hey friends welcome back to my channel today we are going to be talking about how i manage my time
as a software developer and also a tech entrepreneur for those of you who don't
know i am a full-time software developer monday through friday at ibm and then on the side i have
my business tiff and tech i want to speak to you today about really how i have found
the balance in order to be able to do both and do both successfully share with you some
tips that worked for me some that didn't work for me and so much more before we get started
though make sure to hit that subscribe button for more tech and coding related content shout out to
some of these subscribers here thank you for your comments feedback questions all of the above you
all are just amazing also as a side note you will notice that my setup is very different than usual
it is because i am working from home i went back to my parents house this past weekend which was so
great to catch up with family and uh have a little downtime so hence the setup is a little different
there are so many things i wish i knew when i was first starting out both managing my time
as a software developer but also to having my own tech business and it's really an art that
once you figure it out you're like okay this is so much easier but until you get in that rhythm and
really find out how to balance everything it can be very overwhelming i'm really excited to
dive in and share some good tips with you but before we do that i want to say a big shout
out to magic for sponsoring part of this video magic offers some amazing dedicated assistance
that can really help you in being able to delegate what work you want to do and what these assistants
can do there is nothing more important in my opinion than really finding out what work is
really prioritized that you need to do and what work that can be passed on to an assistant to do
having an assistant can completely change your honestly your life your day to and especially when
it's a dedicated assistant i mean the amount that i have noticed in my productivity and being able
to focus on what really matters since getting one is mind-blowing not to mention they have
screened over 10 000 dedicated assistants since 2015 so they know what they're doing
i also linked magic down in the description so you can go check them out okay let's get
started the first thing i do no matter what day it is is plan out my day having both the
software development side of things and then running a business obviously my day is very busy
and even if you're just doing one or the other it's extremely busy and having an idea of what i
need to get done throughout the day is so key for me i usually plan out my day a few days in advance
i'll do usually on sundays i'll sit down for about 30 minutes and schedule out my week to come
i will prioritize what absolutely needs to get completed this week and kind of trickle down
into what would be nice to get done from there i will break it down day by day so for example
i know i need to finish this website this week okay well how can i how much time do i need to
spend on it each and every day this really helps me stay organized and not feel what is the word
feel overwhelmed because there's so much to do in a week or in a day and really breaking down
the tasks really helped me on that note i am a huge believer and a huge fan of time blocking
i know i spoke about this before and i know i've gotten some really amazing feedback from you
who have tried time blocking as well and essentially what time blocking is is you are
time blocking your entire day so you are starting from uh 8 a.m or whatever time your morning
starts at until the end of your day and you are blocking out different kind of increments from
scheduling and when you respond to emails to when you are going to be coding to
everything in between so because what a lot of people will do is they'll say i need to get done
all these things in a day and plan out their day but they won't account for the things that they
absolutely need to get done as well but aren't really big things meaning take out the dogs or
what's another good one respond to the emails or make time for responding to slack messages
things like that so time blocking is another huge thing for me i honestly it's a game changer
so if you are not someone who time blocks i highly suggest to try it it's really good
next on the list is start with the most important tasks i know this sounds pretty obvious but
way too often do we put off the most important tasks if they are not the tasks that we enjoy
doing the most so maybe there is a task that is very important but you do not enjoy doing it so
in turn you end up pushing it off until the end of the day and then you are too tired to do it
or too burnt out and it kind of gets pushed off till the next day what i love to do is really
prioritize that okay this task needs to get done it's the most important task even if i don't want
to do it or i really just dislike the task if it's the first task it needs to get done first thing on
the note of the first tasks i shared it i think before on here with you but it's something that
i learned a while ago and it's a complete game changer which is the abc method and basically
when i write out different tasks that i need to complete i will put my a a's next to the ones
that are priorities that no matter what they need to get done throughout the day the bees are nice
to haves it'd be nice to get them done but if it waits the next day it's not the end of the world
and seas are more like yeah it'd be great if i got there but if i didn't they're still gonna be
around tomorrow that really helps me prioritize too and identify what tasks i need to really put
my energy towards number three the next thing i do is work in sprints so kind of just like
maybe it's the techie in me but i will work in sprint meaning if i start work at say nine
i will time block and work till say 10 like just pure coding and then from 10 to 10 15
i will go i don't know get a tea or go for a walk or any of the above but rather than just thinking
oh i have all these tasks i need to complete by the end of day i really try and break down my
day with little rewards almost that if i know i achieve this or i complete uh this hour of
coding or things like that i can take a little bit of time time off and a little bit of a break
and that brings me to my fourth tip which is do not contrary to popular popular belief do not
multitask multitasking has been for me anyways one of the worst things that i used to do i used
to think i could respond to emails while on a call while trying to code or whatever the case may be
and in the end i end up getting things done poorly or not well or not even done at all sometimes and
that's where having a dedicated assistant has really helped me as well and changed the game
for me knowing that i can pass on what kind of work i need to uh for them to do that can take
a lot off of my plate and i want to touch here again on magic because i have been using magic
the dedicated assistant for a while and honestly i don't know how i functioned without it before i'll
pull up on the website here you can see there is no long-term commitment which is huge and as
i mentioned only ten dollars an hour and because these dedicated assistants are pre-screened they
are hand-picked for your business so what is best for your business and uh kind of the industry you
are in once again i link them down below so make sure to go check them out this is such
a great way to get a dedicated assistant and also take some work off of your plate
and that brings me to my last and final tip that really helps me which is delegate certain tasks
for too long i thought i needed to do it all by myself and have it all figured out and that's
not the case you should work with people who are smarter than you who are more specialized than you
all of the above and that's how you continue to grow and learn too and when i realized that and
i started delegating some tasks of things that i'm not good at because no one is good at everything
for me i am terrible with writing so delegating tasks okay can you read over this or edit this
kind of piece of content i am writing or even with it comes to the software development side
of things delegating tasks more so meaning if i'm stuck for a long time not being afraid to
ask a question so i guess it's not really delegating a task but it is in the sense that
i'm not just going to stay stuck or remain in one place but keep on moving forward
and that will make such a big difference i hope you really enjoyed this video and kind of got some
more insight as to how i manage my time both as a software developer and also to an entrepreneur it
definitely is an art and it's something i am so passionate about talking about because i think if
you do it right and you kind of find that sweet spot you can excel really in so many different
areas and there's so many little things like i shared even with the time blocking that will make
such a big difference if you haven't already make sure to hit that subscribe button for more tech
and coding related videos give this video a thumbs up and i will see you all soon thanks everyone
you