Jill Murray

I often meet people who are fascinated and inspired by my ability to Stay Motivated and Accomplish So Much in a work-at-home environment.

For the uninitiated, here’s a glimpse into a typical work day in the life of Jill Murray

7:30 am: Wake up.

7:45 am: Consider going for a brisk walk

8:00 am: Go back to bed, spend next 45 minutes trying to get up again.

8:45 am: Wake up again, put on fleecy suit of armour including slippers that make it drafty around ankles.

8: 50 am: Think better of it. Root through laundry, find socks.

9:00 am: Read email while making oatmeal or eating cold leftovers for breakfast.

9:30 am: Consider doing the dishes. Make coffee and read message boards instead.

10:00 am - 12:00 pm kind of work, but mostly kind of read online news and refresh pages on which I’ve blogged or posted comments, hoping for more comments, preferably positivie ones, although negative ones will hold my attention longer.

12:00 pm: Make lunch while reading about how to make money by blogging.

12:30 pm: Consider doing the dishes.

12:30- 1:15pm: Googlestalking. Keep friends close, enemies closer, and people from high school I haven’t seen in 11 years or thought about in 3-10 closest of all.

1:15 pm. Consider going for a walk.

1:30 pm: Have shower

1:45 pm: Get dressed in official professional outfit of jeans and ubiquitous hooodie.

2:00 pm:Tell self it’s time to start working again. For real. Read blogs instead. Even search for new blogs, or read blogs that aren’t particularly interesting.

2:15 - 4:30pm: Kind of work on novel, but also check web site statistics, technorati ranking, Google page rank, value of web site, ad revenues ($0.56!) Refresh email 600 times. Think of gadget or airfaires to research.

4:30 pm: Think about walking to library to return overdue books. Go online and order more new books instead.

5:00 pm: Consider going to the gym.

5:15 pm: Read message boards.

6:00 pm: Consider doing dishes.

6:15 pm: Have shower.

6:30 pm: Refreshed, select new outfit of “out on the town” jeans and “but not trying too hard” hoodie.

7:00 pm: Go to local diner for dinner, to work away from internet connection. Discover local diner has free wireless. Spend dinner trying to configure SMTP connection to send email from funky diner IP address.

8:30 pm: Write blog entry about oddly shaped leaf spotted while crossing street to local diner.

9:00 pm: Respond to email from three weeks ago.

9:45 pm: Tell self that now I will buckle down and get some work finished. Now my head is clear enough. Settle into sofa with laptop.

10:15 pm: become drowsy

10:30 pm: Consider doing dishes. Check email for responses from messages just sent.

11:00 pm: Review old comment threads for new comments.

11:30 pm: Shower.

12:00 pm: Climb into bed with iBook to casually note thoughts about novel, in an environment where the pressure is off. Read overdue library book instead.

12:30 pm: Sleep.