Hi Everyone!  It’s been quite a few days since I’ve updated here.  After reading Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule, I realized that I’ve been working under a manager’s schedule when the growth of this site requires me to follow a maker’s schedule or at least come up with a better compromise.

First, let me summarize how the article explains the two schedule types.  A manager’s schedule breaks up the day into hourly chunks or intervals (i.e., daily planners, Outlook calendars, etc.).  You designate the times you’ll check your e-mail, e.g., 8 – 9 am, 12 – 1 pm, and 6-7 pm.  You arrive at the office at 8, check your e-mail until 9, and then you focus on the next item on your agenda.  You return to your e-mail at 12 pm to answer any updates and so on and so forth.  Through short bursts of undivided focus on a certain task, a manager’s schedule encourages efficiency and productivity.

On the other hand, it’s not optimal for a maker – writers, architects, programmers, builders, etc. – to try to accomplish what s/he needs to do within the constraints of a manager’s schedule.  An hour may be enough time for a writer to stretch his or her creativity muscles, outline an article, or brainstorm a thesis but it’s hardly easy to write a novel in hour increments.  Lawyers, think about writing an appellate brief – even if you ignore the research , the Bluebooking, or formatting it correctly for the court – think about the process of crafting an argument that shows the court why the correct interpretation of the law or facts supports your client.  Now, think about how frustrating it is to get into the groove only to get interrupted by phone calls, a staff meeting, or a mandatory CLE.  Or, better yet, think about writing that appellate brief in hour intervals only and producing something worthwhile.  (As an aside, I found this post extremely insightful about the obstacles of scheduling creativity.)

As a solo entrepreneur, I am both the manager and the maker.  For me, the manager’s schedule lends itself to accomplishing the day-to-day tasks that make the business operate. It makes sense for handling PR, follow-up marketing, and the ultimate time-drain: administrator.  Therefore, lately, the manager’s schedule has worked for me because I’ve been trying to get the word out about the job listings column, I’ve been registering subscribers as site members, I’ve connected with people via Twitter and e-mail, and everyday I spend time perusing the industry news.  It’s fast-paced, it’s people-oriented, and it makes me feel productive.

On the other hand, there’s no reason for me to work on a manager’s schedule if there’s nothing to promote or no operations to handle.  Making things – coding the website so it’s more user-friendly, creating content, adding more features – these take hours, days, sometimes weeks to finish and there’s no immediate gratification.  It’s hard to internalize that you are making progress when you’re not posting or updating.

So, back to why I’ve been MIA.  I’ve had 5 major projects and aspirations for this site that have taken the backburner since, well, around November!  Because I had been running on a manager’s schedule for the last few weeks, I decided to dedicate last week and this week to a pure maker’s schedule to chip away at those projects.  Since last Monday (2.22), I only completed the manager-type tasks that required my immediate attention.  It may not have been the best solution but I needed a strict detox regiment.  I had to go to one extreme to get out of the other so that I could eventually find some sort of workable compromise.

I still haven’t finished the 5 projects – I didn’t think I would – but I am much further along in the process.

To give you a preview, the projects include:

• Publishing the Am Law job listings posts as a sortable table using javascript.  No more need to leave the site, sign into Google documents, etc.
• Adding more job listings columns – e.g., bankruptcy positions, IP positions, location-based columns.
• Creating an easy method for site viewers to support the site financially.  (Hey, we all have student loans to pay off.)
• Writing a few e-books that will be free downloads

I’m still around and I’ll get better at dividing my time.  As any solo practitioner or entrepreneur knows, it’s a learning process.  I hope you’ll stick around.