The CoStructure experiment is in the works!
Follow our adventures on the blog! costructure.posterous.com
The Pitch
Independent life is awesome, but it means you are solely responsible for everything in your life— which means a lot of important but easily put off stuff tends to fall by the wayside.
The originator of coworking, Brad Neuberg, started coworking so he could put his workday in its place and not let it take over his life. Let's work on doing the same.
What it is
A shared structure for certain things we all have to deal with, which we do together as a group. This allows us to set aside time for things we might otherwise put off, and have other people to encourage us to stick to the schedule. Like a diet, for our brains.
Items
- Business card responding/ENTERING INTO LINKEDIN - WH
- Receipt entry
- Bookkeeping/INVOICING/FOLLOWING UP ON UNPAID INVOICES - WH
- Running errands (rent a ZipCar and drive around the city together)
- Grooming inbox (cleaning up old emails, creating new filters)
- GROOMING FEED READER - WH
- Reading books (no phone zone)
- Outdoor activities (enjoying nature while the weather is good)
- Blogging (set aside time to write posts)
- Long-term strategy session (business or personal)
- Concentrated work session (no email, calls, or other distractions)
- SCHEDULING DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS - WH
- SUBMITTING INSURANCE CLAIMS - WH
- PAYING BILLS - WH
- FRESHENING UP SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES - WH
- DESKTOP CLEANUP - WH
- ARCHIVING OLD PROJECTS - WH
- PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT - WH
Scheduling
Many of the above could be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, with a set time for each. Eventually we will build out this schedule here. See below for example:
FIRST TUESDAY AT 9AM:
- Enter receipts
- Respond to business cards
EVERY THURSDAY AT 3PM:
- Blogging — I PERSONALLY CAN'T BLOG WITH OTHER PEOPLE AROUND. I'VE TRIED AT NWC AND ALWAYS GET INTERRUPTED. - WH
FIRST AND THIRD FRIDAYS AT 4PM:
- Outdoor activity
LAST FRIDAY AT 1PM:
- Bookkeeping
LAST FRIDAY AT 6PM:
- Invite outsiders in for a alcohol-powered open-house social.
Daily Structure
We could selectively attempt to have an even more rigorous regime, where we share structure to our entire workdays (we could do this one day at a time).
This very closely mimics the original coworking concept. It could go something like this:
09:00 AM - Arrive promptly and begin with conversation about what you're doing today
09:15 AM - Begin work
11:15 AM - Coffee break, discuss progress
11:45 AM - Check & respond to email (NO email until this point in the day!)
12:15 PM - Group lunch and discuss group activity
01:15 PM - Return to work
03:15 PM - Group activity
04:15 PM - Back to work
05:45 PM - Go home, get away from the office
Morning Meeting
I've been parts of two groups that have 2 very effective morning meeting techniques:
1. Stand-ups: everyone stands up for the morning meeting, which prevents it from running long—everyone gets uncomfortable standing if it drags on. It takes place at a standard time (9.15am here) and participants talk about two things: "Helps" or "Interestings". No one is required to speak.
2. New & Goods. Everyone goes around and quickly mentions something new or good that happened since yesterday's meeting. Less productivity-focused, but a really nice way to start the day. Everyone must speak, although you can pass if you want to.
Both of these rely pretty heavily on consistent attendance from a core group.
Interest
Who would like to help build and participate in this program?
- Tony Bacigalupo
- Whitney Hess
- Greg Palmer
- Mark Burstiner
- jonathanpberger
Alternative Names
- Freelancer's Diet
- Brain Diet
- NWC Freelancer Sanity Program
- NWC Group Structure Program
- LEFTOVERS - WH
- ME TIME - WH
- TO DO LIST ZERO - WH
Resources
Lifehack - http://www.lifehack.org/
