Category Archives: Time Management

Hacking Your Productivity

Time SuckOne of the perils of being an online sex worker is well… all that online access! I’m a Phone Sex Operator (PSO) set up to take calls through a convoluted online set up that works for me *knocks on wood*. But if I was a betting woman (and I am), I’d be willing to put a pretty penny or two on the assertion that any successful PSO or Web Cam Entertainer puts in as much, if not more, time into the grunt work of running an online business (web development, content creation, emails, social media, branding, marketing, etc.) as they do actually interacting with Clients, even those conducting calls through a traditional landline. And while I know this and consider myself to be doing OK, I know I could be doing things that would be a whole heck of a lot more productive than getting distracted with the shiny time sucks out there that don’t help make my bank account grow wild with cash. You know what I’m talking about: Forums, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube, etc.

Sure, some of these things can be  super helpful in growing your business. But if you’re anything like me, it’s also easy to get way distracted and be surprised that your 5 minute fun break turned into a lost hour (or two)! And oh no! Now it’s “prime hard-on” time and you don’t want to get in the middle of a project because the horny guys are going to start calling. Bummer! Guess you won’t be finishing that MP3 script today like you hoped…

I’m all about self and process improvement. So today, I’m sharing with you two tools that have helped me hack my own bad habits to improve my productivity.

  • Stay Focusd is an extension for Google Chrome that allows you to define a max number of minutes allowed on a site per day. You can even limit the window of distraction free browsing to particular days of the week or a range of time per day. You can block sub domains (like just the forum of a website and not the whole website itself). And you can even set a blurb of text that you have to type correctly to gain access to a site if so desired. Though that seems a little sadomasochist to me.
  • Rescue Time is an app that runs in the background of your computer and tracks the time you spend in applications and websites. You can tell it how useful or distracting something is. And you can log in to see daily stats or get a weekly email that serves for me personally as a moment of self reflection and goal setting. I like hard data that holds me accountable to myself. It’s easy to slack off on fun stuff, but seeing an overview of where my time went is a cold hard kick in the booty to get my priorities straight.

What tips, tricks or tools do you utilize to make yourself more productive? Share your insights in the comments section below!

Sarah Does Phone Sex, is a phone sex operator. You can find Sarah on Twitter, read her blog or even give her a call.

You Can’t Do It All At Once

A lot of my model and pro domme friends jokingly tell me I do too much, which is probably true, but at the same time it isn’t. I’m one of those girls who not only maintains a full time, 9-5 vanilla day job, gets at least 8 hours of sleep a night and works as a model full time, which involves everything from marketing to booking to shooting to editing. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally learned how to manage my time to best adapt to my busy lifestyle. So here are a few times for successfully managing your time:

  1. Know Your Limits. I don’t mean what you will and will not do, I mean what you can and cannot do both mentally and physically. I stress out easily if I do not live within my limits, which can be anything from not getting enough sleep to overbooking myself. I make a point of going to bed around the same time each night so that I can get at least 8 hours of sleep. I also make a point of having at least one day a week that is My day; no friends, no modeling work, nothing except what I choose to do. Working outside my limits has caused me to lose jobs because I’m too stressed out to do them.
  2. Keep a written calendar. Sure, your phone and computer have calendars built in, but the physical aspect of writing something down is bound to help you remember. For me, once it is written down, it is committed to memory. If someone asks me if I’m free to work on a specific date, I tend to know without having to look it up whether I’m available or not.
  3. Set a schedule. I work a 9-5 day job, so my day job schedule is set. I also schedule when I shoot and how long I’ll be shooting for. For example, maybe Tuesday is my filming day for myself. I know that every single Tuesday from 7-8 or 7-9, I will be shooting clips. Since I’ve planned that in advance, I come up with ideas in advance. Or maybe as a webcam model, you know your busiest hours are from 7pm-midnight, so that’s when you work. If you keep the same schedule as a cam model, people will know when to expect you, which pays off big time once you have regulars.
  4. Plan things out. Are you a traveling sex worker? Plan in advance to not only save you time but also money. Book work in advance! Don’t wait for the last minute and hope that something comes up. I hate to tell you this, but just because you work on a “I’ll wait until last minute” or a spontaneous schedule, doesn’t mean the rest of the world does too.
  5. Don’t get distracted. If you plan on webcamming from 7-10pm, do it. If you plan on shooting clips for 2 hours, do it. Don’t let emails or the interwebs or tv distract you. I’ll let you in on a secret…They will still be there when you’re done.

There is no easy way to figure out how to best manage your time. I had a huge anxiety attack over how stressed out I was before I really figured out how to manage my time. It paid off though. Since then, I haven’t been stressed out over my time, I get things done and I still have free time for me. Nobody is going to manage their time the same, but once you figure out what works for you, stick to it!

Sydney Screams: Fetish Model, Clip Producer, Adult Actress, Radio Talk Show Host