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Some small tips that can make it more doable. * If you can, take the train into work. That's about 1.5 hours of additional productive startup time. Sitting i

Some small tips that can make it more doable. * If you can, take the train into work. That's about 1.5 hours of additional productive startup time. Sitting in a car is dead time. * Get rid of your lunch hour. Park yourself at a nearby Starbucks and add an extra hour each day of productive startup time. Do this every day. * Given your spouse's variable work schedule, my guess is that your most productive time is in the evening, after kids are in bed. Can you shave off 2-3 hours per night? Better managing this time is huge. There may be other things that are specific to your family life that can give you 30-60 minutes here and there. Time slicing like this is hard, but it adds up to meaningful startup time.

keerthi 15y ago
great tips. Anything for me?? I work in a typical IT services company in India. 1Hr commute one way, have teleconference calls till 11pm. then eat and sleep. But should be in office by 10AM. The problem is my wife also works in the same project. :-( Fortunately we are in a joint family. food, my sweet baby, cleaning, washing etc.. are all taken care.
- j45 15y ago
  Make a schedule where every minute of every day goes for 2 weeks and you'll know what to cut. Having joint family support to do everything for you is a big help already.
Timothee 15y ago
About the lunch hour, one always needs to be careful of the rules of the company they work for regarding intellectual property. Working from a Starbucks shields you from using company equipment/network, but I'm sure in some cases, lunch time is not exactly your own time. But otherwise, great points! As far as I'm concerned, my commute doesn't allow me very convenient public transportation. (though I should look into it again) Another thing is that I'd be a bit worried for my laptop since I would go through some somewhat shady areas… And for the lunch hour, it's sometimes difficult to resist the appeal of socializing with colleagues. Sure you can do it at other times and it's a sacrifice, but it's still a temptation.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  If you're worried about legal issues with working on your own projects during lunch time you can easily sidestep that problem by spending that time learning instead of making.
- Ecio78 15y ago
  if you have (or could have) problems working your laptops (you cant install apps, you dont want others see your personal project stuff on your pc etc..), you still can: * work in the cloud (virtual server, ec2 instance, web based tools etc..) using a internet USB key on the train * use another OS instance in a virtualized environment (i.e. virtualbox installed in a usb key) and install all the stuff you need in this VM (im not sure you can do it w/o admin priviledges in windows) * boot a linux distro from USB key so you still use your laptop but completely without touching your original OS

keerthi 15y ago

great tips. Anything for me?? I work in a typical IT services company in India. 1Hr commute one way, have teleconference calls till 11pm. then eat and sleep. But should be in office by 10AM. The problem is my wife also works in the same project. :-( Fortunately we are in a joint family. food, my sweet baby, cleaning, washing etc.. are all taken care.

j45 15y ago
Make a schedule where every minute of every day goes for 2 weeks and you'll know what to cut. Having joint family support to do everything for you is a big help already.

Timothee 15y ago

About the lunch hour, one always needs to be careful of the rules of the company they work for regarding intellectual property. Working from a Starbucks shields you from using company equipment/network, but I'm sure in some cases, lunch time is not exactly your own time. But otherwise, great points! As far as I'm concerned, my commute doesn't allow me very convenient public transportation. (though I should look into it again) Another thing is that I'd be a bit worried for my laptop since I would go through some somewhat shady areas… And for the lunch hour, it's sometimes difficult to resist the appeal of socializing with colleagues. Sure you can do it at other times and it's a sacrifice, but it's still a temptation.

InclinedPlane 15y ago
If you're worried about legal issues with working on your own projects during lunch time you can easily sidestep that problem by spending that time learning instead of making.
Ecio78 15y ago
if you have (or could have) problems working your laptops (you cant install apps, you dont want others see your personal project stuff on your pc etc..), you still can: * work in the cloud (virtual server, ec2 instance, web based tools etc..) using a internet USB key on the train * use another OS instance in a virtualized environment (i.e. virtualbox installed in a usb key) and install all the stuff you need in this VM (im not sure you can do it w/o admin priviledges in windows) * boot a linux distro from USB key so you still use your laptop but completely without touching your original OS