Yes, it’s challenging enough to get 4 hours of productive time out of a regular workday. I don’t know how people get much more than that! I usually work at least five days a week — most often I lose part of an afternoon or morning to something — a dentist appointment or physio or picking an item up from a store — and I usually make up that time on Sundays, when I work half a day. Not sure I’d describe the 3 weeks when a draft is out for feedback as “slack.” I’m usually working really hard on something else! The secret to being really efficient with reverse engineering is to have multiple projects on the go all the time..

Putting the time estimates in your example was very instructive. About how many hours to you plan for a working day? I once read that out of a theoretical 8-hour work day, people only effectively have 4-5 hours of productive work. This is probably calibrated to a typical office environment with meetings, people dropping by with questions or to chat, and lunch time errands or workouts. I would guess that given normal life, however, that something similar might be true for home-based businesses. Your thoughts?

Do you plan on five working days each week, other than obvious holidays and surprise events? I’m also assuming that the 3 weeks that your draft is out for feedback is slack time that you apply to other writing projects or parts of your business.

Thanks!
–Fred

Glad you found it helpful, Pat!