I’ve been creating content online since around 2016 when I opened my professional Instagram account and started to blog. Back then I posted occasional food pics and nutrition tips, and didn’t even show my face for a while (it honestly wasn’t the trend, and IG didn’t have video then!).
But when I actually started my nutrition coaching business (in 2019) I started a habit that has kept me motivated for years: “clocking in” to work. For the work I’m speaking about, I am not immediately accountable to anyone but myself, and no one knows that I do this (until now). Outside of this, I do clock into my full-time job as an SLP. That plus having three children are reasons why I really had to find strategies for devoting time to my own ventures.
It started as a way to keep me focused (I don’t quite meet the threshold for ADHD, but I benefit from the strategies), and it has been the one thing I credit with keeping me consistent all these years with working on my business and creeping towards career freedom.
When I say “clock in,” I mean I literally start the stopwatch on my phone when I am working. My goal is at least one hour per day (or an average of seven throughout the week) and I literally write down the times and settle them at the end of each week, knowing if I’m ahead and can afford a break, or behind and need to step it up. Having the timer running makes me attend to the task at hand, and reduces the chance I’ll stop to check social media while I’m supposed to be focusing. It also allows me to give myself permission to “clock out” when I’ve reached the hour, allowing for work-life balance. As any entrepreneur can relate, in an attempt at gaining freedom by working for ourselves, we end up working more and without boundaries.
There have been years where I increased the expectation to 500 hrs per year from 365, but regardless I know that I’ve put in X amount of time at the end of the year and it makes me feel consistent and productive. I don’t allow negative self talk of not doing enough for myself, because I’ve literally got evidence.
One hour daily doesn’t seem like a lot, but I have a lot of other responsibilities to tend to (as do most of us). It often ends up being more, but some weeks when I’m struggling with motivation, getting a few hours in is still a win.
This strategy has allowed me to investigate my own energies and what I have the capacity for on any given day/week. Some days it’s a struggle to reach the hour, and some days I don’t have the bandwidth to clock in at all. When I am in a flow state, I’ll easily do three hours a day for a week straight while working my full-time job because I have the energy and the work feels easy. I have finally started to honor my energies and to not push myself too hard to do work on days when I cannot find the motivation. Tracking still helps me stay on target generally, but I also intuitively know that I’ll hit my star again (as in Mario Kart), if you will, and I’ll effortlessly race through tasks, making up for lost time.
Outside of clocking in via my stopwatch, setting timers has been a big productivity aid for me in all areas of life. I even do it to read for leisure (say, for twenty minutes at a time), because it helps me do something I enjoy that also gets me off my phone. Another one I love is picking up or putting away twenty items per song until a room is clean (I am messy and also clutter-blind).
If I had never started this initial stopwatch habit, I don’t think I’d feel as focused as I have through the years. It made me feel accountable to something, like my side business was important and worthy of devoted time. It’s interesting how providing structure to it helped legitimize my efforts, though I didn’t realize it would have that impact. Hopefully someday I can work for myself and not need the clock, but let’s be honest, I’ll probably use it forever now- just to prove to myself my own productivity.
Does anyone else do this obsessively like me?! Let me know, and please add your favorite productivity hacks in the comments!
xo, Amy
