Time And Productivity

Bill Cammack — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:11:29 +0000

Let’s Get It In!

It’s currently 5:45 am and I’m writing a blog post. “Why is that? o_O” you might ask. It’s because I just woke up and my mind is CRISP!!! >:D .. Firing on all cylinders. Ready For Action.. Kickin’ Ass and Takin’ Names.

I had this conversation with my friend Jeff the other day. He was saying that it takes him a long time to get started once he wakes up, but as time goes on, he gets more and more productive, until it gets to the point where he doesn’t want to go to sleep because his brain is working so well and he’s getting so much done.

Of course.. That’s probably why it’s tough for him to put it together when he wakes up.. Because his mental activity and productivity overrides some sort of natural sleep initiative, and he ends up sleeping at the wrong times (for his own personal body cycles).

Meanwhile.. When The Kid wakes up, I start out mentally “so fresh and so clean, clean”, and “ain’t nobody dope as me! >:D”

I can do practically *ANYTHING* when I first wake up, and my powers diminish as the day goes on, and eventually, I can feel the slowdown.. The sluggishness.. I can feel that I’m not getting as much productivity out of my mind as I was getting before, and eventually, I shut ‘er down and deliberately conk out.

I have techniques to avoid going to sleep if I need to press on and get something done, but for the most part, once I start losing it, I hit the deck so I can reset the system and make it happen a few hours from now, fully recharged and ready for action.

This is one of the reasons (besides detesting the taste) that I don’t drink coffee and laugh my ass off at how many people are addicted to coffee but refuse to consider it a national epidemic.

Productivity

I don’t need to drink coffee because if I’m awake, it’s because I’m *SUPPOSED TO BE AWAKE*, Capisce? >:D

I don’t need stimulants to trick my system into doing things it’s not supposed to be doing, because when I wake up, it’s because my body’s ready to make incredible things happen.

I also don’t use alarms, unless I agreed to physically show up at a client’s site to work at a certain time.

I sleep when I sleep, and I wake up when I wake up, and that’s how my life works.

Having said that.. I drink beer. I drink a lot of beer.

Being buzzed helps me not feel bored with life. Not being bored helps me focus on what I’m trying to accomplish today.

Of course, people are going to complain that my beer use rivals the masses’ coffee use! :P

I agree and disagree. When I wake up, I’m automatically in the game. You can’t stop me as soon as my eyes open. I’m virtually invincible.

If you need to drink coffee to start your body up, you’re dead in the water if you can’t get coffee. o_O

Put us in the exact same situation and remove beer and coffee, and I wake up and kick your ass for hours before you’re even able to function at 75% of your potential.

As the day drags on, you get mentally stronger and I get mentally weaker, but I have tricks to keep myself in the game, so all you can do is catch up to me, not surpass me, and you can’t pass me to the degree that you EVAR make up the head start I got on you by being CRISP right out of the gate.

Pretty much, every day, I accomplish twice what you accomplish, because I roll with how my body works, and I’m productive when I’m supposed to be productive and I shut ‘er down when my body’s not doing what I need it to do to be who I am.

Scheduling

I wanted to talk about this because I’ve been doing some on-site work recently, and I’m having a really great time, doing great work with great people. :)

Actually, to give context, what I do is I’m a video editor, social media guru, dating coach, music mixer, etc etc, but let’s focus on the video part..

Primarily, what I do as a video editor is I receive projects and footage from clients over the internet, work on the projects when I’m fully-functioning, preview the work for them over iChat Theater or Skype, then either send them the finished product or post it to the web for them, depending on their desired outcome.

This means that right now, instead of writing a blog post at 6 am, I could be doing work and billing a client for the time I’m spending on his or her project.

In fact, I have a drive right here right now containing video I’m going to be working on after I finish my on-site gig in a couple of weeks.

The obvious difference being that I can’t do anything right now about my current project, because a) The producers I’m working with are asleep right now, and b) the drives are at their offices, so I couldn’t work on them right now even if I felt like it.

So.. The reason I wanted to talk about this is that I can currently feel the inefficiency of work that’s scheduled during “office hours” instead of work that’s done whenever I’m fully engaged, prepared and focused.

I would be *CRUSHING* my clients’ projects right now if I had access to them and we had agreed to middle-of-the-night/morning billing. >:D

We would have started on Monday (It’s Sunday morning right now) a day ahead of where we currently are, because I would have applied my personal “work hours” of extreme productivity and interest to putting their videos together.

I think it’s very important for people to recognize / realize how their bodies and minds function when they endeavor to create a business strategy for themselves.

For instance, it’s 6:30 am right now here in New York City, New York, USA, which means it’s around lunchtime in the UK. While I’m waiting for Americans to wake up, I’m brainstorming and collaborating with people in the full swing of their day in England or France, like this video I created with Phil Campbell for The Charity Shop in Nottingham, UK:

Get Busy!

Especially with the American economy being what it is at this point, it’s in everyone’s best interests to maximize their productivity.

Trying to fit your square peg into the round hole of 9-5′ing may very well lead to drastically negative consequences for you and your family.

If you consistently do your best work after 7pm, get a job that begins at 7pm.

Better than that.. If you have good and bad times that are sporadically dispersed throughout the day, do work where you have a definite deadline and definite objectives, but it’s left up to you which times you actually work on the project.

Of course, I realize that what I’m talking about only applies to specialized vocations that you can actually perform in a flex-time environment where you make up your own work hours.

If your job is putting a door on a car, you have to do that while the plant’s open, so you don’t have any options as far as the timing of your day.

However.. With the extremely high rates of American unemployment in October 2011, this is the perfect opportunity for people to reinvent themselves.

Think outside of the box. Push aside what people told you and figure out what works FOR YOU. Drink your beer or drink your coffee. Work when you wake up or when you should be going to sleep. Work in-person with people or over the net. Work with people in your country or abroad. Be a “Jack of all trades” or a “Master of one”. Lock down a wife / husband or stay single.

What worked for the previous generation isn’t going to work now. Nobody’s getting that gold retirement watch when they’re 65 years old and have worked for the same company since they were 35 years old.

Reinvent yourself. Make a new plan. Play to your personal strengths. Figure out a new way to forge a path forward for yourself and your family.

Figure out how to maximize your personal potential and MAKE. IT. HAPPEN!!! >:D

Get A Job – RockStar 0006

Bill Cammack — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:32:58 +0000

Episode: â€œGet A Jobâ€ (download iPod version)
Show: â€œRock Starâ€ (category | rss feed | iTunes)
Host: Bill Cammack
NewInNovember: newinnov.tumblr.com

The New York Times ran a classified ad stating that there was a job fair Friday at the Pierre Hotel to replace about 250 jobs lost during an ongoing renovation.

This is what happened….

Bill Cammack » job