot of downsizing and redundancies / layoffs. I survived many times.
But I knew one day my name would be on the list and I wanted something to ‘keep me going’ if I were ever made redundant.
So eight years ago, I started my own on-line business while working full time. I continued to work long hours for the company I was working for and evenings and weekends on my own on-line business.
NO MONTHLY SALARY!
For 28 years, I worked for a company…for someone else.
Then five years ago, I had the option to take voluntary redundancy.
I took it and suddenly I was working for myself.
No boss. No objectives. No staff to manage. NO MONTHLY SALARY!
That’s pretty scary.
I’m now on my own.
I make all the decisions.
I decide when to work and what to work on.
Nowadays, I have 4 major activities that I perform most working days:
1. Content creation – blog posts, videos, new products, tweaking my own website
2. Marketing – blog commenting, affiliate marketing, social bookmarking, social media…
3. Clients – working and mentoring with my clients on their websites / small businesses
4. Learning – reading other blog posts, buying new courses…keeping up to date on the latest trends
Now my day looks like this:
6am. Most days, I go to the gym.
8am. Then home from the gym, I have breakfast with my wife.
8.30am Then it’s off to work…it takes me 15 seconds to get to work. I just walk from the kitchen to the home office.
Turn on the pc and while it is booting up, I just check what I have planned to do today on my activity list.
Then I check my emails and respond to any that need responding to.
Check my direct tweets and Facebook messages and reply to any that need replying to.
Check my blog comments and reply to any that need a reply.
That takes, on average, an hour.
9.30am Then I look at my plan to see what I have planned for the day.
I have a weekly plan and the weekly plan is broken down into daily tasks based upon the 4 activities I mention above.
Each daily task is broken down into 60-minute chunks.
And at the end of each week, I plan out the next week’s daily plan and activities.
By having a daily plan and planning ahead, it helps me focus.
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Back to work
18.00 Dinner
18.30 Back to work
19.00 onwards (depends upon how much work I have to do)…my time!
Would I ever go back to the corporate world?
NO!
I love the freedom. I love the ‘working from home’ lifestyle.
Have you made the transition from 9-5 to working for yourself from home?
What focuses you?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Andrew, thanks for your post, it caused me to clear my own thoughts on the topic.
Similar to your path, I spent the first 30 years of my career in the corporate world. The golden cage principle applied – to have a personal ATM in your front yard that spits out more money than you need month after month is a great thing to have. But it’s also far from ideal to prepare for business on your own. My biggest mistake was to start out with truckloads of money, thinking it would help open the door to success. But money – especially if you have no experience – only allows you to cultivate your bad habits longer, and covers up the problem you’re experiencing, likely till you run out of money.
What always focused me is knowing that if I work as hard for myself as I worked for employers in the past, I will succeed. I never doubted this, so never gave up.
What focuses me today is a three-thronged approach I acquired in the process. Step 1 was/is to know the WHY and WHAT of my life’s focus – basically an annual life mapping. Step 2, HOW to reach the milestones on my map – periodic strategizing. Step 3 daily planning/tasks – I plan each new day before going to sleep the evening before (in the process I’ve kinda abandoned weekly plans). For step 3 I find writing it by hand is the most effective, but I do back it up by using Trello, my safety net.
Beat
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
And I totally agree with your statement: “…knowing that if I work as hard for myself as I worked for employers in the past, I will succeed. I never doubted this, so never gave up.”
I felt exactly the same. It gave me the confidence to succeed.
I also love your three-thronged approach…so simple but so, so many people just don’t do!
Andrew
A great articles for all those people who work online. I have also made s similar routing for myself and that helps me a lot. This is my first post and I read many of your articles, hope do some more comment in near future. But, at last thanks a lot for sharing this valuable articles.
Corinne
I do remember those days and you are right – no gym, no dancing! But in a funny way I did enjoy those days as well. I loved the excitement of a new demanding project.
I still work hard now…on my own business but I love it even more…and it doesn’t feel like work!
Andrew
Thank you Andrew for sharing this info about yourself. I like the way you plan your week. My only problem can be when I am needed as a grandmother. You know the baby sitting thing.
When this happens I do make up some time in the evening or on weekends. What i find hard when it comes to being a woman is that hubby has things he needed or wants you to do. Kids big or small always need something. And of course the house hold things that need to be done. How ever I have learned to say NO.
For men they are expected to bring home the bacon, so everyone leaves them alone to do there work.
Don’t get me wrong I am not complaining. Life is wonderful and male or female we have to learn to work around distractions and set our priorties.
Thanks for the priorties check. I can always use it.
Debbie
Debbie
It all comes down to priorities!
When other tasks are needed to be down, cut down your working hours and plan around those.
Another option is also plan to only use 75% of the hours you expect to work. That way you have 25% contingency for those emergencies.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I agree with Corinne’s disadvantage… ” Being your own boss is sometimes having the most demanding boss in the world”.
I can technically always be working, because there is always something that can be done. Whether it’s a new post, responding to emails or more social media. Also having all my tech connected to my instant notifications really means I can work all the time.
But at a 9-5, once your out the door the work day is over and your weekend begins.
At the end of your work day, after your 10+ hours at work how do you stop the urge to reply to that email or begin a new post or tweak something else?
On the positive side what I love the most about being my own boss to swapping days without having to ask.
If one of my children become ill or have appointments, I can swap a work day or add-on hours to the next or complete the tasks that are easy to do when their around. No 9-5 allows that!
Great read
Naomi
Naomi
You certainly list out some great pros/cons of working for yourself.
When working the 9-5 and when I walked out the door – the working day was never over. I just wish it was…sometimes!
Thanks,
Andrew
A lovely blog post, Andrew. I love the fact that getting to your office takes 15 seconds! That’s about the time it takes me too. I’ve found that I’ve gotten a bit bored of working life out on my own and have decided to do some more studies to take another path in life. I don’t know where this will take me, but I think the decision is all but made now.
Nice Anne.
I always believe we have to grow and expand our knowledge and experiences.
What are you going to study?
Andrew
Personally my most productive time of all is very first thing in the morning – the kind of time when other “normal” people are still asleep.
So the night before I “prime” myself by working out my task list in order of importance. Then I get up first thing in the morning and launch straight into the most important tasks.
By lunchtime I’m running low on “inspiration” and need a break.
Then the afternoon tends to be given over to “lower” tasks that require less effort such as catching up with social media, responding to emails and moderating blog comments.
Richard
What you comment shows me…is that we are all different.
Many of my clients are from USA/Canada – so I get a few emails overnight and like to respond to them first thing.
Andrew
15 seconds to get to your office? You must be tired from the gym 😉 I slide into my office on the wooden floors!
Seriously though I think what you’ve done is build up an ideal lifestyle suited to you and your wife, based on doing something you enjoy and it works. Which is fantastic! I knwo you can help others do it too.
Keep up the good work!
Joel
I do have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself how lucky I am and so many want the same thing. They can…if they work hard and are driven. But it can take a few years to achieve.
Andrew
Andrew, it appears you have worked things out very well for yourself!
Having that plan and focus when working at home if key. I try to do that on weekends,
otherwise my day is frittered away. And sometimes I let it get frittered away as I need the break.
I plan one day, to work from home. For now, it is an office and working for someone else.
The key for me, is getting home with enough mental energy; and not letting stress wipe me out during the day. I continue to work on that aspect…
Thanks, Anne
Anne
Sometimes I do plan to have a day that is frittered away! Weekends normally – to re-charge and get ready for the week ahead.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I’m now working for myself too (an offline business) but somehow out of nowhere. My working hour increases from year to year and now it hits 17 hours a day.
It really got me thinking of the freedom I dreamed of when I first started out. I’m now taking a huge steps of hiring more, delegate more and systemize more to make my freedom dream come true.
Thanks for sharing yours.
Raymond,
You are not alone. Many of us work long hours and then realize we need to get systems in place and outsource.
Andrew
Hii Andrew, I’ve been going through the mails you’re sending me since one year and you’ve really helped me in learning how to make money online using blogging. This thing was always in my mind that whether productivity will increase in office or I should stay at home only. Now its clear that location doesn’t matter and I can work from home only. Thanks again 🙂
Pawan
I’m so glad my emails have helped you…hope you emjoy working from home.
Andrew
It really helped me a lot, I sometime loose focus while I am blogging. Thanks for such a wonderful post.
Hey Thanks, I try to do that on weekends,otherwise my day is frittered away. And sometimes I let it get frittered away as I need the break.I plan one day, to work from home. For now, it is an office and working for someone else. Thanks for the post nice to read it.
Hi Andrew,
The post is really an inspiration for me. I am also a blogger and sometimes I get really puzzled with so many things to do alone – writing, tweaking the design, marketing, socially engaging, etc. But looking at your time schedule, I am now having a feeling that I will also be able to schedule a routine for myself just as you do in order to increase my work performance
Hello Andrew, guide was very helpful as I’m planning to leave the 8 hours job and continue focusing completely on my blogs. Your blog is helping users since years and I’m one of them. 🙂
Thank you for a consistent article. To my mind is really a good opportunity for the young and promising starts up to enter the business world if they lack funding themselves
Perfect article for freelancers and for people who work from home. I have been thinking to leave my job and get into full time blogging and this post was really helpful for me.
Working at home can be really difficult sometimes. Its so easy to just get sidetracked in the comfortability of your home.
Without an aim or the perfect word should be goal we can’t achieve good things in this field as there is a lot of work to be done but time is too short to do all this thing.So a routine of doing everything is a perfect solution if you want to be big in life.If you don’t then work will get the better of you.
Great article and thanks for sharing this to us all as we will able to learn from it.
The post is very helpful and loved your tips to manage our works.Also loved the first imafe starting the post where is mentioned I love my boss as my boss is none else than me.
I have read the post and found it valuable. I am also planning to work from my home. I wanted to know about what I have to keep in my mind. I was searching it from some time and found it here. Thanks for sharing.
Andrew,
I love being my own boss, and not having to answer to someone else. But I feel it does brings other pressures, such as having to be jack of all trades, apart from when we find someone to out source to.
I really think its important to plan the day, as it can be so easy to procrastinate!
Wendy
I like to think I don’t procrastinate – I don;t have time to…but I bet I do!
Andrew
Amazing do and don’t for blogging.you have put a really awesome content which makes any blogger aware about the fact of blogging.
I am agree with you on lots of points specially the once talk about the passion and hard work.I personally believe that hard work is the key point in making a successful blogger.keep it up
What focuses me? When I think of that I need to earn money for my livelihood.It’s simple and that’s make me going.
You are living really amazing life… house to work in 15 sec.. NO Boss, no tension…………..:-)
Hi Andrew, you and your articles are alway very helpful. They are really very inspiring. As I work from home many times get distracted due to surroundings. But this articles gave me great idea and encouragement to work from home.
Following what you feel you have to do, rather than going to an office to earn money, is the most important thing, here. To find out that you can help others by using your own skills, and the knowledge base you learned while being employed is a great feeling.
Congrats on the Anniversary,Andrew, and keep helping people!
I also perform them regularly but still I’m lacking in a part as I’ve got desire to learn but my patience level let me down every time.Great post.
What focuses me? When I think of that I need to earn money for my livelihood.It’s simple and that’s make me going.
Hello Guys!
Having yourself as your boss is far better than have someone else on this post. I said that as I had a “Horrible boss” couple of years ago.
Now I am working independently and I am very happy with myself.
Nice and informative post
Work from home is a type of work where you have no boss, have no work pressure, no daily tasks to complete. It is like you are on your own. It is great to have full freedom at work. And even more if it is our own business we obviously try our best to make it work and be successful. But in such type of work one should always maintain a schedule for time and day to day tasks. It helps you to maintain your time ,work and also other activities.
But there are times when it is difficult to work from home.Situations arise sometimes which can not be managed easily. But as you have been working from last few years it must have been very comfortable to you. A very helpful article especially for part time bloggers and freelancers.
thank you for sharing.
Staying at Home and working from there is always looks cool and the person who don’t know the fact think we are just useless fellow who are wasting our time on internet . But it is always a painful task to earn money from Home.
Excellent experience shared.
Hi, thanks for great information.
All points are teaching us, how to become a good boss, and if you are missing some thing, I really think that whom I shout to give my weakness a head.
Andrew,
Great post! Everybody seems to have their own way of staying productive while working at home. I tend to get the most done late at night or very early in the morning, before sun-up. My son, his friends and my dogs are noisy during the usual 9-5. With tutoring, I’m at the library in the afternoons and those hours with students are highly focused and uninterrupted.
If the noise gets to be more than I can stand, I pack up my computer and go to the library for peace and quiet, but unfortunately, no coffee pot or drinks (besides bottled water).
When I worked in industry, I changed my hours from 7:30 – 4 to 8:30-5. Most everyone went home at 4, and I used to get more done in that last hour of the day than I got done in 4-5 hours while everyone was at work.
Now, I get more done in 4 hours when there are few distractions than I used to get done working for anyone else. I just need to make the pay commensurate with the accomplishments.
I also like my commute, 5 seconds, since my office is next to the kitchen, or at least it is for now. Having a daily plan is good as well. I can’t seem to remember what I need to do at the beginning of a day if I didn’t write it down at the end of the last work day. Personal errands and tasks are similar. I just don’t seem to be alert and thinking for awhile each day, so by the time I remember I’ve wasted a lot of time. It’s amazing what a list can do to keep me on track.
I don’t have trouble stopping work, nor do I tend to work all the time. I put in long hours only when needed, which isn’t regularly. I see how I could work all the time, but I lose focus and creativity, get tired, and stop for the day, or at least a break. Breaks usually turn into chores at home. Laundry, cooking supper and doing dishes always keep me away from working too long. When I go back to it, it’s much later, and I focus on finishing what I started and planning for tomorrow.
Sherri
Sherri
I understand what you mean about noise.
I often get a few hours before the rest of the gamily and get much more done!
Andrew
I’ve tried the work at home idea, but I’ve found that there’s much more work done (by me anyway) if I’m in an office.
I found when working at home I couldn’t ‘switch off’ and was always working, but the productivity wasn’t great. Now I’m finding it much better in an office, so I can get in at 8.30 for the day.
I know what you mean about not wanting to go back to the corporate world 🙂
Sam
I suppose your comment tells us…we are all different and like different things.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Working at home requires discipline too, but the great thing about it is you can be flexible as well. I’m just starting out and still trying to get into the groove of being productive at home, these tips will really help.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hello Andrew – Thanks for sharing your tips on how to be more productive when we are working from a home. It is a good idea to have a home office even though we are working from home to avoid disturbance .
Hello Andrew,
Well working from home will surely need to lot of concentration and focus which will bring good outcome from our work.
Thanks
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for sharing your daily routine with us. Yes, the biggest advantage of blogging is that there is no boss and we have all the rights to take decision. Working from home requires lots of focus and consistency and after reading your daily routine we can learn how to stay focus while working from home.
Ah, this post really made me smile as I have also made the transition from the corporate world to working from home, and it is so great.
Yes, it took 6-7 months before I started making a decent income, and the first few months were tough, but “this is what we signed up for” and it’s fantastic these days. So many people try to make a full time income from home, and it certainly isn’t easy, but if you look around, nothing in life is easy!
Anyway, what keeps me focused is the very thing you have already spoke about: Lifestyle.
I sometimes take it for granted that I don’t have a boss watching over me, but I am often reminded when I speak to friends who are so miserable with their job. It seems like everyone hates their job these days.
So, yes, what keeps me focused is essentially being “grateful” for the lifestyle, but also taking responsibility for it.
Nick,
Thanks for the reminder – we do take things for granted and we should be very grateful.
Andrew
First of all congratulations on your success!!
People might think that stating a blog and making a living is easy but trust me, it is not only about focusing on things but also keeping yourself motivated day by day to reach your destination.
There are people who give up blogging after trying for few months, one has to stick to it and believe in their idea. There is no such thing as quick money and I would say being self employed is much difficult that working for someone else.
it is very difficult to work from home you are absent from important meeting newsand gossips but you avoid commute and offices save money on office space. But thanks for your suggestion it will help us to work from home.
I work from home because I love being my own boss. It helps me to earn lots of money. What I feel is that staying focused regularly is not easy when we work from home. Thanks for your great share.
Working from home is kind of a dream for most people, of course I am one of them. Your schedule is quite good, really inspired by this post.
Thanks for sharing.
I’m also working from home. One of the main problem I felt is when we become our own boss normally we will become lazy at some point. In my case when I earn a good amount of money I wouldn’t working the next one or two weeks, I’ll be partying and wasting the time. When there is a boss or someone to command we will be more productive.
Nice article, keeping ourself focused while working from home. Dropping college and starting making money. the journey would not be so easy for you. But it’s inspirational.
Hello…
Its was really daring decision to stop graduation degree in between.You article is great inspiration to me.I learned lot of things from your article.Most importantly the thing is,do that work in which we have interest….:)
I am still in the first phase in your story. Working full time at a company, with many overtime hours and at my spare time I am working on building my own business and writing on my blog(s).
Hoping one day to take the final step and only working on my own business just like you did.
Good luck, Johan.
I hope it works out for you…do you have a plan? What’s your timescales of leaving the 9-5?
Andrew
Hi,
You proved a college degree doesn’t matter for hard worker. I am also self-employed and love my work from last two years. Work like a boss gives feel better than employee.
Regards,
Jyoti
This is a legitimate post. I’ve always toyed with the idea of working from home and have occasionally had WFH days at my job. Sometimes I get distracted very easy. What I find that helps me the most is to wake up early & give 4 solid hours of focused, non-interrupted work. This can help get all of your major tasks complete for the day.\
I love your idea of the 60 minute chunk method. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the day’s tasks, but if you break it down into manageable pieces, things become much easier. Heck, that’s how I finally got my blog up and running!
Mount,
Is your blog the way out of the 9-5 for you?
Thanks,
Andrew
I love my work at home. I don’t want to work in any company. I can earn decent money to work at home. Thanks for sharing your daily routine with us. One thing i want to tell you that it is not easy to work at home because you will face many problems or distractions.
Regards
Paras Bhutani