If someone asked you how hard you work when you’re working for an employer, what would you say?
If a large company hired you to work on a week-long consulting project and paid you a hefty fee when it was finished – how many hours per day would you work to finish the project?
When I was an elearning consultant I was often hired by large companies to come to their location and work for a week to establish their elearning portal and training program. During the time I was onsite, I was working 10,12, sometimes 16 hours a day. I was totally focused on the task. Because we knew we had a week to get it done.
Those were the client’s expectations. And I knew there was a great reward at the end.
I turned off my cell phone. I would have turned off text messages if they had invented them at that time! I only checked my messages and email in the evenings.
I took care of myself physically, taking planned breaks, walking around to freshen my mind, and eating at regular intervals. And I drank a lot of caffeine. (Okay, you knew there had to be a vice in there!)
The point is I was 100% focused on the outcome. And I was willing to work very hard for a short time because I knew the rewards would be there.
This was all brought back to me recently as I spent a week onsite for a client – just like the old days. But in this case it was an internet marketing client. I spent 8-10 hours a day looking at sales materials, writing autoresponders, and generally fixing up their sales and support process.
And that’s when it occurred to me – I haven’t been working for ME as hard as I worked for THEM!
Sometimes I don’t “get around” to writing a full autoresponder sequence. Sometimes I don’t revisit older products that can be updated and repurposed. Sometimes I don’t streamline and document all of my processes. And many times I don’t focus 100% on a single task until it’s finished. In short, sometimes I get lazy with my own business.
So now it’s your turn. Are you working on your own business – as if you were a paid consultant? Would you pay YOU big bucks to do the work you’re doing?
We’ll talk about WHY you aren’t working as hard for you in an upcoming post. For now, share – are you working as hard for yourself as you would if someone else were paying you?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeanette Cates. Jeanette Cates said: @JeanetteCates just published How hard do you work? http://bit.ly/aqEFqN Come share YOUR answer today! […]
Jeanette-
You are SOOOO right- I found I was telling myself all too frequently “you wouldn’t dare treat a client like you are treating your business”. So I have recently decided to treat myself as I would a client & spend my time focusing more diligently on OUTCOMES, motivated by a desire to demonstrate impeccability and reap potential rewards. I’m re-clarifying my systems as we speak. Ultimately, this will make me better able to serve my clients anyway, but include myself in the win/win process!
I too have many half-baked projects waiting to be paid attention to- they’ll get logged into the queue and if they are still viable, roll them out one after the other appropriate.
Thanks for the shot in the arm!
Donna – you’re a project person like me, so you totally understand how to buckle down and get it done! And you’re right – we do it for everyone else but US.
So let’s start doing it for OUR businesses! I’m with you on that!
Jeanette
i think it depends how ‘hungry’ you are and your attitude towards the safe and the risky. paid work from a client is ‘safe’ – it’s real – but often our own projects are ‘ideas’ which may or may not lead to actual income. in my eperience i think it’s down to personality type – i have seen people very passionate about their own excellent projects but put them on hold in an instant for the security of a paying contract. money & security is often a bigger driver than we like to admit and if you want a balanced life with time for self, family etc, there’s not many people who will take the risk to focus on an idea at the expense of a more assured outcome. coming back to my orignial point, if work is thin on the ground that’s when even the ‘scared of risking it’ people can get creative.
Really good point – in that many people spending time “working” but not doing income generating activities. Email, IM and Social Media are the biggest interrupters – unless they are managed properly.
And some days, it’s a tough habit to break.
And I so agree with you on project focus – I am the queen of multi-tasking – I enjoy working on multiple things at once – but if I really want to get things done – I can only work on two things at a time. And then I make myself stay on task.
I also really liked what you said about scheduling in time to go out for a walk and eat a healthy meal.
It’s so easy to stay at your desk and get “one more thing” done, until you realize that it’s 5pm and you haven’t eaten breakfast!
Or worse, snacking at your desk on crackers or something and haven’t had a real meal all day.
There is a reason that corporations make money – structure, schedules, deadlines.
All of us will benefit from implementing these three things in our businesses!