I haven't worried about things such as work flow and productivity for the last month as I've moved to a new country and have been settling in, really just enjoying my new life here in Portugal.
I'm usually quite good at being productive (although the idea of being 'quite good' at 'being productive' sounds a tad oxymoronic), good enough to have got a good month ahead with my main work tasks, knowing that I probably wouldn't have the time or the inclination to focus on work in October.
Turns out I was right, I've had a very unproductive, if enjoyable month, although the end of last week wasn't too bad, I at least got my head around the concept of getting back into work and planned out a not too demanding work schedule of what I want to achieve with the rest of autumn and winter.
But now I've been here for almost a month, it's time to start getting back into work proper, I am still dependent on it for my income after all!
NB by work, I mean online work: producing resources for ReviseSocioology.com
Challenges to productivity in my new location
There are several barriers to my being as productive as I was back in the U.K. mainly:
- I'm now working on a Mac Book Air, which is a very reliable and useable machine, rather than a DeskTop - a Desktop is just so much easier to work on - the monitor's twice the size and the keyboard more ergonomic.
- I don't even have a desk space yet! I have been using the table outside, which is quite comfortable, but now the weather is turning, that's not an option. I'm working on my bed atm, I NEED a desk!
- Chickens - or more to the point the Fox that wants to kill and eat them - I've been woken up twice in the last week by the damn thing, not good for my getting up early, which I find conducive to work flow.
- Dogs - they are very cute, but they do seem to require a lot of attention and are quite insistent, bit of a distraction.
- As is Hive - I worked out recently I spend too long on microtasks on Hive - I need to stop staying up until 23.00 dicking about on this platform so I can get up earlier and get on with the not so fun but much better paid business of mainstream blogging and resource sales!
- General lack of organisation in the cabin - I've kind of got most of my items zoned out by function, but I need to order things a bit more rigorously - I think I need a few more tubs and maybe some shelves to help me this!
- Being cold in the morning - I'm used to an efficiently heated house and NEVER being cold - man it's hard to get going when it's cold in the mornings here!
- The basics set up means it takes longer to do things, and one has to be much stricter with keeping on top of washing up due the various creatures around!
- My large outstanding to do list encroaching on my work days - take last Friday - it was supposed to take my a couple of hours to get my residency certificate, it took me all day!
- It's nicer here - I just feel too chillaxed to want to work, it's going to be an effort motivating myself!
However, these challenges are not insurmountable, I just need a realistic daily and weekly routine to structure my time, and a few rituals:
Daily routine
I think the following gives me a good balance:
- Sunday - work day (Run)
- Monday - work day
- Tuesday - Moving related/ chores/ land search day
- Wednesday - work day (Run)
- Thursday - Moving related/ chores/ land search day
- Friday - work day (Run)
- Saturday - OFF/ dick around on Hive
I need four work days, no problem with purposing Sunday for this, it is the 'first' day of the week in Portugal after all so I may as well use it for what it's totally not intended for.
Having the two moving/ chores days close to each other allows for a bit of continuity, having them back to back would be soul destroying, too tedious!
Daily Routine
Rather than micro manage the work days (just the work days I'm talking about here) I'm going to keep it fairly open:
- 7.00 - up/ breakfast/ Hive microtasks/ tidy
- 8.00 - work session 1
- 11.00 - run/ shower/ lunch
- 13.00 - work session 2
- 17.00 - Dinner/ tidy/ chill
- 18.30 - Dick about on Hive and language learning.
- 22.00 - bed
A record of work
I'm going to keep a record of how many hours I work and what I do at the end of each day.
This is the kind of thing that would be offensive if it were imposed on you by management - but for me, working for myself, I think it will really help me - it's so easy to just close the laptop down at say 14.30, pet the dogs for five minutes, go for a little wander, come back and check my Hive feed and OOPS it's 15.30 all of a sudden.
As if my magic, an hour disappears!
So I think keeping a record of what I do should help keep me on track, even just a basic spread sheet towards the end of each working day, yes, that'll help!
And as to Hive and LEO, they are now in their proper place, being done in the evening, when I'm a little tired, but chilled!