Two things I read recently on time management helped me understand the difference between creative work and everything else on my schedule.

1. Paul G’s post on Makers Schedule http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
2. Naval’s tweet on having only two problem solving hours in a day. https://twitter.com/naval/status/1321947921323974657

A downside to law school and the legal profession is it teaches you neither to be a manager nor to protect your creative time.

What it does teach you is to endure more problem solving/creative hours than is probably healthy.

When I left law 10 years ago, I needed to find a way to get paid well to make/problem solve. And I wanted it to be in software (I don’t code).

So I discovered sales management in SaaS and made that my 2nd career. I didn’t officially get paid to create, but I got paid on performance. Don’t tell anyone, but I was really faking it. I became a very mediocre manager that produced very good revenue results.

I did this by focusing on 2 things. Generating leads, and designing good sales stories. It turns out if you can get good at that part your sales team and leadership will forgive you for being late a lot, not being great at pipeline management, etc.

But one huge problem was that I was spending 70% of my time managing, but all the upside was from the 30% I was spending creating/writing/designing.

And what I ultimately realized was that as long as I was working for someone else, I would need to be faking it as a manger in order to justify my salary.

Now, two years+ into entrepreneurship, I can tell you that I’m squarely 70% creative and 30% management. And it’s f*cking wonderful.

And now as I read articles like Paul Gs, it occurs to me that I should have made the move a long time ago. Should have turned down the management dial and gone out on my own. Only 30% of my time to creative for 7+ years was a damn waste of time.

But here we are! Made it out.