The experiment: Day 10

Tuesday was the final day in an experiment I've done to see if I can increase my productivity, and therefore my income. As a review for anyone who hasn't been following the series, here is a list of the posts:

Day 1, which surpassed my wildest expectations
Day 2, in which I talk about how I maintained my increased focus
Day 3, when I found I was more productive at Starbucks
Days 4 and 5, in which my productivity started flagging
Day 6, when I didn't work enough hours but was pretty productive when I did work
Days 7, 8, and 9, a bunch of no-income days.

On Tuesday of this week, Day 10, I started out by sleeping in — the day was dark and dreary, and it's always difficult for me to get out of bed on days like that. My brain just doesn't believe that it's morning.

After getting up, I took care of a few final administrative things (primarily with my blogs) that I hadn't finished on Monday. Near the end of the day, I finally got some work done, but only about an hour's worth.

I had already planned on stopping the reports on my experiment after Day 10, but unfortunately the results have been somewhat inconclusive. I think I might have to try again in a week or so. The problem is that my sister is getting married on Saturday, so the rest of the week will be spent getting stuff ready on my end — I have to get her present ready and wrap it, and I still need to find shoes to wear for the wedding.

Possibly the other reason why my experiment seems to have failed is because I finished my work for the month pretty quickly, which made my slow period for the month — the week or so after the end-of-the-month assignments have been finished, and the next month's work hasn't yet been assigned — start a little earlier than usual.

Here's a small bit of success, though: Because I was so productive during the early part of my experiment, I was able to accept a small last-minute project my favorite client offered me a couple of days ago. So although the last few days haven't been as wildly productive, I did manage to increase my income for the month as a result of my experiment. It's not a total failure, then!