A Day In The Life Of An Online Business Owner

Lately, I have had many, many readers ask me to create a “Day In The Life” post about how my average day goes. While my average work day changes all the time, I thought keeping track of what I do each day would be a fun task.

I also thought it would be a good idea to create this post because many often have misconceptions about what online business owners, freelancers, bloggers, etc. do each day.

No, I don’t just sit around, drink coffee all day long, and sit on Facebook. However, that’s what many believe actually happens in the average day of an online business owner.

The truth is that I actually get work done! Yup, how surprising is that? 🙂

It was a little hard writing this post. My average day can vary greatly. That’s one of the main things I love about freelancing – I can create my own schedule and it can be as flexible as I want it to be.

Anyway, below is my average work day as an online business owner, freelance writer, and blogger. Now, I’m not perfect and I realize that.

I will occasionally binge watch Netflix shows, waste time on social media, hug my dogs for an extended period of time, and so on. Also, some days I work a LOT, whereas others I don’t do anything.

My average work day is also very scattered and messy looking, so it’s hard to say exactly how many hours I actually work each day.

 

8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. – Wake up.

I usually wake up around 8 a.m on the weekdays. If I work late the night before then it’s a whole different story, but in general I like to wake up somewhat early and start my day.

I usually stay in bed and work for around 30 minutes to an hour. During this time I usually check and reply to emails, browse around on Instagram and Facebook, pin some images on Pinterest, and so on.

 

9 a.m. – Emails and breakfast.

I usually get out of bed around this time and let our dogs out. They usually sleep until the moment I finally get out of bed and then they know it’s their time to go outside. Then, I’ll feed them and make breakfast at the same time.

We usually either eat oatmeal with bananas for breakfast or we will eat scrambled eggs with peppers and a few slices of toast. While I’m eating I usually reply to emails and comments on my blog at the same time. I’m not the type of person who can just quietly eat, my laptop is almost always in front of me.

 

10 a.m. – A little bit of work.

After breakfast, I put on “real” clothes and fix my face. 🙂 Then, I try to sit down for a solid hour and get work done. I usually wake up with at least 50 emails to reply to each morning, so I’m probably still replying to emails at this point.

If I’m not, I usually hop around my favorite blogs and catch up on recent blog posts from others. This is probably my favorite part of my day as I love reading blog posts and seeing what everyone is up to. Throughout the day combined, I probably spend at least an hour or two networking, reading blog posts, and more.

Also, I usually schedule phone calls for the early morning if I can. This way the rest of my day is open and flexible.

 

11 a.m. – Work out.

Around this time, I usually either go to the rock climbing gym that I’m a member at or I go for a hike. Lately, we’ve been rock climbing more since the temperature has been in the 100s for over 45 days straight, but if we do hike or rock climb outside then we are might be gone for around 4-5 hours.

If we go rock climbing at the gym then we are usually gone for around 2 hours. I love getting a great workout in the morning as it helps clear my mind for the rest of the day. It helps me work better and keeps me refreshed.

 

1 p.m. – Lunch and work.

I usually have lunch around this time. This is also usually when I start getting deeper into work. Around this time I will start any work for clients, outline articles, reply to even more emails (I probably receive over 100 real emails each day that I need to reply to), create images for blog posts, work on projects, schedule social media posts, reply to something in a mastermind group I am in, and so on.

I also try to work on an article for my blog each day, whether that be writing a new one, drafting one, or rereading one. My articles here on Making Sense of Cents are usually around 1,500 to 2,500 words each and usually take many hours and sometimes days to write.

 

4 p.m. – Another meal and more work.

Time for the next meal. We eat four decent sized meals a day with snacks in between. After this meal, I usually get back to work. I might reread a post I wrote earlier to make sure it’s perfect. I usually reread them through a few times but somehow something always slips. I’ve already read this post five times!

Other things I do throughout the day include replying to emails from clients I am consulting, check on the websites that I help manage for others, and more.

 

7 p.m. – Dinner and TV.

It’s dinner time! After dinner, I tend to watch a few TV shows and relax. I sometimes go for a bike ride to the grocery store too around this time if I find that we need anything at the last moment for a meal.

 

9 p.m. – Daily walk.

As the sun is setting, we usually take our dogs for an hour long walk. We like to wait until this time because it is much cooler, which makes for a much more enjoyable time. We always go together and it’s a nice routine that we have.

 

10 p.m. – Winding down for the night.

This is usually when I start winding down. I’ll take a shower, put on my pajamas, and possibly watch the news.

 

11 p.m. – More work.

This is usually when I crawl into bed. I’m not done working though, I usually work for a few more hours from my bed. I love working from my bed and this is the time when I usually get the most work done. Not sure why it works like that, but it does.

Anything above surprise you? What would you do differently if you had a flexible schedule? What questions do you have about my average workday?