Working for half a day to be more productive

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to be more productive with my day. (Might this be related to my recent return to independent life, with no more guaranteed monthly paycheques? Make of this what you will.) Specifically, I’ve admitted to myself that I have a real problem when it comes to concentration.

This could be attributed to the endless opportunities for distraction that come from working on the web, but I think it’s also highly likely that it’s a symptom of juggling so many projects at any given time: co-running the magazine (by far my primary focus), doing design work for clients, running (or consulting on) external projects, attending meetings, writing for publications, making music… it’s fair to say I probably spread myself too thin. But I’ve also come to realise that that’s never going to change. I’ve tried taking on less, I’ve tried streamlining my workflow, I’ve tried limiting my side projects — but what even is a side project when you’re your own boss, anyway? I do a bunch of different things, all across multiple disciplines, and there’s not really a typical day other than knowing that each and every day will have a ton of admin involved, and by a ton of admin I really mean email. And that’s okay. Accepting that this is the way my professional life rolls these days has brought about a small sense of calm.

But, having accepted that my attention is and always will be constantly split between multiple projects on a daily basis, how do I then try and improve the situation? The answer I finally…