vizilla

So I finally started my first "real" 9-5 job after college that I NEED to pay the bills. Which means I can't slack off like I did with my past work experiences (part time McJobs, easy internships and such). I had my first day today and I'm quite tired. All I want to do is veg out and do passive things like reading. Things are obviously a lot harder than in college. (NOTE: to those still in school, BUST YOUR ASS while life is easy!)

So my fellow 9-5 wage slaves - how do you maintain the motivation and energy to get the work done?

Things I'm thinking about:

- Get some morning exercise in. I currently go to the gym for about half an hour, do a 1 mile run to break a sweat and then pump some iron before work.
- Healthy breakfast. I'll buy some oranges next time to supplement my whole wheat bagels
- Work in work clothes? Sure sweat pants and a T-shirt are more comfortable but they make me feel lazy.
- Maybe do work at library right after work? All I want to do when I get home from work is relax. Forcing myself to go to the library to do more work after giving 8 hours will not be fun but may be what is necessary to get stuff done.
- Do you guys find it better to work in the morning or the evening? I always read about people staying up in to the wee hours in the morning to get work done but I'm curious to hear about any early birds. It seems to make more sense for 9-5ers because I'd like to dedicated the hours when I'm fresh to myself rather than my employer. Unfortunately the gym opens at 6 and the library at 9 so a morning work might be difficult to implement if I were to follow the points above.

nachoninja

dude it was your first day - relax

chill out for a few days, write down some shit you want to do

make a task list with a start date and stick to it

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Drake

Ya you need to concentrate on work for a week or two. I wouldn't do anything IM.

A new job is a lot of stress. Don't try to pretend it isn't.

sampunk

try power nap. Power nap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
i take a short nap after lunch and i feel good whole day.

also eat small meal and restrict sugar/carbs during lunch cause high blood sugar make you feel sleepy

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wickedDUDE

don't worry about your internet business for a good two or three weeks... when you start a job it's always stressful at first and takes a lot out of you. i was the same way.

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nop_90

I eliminated that 9-5 job part of my life.
Now instead of making money for other morons I make money for myself.

Also I did not waste my time going to school, all that is useful for is to get stupid pieces of paper so you can get a job working for a moron. Instead i used that time learning how to make myself $$$$.

WebAddict

You need a good 4-5 years of a day job to give you the true motivation to work evenings and weekends on your ideas. The veg you feel right now is stress from a new job and the realization of the 9-5 lifestyle. It will go away, but you have to find your motivations.

Unfortunately, balancing both jobs/lifestyles is a chore and requires some major motivation. It took me about 5 years of working in a corporate environment to be willing to sacrifice a large portion of my free time to online marketing.

I'm very close to making my dream a reality and can say I'm numb to working on IM when I get home, actually, that's when I get energized!

jwill1423

I think I need to start another 9-5 job soon. This IM stuff takes some time to get the hang of

JohnCJackson

Lower bills, then quit job. Then wakeup every day and work on your own business until you pass out ( try to do real work and look at porn and shit like that no more than 18 hours a day). Repeat.

silentbob

I do my IM stuff in the wee hours when wife and kids are asleep. I make a list of stuff I want to get done and stick to it. Don't get distracted. Drink lots of coffee in the morning and do it again.

It sucks but one day you will reap the rewards.

(Oh yeah ... and read WF on your real job )

Houdas

What I do is work in 45 minute intervals, and make some physical activity in the pauses between them - stretch the body, improve the circulation of blood etc. It really helps - its proven that people can't focus fully on one activity for longer than 45-50 minutes.

emp

I don't.

Seriously, I know how hard that is.

Following the GTD methodology has helped me, though. I break projects up into such small parts, I even get some stuff done even when I am only at the computer for half an hour or so.

::emp::

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eliquid

yeah break that shit up small dude.. .dont take on big task.

I got a 9-5 ( more like a 11am -2am ), a side business doing SEO for clients, and 3 children and a wife... yet I am trying to also do affiliate marketing and running my own networks on top of this.

How do I do it all? power naps and breaking shit into small projects. Say I wanna build a new MFA site with 1000 pages. With everything else I do I have no time for it so I do this:

day 1: select random niche and register domain - few minutes
day 2: set up the hosting for it and DNS - few minutes
day 3: find template from free template places and set up Wordpress - few minutes
day 4: research keywords in the niche - few minutes
day 5: find and scrape content for site - few minutes
day 6: administer the site ( clean up content, pages, template, etc.. ) - 1-2 hours
day 7: start promoting site every day from here on out - few minutes a day every day

I got a busy life and I can still crank out a site or 2 a week easily. I even have a PDA/Mobile phone that have SSH and shit and I can bust out a site while on the train/taxi or on the shitter.

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emp

Also, be sure to set up a content pipeline and workflow.
(Guess I should make an article aboput that)

As well as automating everything you possibly can.

::emp::

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Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

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DBWebDev

A couple of ideas for you:

Polyphasic sleeping - see Steve Palina's blog here: Polyphasic Sleep

and also:

Get rid of friends, or at least schedule them in at certain times.

Phre0nBurn

Shit, Im just now making my first few bucks online... It isnt easy man, and I run a business as well, so I fucking sit here for a good 16-18 hours a day.

Im one of those EXTREMELY social people, I can go anywhere and meet people... I used to just head out every night and bang random girls... For the past 3 months I havent done SHIT. Not once. I just sit here, and fucking work and work and work. No friends. My girlfriend hates me. But im starting to make a little bit of money, and if I keep at it, it will get better, and then Ill have more reason to work so much, and enough money to start knocking my hours down, or at least taking weekends off.

Expect to work about 3x as much as you sleep.

Read WF, but stay the fuck out of the Shooting the Shit section, I waste hours just reading random posts when im balls deep in a project, and it fucks me up.

Ive been up all night working on a site, and look, im here posting this shit.
Son of a bitch!

Back to work for me.

Oh, PS. For all the single n00b's out there... Dont waste your time trying to meet chicks... Spend NO MORE than 20-30 minutes a day (do it while you get something else done, like eat, or take a crap) on Myspace and add sluts as friends... Then start casual conversation, but keep it short, tell them you have to get back to work. Theyll ask you what you do. Say you "own an advertising company". From then on, you can take a few hours (no more than 5) to head out the following weekend, meet her, get your fuck on, and get home to get back to work.

Have a buddy call you and pretend to be your "partner" saying you need to head into the office because of a new project.

Its amazing the shit girls will believe.

Point is, learn to keep shit simple and quick, and use all your time to work and learn.

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threehundred

If you do own your own advertising company, do you have to lie about something else to get the snatch?

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