What My 4-Hour Workday Looks Like as a ‘Full-Time’ Writer
Living the good life also has it’s drawbacks
My friends think I’m living the good life and relaxing without a boss and my family thinks I’m chilling in my room. I wish I was doing any of them! But my life as a writer and now a budding creative entrepreneur is very different.
I’m a writer, yes, but I only write for under an hour a day. 90 minutes at the most if the day involves some client work.
The good part is that 95% of the time I clock out the moment I hit 4 hours of work. The not-so-glamourous part is that:
- it’s very easy to waste time
- it’s even easier to stress about working when you’re not working
Let me emphasise this in the next section.
Too Much Good Stuff Can Be Overwhelming
Just like too many ideas can be overwhelming instead of an opportunity, too many opportunities can make you confused around prioritisation.
It was more overwhelming in the beginning than now. Back then, I’d keep thinking:
- Do I want to keep doing client work all the time?
- Do I need more clients?
- Can I start a business?
- Am I good enough to have a course?
- What's the best way I can add value?
- How can I streamline my strengths to add value?
These were tough questions in the beginning, but time and consistency gave me answers and a direction. The more I worked, explored, and said yes to new things, the easier it was for me to realise what I want and what I don’t.
Now, here’s what my day looks like as a full-time writer.
4-Hour Work Day
Let’s split this into the morning, afternoon, early evening, and evening.
Morning
I wake up at 7:30 and get ready for my physiotherapy. I got operated on September 2021 and my knees have to go through a rehabilitation process for 6 months now.
Once I get better, I’ll move to my morning workout routine of 45 minutes of strength training and 20 minutes of yoga.
I then meditate.
I’m almost always tempted to skip meditation and try to convince myself that I’ll do it later. And each time this happens, I never do it later. So I've realised the best way is to do it right after my workout and before I bathe.
After I shower, I eat a fruit and seven almonds and read for 30–45 minutes.
I start work at 11/11:30 am. The next one hour goes into editing my article because I edit the best with a fresh mind.
Afternoon
From 12:30 to 1:30, I do one of the following:
- write an article
- emails
- client work
The day I do the first one, I procrastinate the entire day because I feel I’m done for the day. Terrible, I know.
After lunch at 1:30, I watch Netflix and relax.
I feel relaxation was a major component missing in my corporate job. It’s incredibly hard to work after lunch. It gave me a machine-like feeling. Now, I’m very fresh to get back to work.
Early evening
I have my calendar open for calls between 3–6 pm and take a maximum of one hour of calls a day and 3 hours per week.
Since my corporate job, I found calls to be a huge waste of my time and I only take them if it’s absolutely important.
Luckily, I work with very few quality clients at once, so my client calls don’t take over an hour each week.
If I don’t have calls, I write an article (if I didn’t in the morning) and work on my product. So far, my product(s) look like this:
- free ebook about building a side hustle
- 2 writing guides in the process
- a course for writers to be consistent
Apart from that, I use this time to outline my next article. Having a blueprint of your article helps me think better and be ready to write the next day.
I have my tea at 4 and spend time with my family.
Evening
If I still haven’t written an article, now is when I do it.
Once I’m done with my writing, client work, and building a product, I use my time for two things:
- Networking: Posting on LinkedIn, replying to comments, checking out my notifications, scheduling my tweets, interacting on Twitter.
- Ideating: Before I shut my laptop, I write 10 ideas to work my creative muscle. Not all have to be good, but maybe one will be, and that's what matters.
With this, I’ve clocked in approximately 4 hours of focussed work and shut my laptop for the day.
What’s Next?
After work, I spend some more time with my family and watch TV or read a book. Nothing too fancy, a productivity nerd doesn’t work round the clock, that’s what makes them productive *wink*.
I try to read some more before I sleep. If I’m reading two books at a time, I read non-fiction in the morning and fiction in the evening.
I have my dinner, which comprises eggs 3–4 times a week and meat on other days. I then snooze off for about 7.5 hours.
It’s a good life. And it’s a great feeling that what you dreamt of a year ago can be a reality so soon!
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