Time Management

I get a lot of questions about my time management skills.  People seem so enthralled that I can manage this blog, my six Tumblr photo blogs, see clients and go to grad school all at the same time while Tweeting much of the day away.  I also have other activities I’m involved in that the vast majority of you have no knowledge of.  I’m not sure why this fascinates some people, to the point of claiming that I can’t be doing all of it myself, but I thought I’d shed a bit of light on what a typical day for me looks like.

I get up most mornings around 7:00 or 8:00 AM, usually of my own accord (i.e., no alarm clocks).  On some mornings, I have an appointment with a special client, in which case I’ll get up around 5:00 or 5:15.  Either way, I’ll quickly cruise through the e-mails that have come in overnight to see if the shit’s hit the fan anywhere.  I may get on Twitter for a few minutes to see what’s going on there as well.

I’ll eat a quick breakfast and do some reading or course work for school for about three hours after that.  I’m taking two graduate courses at a local university.  For this particular semester, the coursework is almost entirely reading and class participation, with few writing assignments.  This is a bit unique (happily so, I might add).  I am a voracious reader, especially when it comes to topics that hold substantial interest for me.  Sexuality, for example.  And since both my classes are oriented around that topic, I’m spending a lot of time reading the materials for class (I literally dedicate three hours each morning to doing homework if I have some).  I make discussion notes as I read so that I can recall facts and concepts during class discussions, and can be prepared to defend my points of view on the topic du jour.

My two classes are three hours each, one day per week; one on Tuesday morning and the other Thursday evening.  The school is about two blocks from my apartment, so I usually walk to class and back, even if it is raining.  That takes all of ten minutes.  I actually leased my apartment where I did specifically because of its proximity to where my classes are held.  That prevents me from having to drive around town for classes and having to pay to park.

As for clients, I specifically limit the number I see in order to keep from burning out or overloading myself.   I won’t see more than one a day, and don’t see any on the two days I have classes (with the occasional exception for a regular).  So at most I see five clients in any given week.  In most cases, these are two hour appointments.

So throughout the course of a typical week, I’ll spend 8-15 hours on appointments (plus about an hour or so to get ready for each).  My escort work is the way I earn my living – it’s my primary source of income (with the exception of some financial investments I have that earn interest, and one other web project I am involved with which generates a bit of money for me as well).

Over the course of an average month, I bill for roughly 30-35 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less.  Though my rates are much higher now than they were when I first started, I always grandfather my regulars in at their old rate for as long as they continue to see me.  My average hourly rate for all clients I am currently seeing is $423, so you can get some idea of why this is the only job I need right now.  It pays for school, my apartment and the utilities, insurance (health, dental, and auto), taxes, and everything I need to survive with plenty left over for savings and some investments.

Those are the only time obligations I have.  The entire rest of my time is spent in my apartment or out running around doing things (or people).  During this time I am writing material for my blog, material for other sites (mainly forums) where I have some interest, and am doing all of the other behind-the-scenes activities that it takes to create the brand you see as Alexa.

One of the most common benefits you see people mention about doing escort work, aside from the money, is the freedom to set my own schedule and do something other than working, eating and sleeping like many people find themselves doing on a daily basis.  When I get home Thursday evening, I have the next four days free until it is time to go to class again Tuesday. I can go out of town if I wish at the drop of a hat, and can take a vacation just about any time I wish, especially if I am fortunate enough to have classes that allow absences like I do this semester.

The management of the Tumblrs is pretty straight forward as well.  I’ve indicated on several occasions that, over the past several years, I’ve managed to amass quite a collection of erotica on my own.  I never knew what I was going to do with that stuff until Tumblr came along, actually.  I happen to enjoy looking at well-done photographic erotica, though, so I’ve just kind of been collecting as time has gone by.

Those of you who’ve been enjoying my Erotic Images, Buttholes, Facials, and Back Tattoo tumblrs are the beneficiaries of that invested time.  I also have people who send me photos, links to photos, and ideas for things to find as I’m surfing.  So I may spend an hour or so a day on average cruising through other Internet sites, not specifically with the intent of locating material for the Tumblrs, but as I come across something that captures my attention, I’ll generally save it for future use.  Sometimes I’ll see an image (or series of images) that reach out and grab me and I’ll just post links to them rather than saving them for my collection.

As for updating the Tumblrs, I spend maybe 30 minutes each evening going through and uploading photos to the collection of sites you see.  I generally just take the first X number of images in the folder hierarchy I have and put them up, then post a notice on Twitter that it’s been updated.  Sometimes I’ll skip an image or two on each to ensure a good mix of different types of photos, but that’s about the extent of what I do to make those work.

I run several web sites.  You guys are familiar with two right off the bat – this one and the My First Professional Sex blog.  I’ve converted all of my sites to two formats.  This one and the ones allied with it run on WordPress software, and use DIYThemes’ Thesis theme in their design, modified to suit my tastes, of course.  By standardizing the design of all of the blogs the maintenance and operation of them is streamlined and it takes much less time to manage.  It also serves as a branding tool for my persona as well.  The other sites I operate are designed around another content management system.  I am also working on two other major web sites for other projects I am or want to be involved with.  I kind of piddle at those as I have an idea or as time otherwise permits.

Finally, I spend a considerable amount of time participating in a variety of different forums and discussion groups.  The majority of them are sex-related – some for my own personal development, some dealing with general sexuality, some dedicated to sex education and advocacy, some related to sex workers’ rights.  And then there are a couple that have absolutely nothing to do with sex.  You’d never know it was me on those forums.  I have a variety of monikers I use, some of which are male, in fact (in some forums I participate in, women aren’t taken as seriously, so I participate as a male).  In some of them, I appear as Alexa, my professional persona.  In others, I appear as other names.  I only respond to serious questions or topics in those (which in some, is vastly limiting).  Otherwise, I’d spend all day on each of those replying to drivel with drivel.  That’s not for me. 

I play with photography and videography a good bit, mostly related to some other projects I work on.  I’ll take a series of photos or do a video if the urge hits me.  This may take an hour or two on any given day, once a week or so.  And no, those videos are not available to you guys because they have nothing to do with Alexa. 

I have more than a dozen and a half e-mail accounts; three of them are actually used to conduct daily business, while the balance exist to participate in the various forums, keep up the Tumblrs (at one point, Tumblr required you to have a unique e-mail address for each blog you created), or were created to serve other interests I am involved in (or were involved in in the past).

I am subscribed to Google’s news feed which automatically sends updated information it finds about topics I’ve expressed an interest in (about 32 words or phrases at this point).  I am usually able to stay on top of my e-mails, and generally don’t take more than a couple of days to get back to people.  I try to respond to every legitimate e-mail I get, though when I’m out of town for a several days or working on a major project it may take me as long as a week to get caught up.

Interestingly, I have emails from older or less used accounts auto-forwarded to the three that I use on a routine basis.  This has occasionally gotten me into trouble because I’ll respond from one of the aggregate accounts, which may have a user name or even a gender suggestion different from that which the recipient might be expecting. 

When I get an appointment request, I will usually do an immediate screening of the requester based on the information submitted.  This takes just a few minutes.  If the initial screening passes, I’ll reply to the potential client and begin a conversation with him (or her) to see what kind of chemistry we develop over e-mail.  If the request isn’t completed appropriately, I usually just delete it and don’t bother to respond to it.  I figure if the person submitting the request can’t follow simple directions, I’m not going to waste my time trying to goad him/her into trying again.  Regular and screened potential clients always take priority when I am working in e-mail.

Throughout the course of my day, I am also on Twitter, when it is working and not acting stupid.  I keep an eye on what people are posting and will jump in from time to time.  In the late afternoons, I’m usually on permanently for the rest of the day because the “important” stuff in my daily timeline is done.

Occasionally, if I don’t have a client to see and I’m caught up on other things I need or want to do, I’ll indulge my own sexual desires and fantasies.  That may involve going out to a club to find someone to play with, calling someone to come fuck me, or watching porn and/or masturbating.  Which I actually do depends entirely on my mood.

I’ll typically get into bed around 10-11PM my time (PST).  Some nights it’ll be later, some earlier.  Usually if I go to bed any earlier than that, I wake up at 3 or 4 AM (which is 6 or 7AM by my body’s ingrained clock from having lived in the eastern and central time zones until I moved here).  I’ve always been able to function on just five or six hours of sleep.  Any less or any more than that and I am tired and exhausted the rest of the day.  I will occasionally take a short nap in the afternoon, though.

I do get requests to work with other people on stuff, including writing for other web sites.  And while I’d love to do that, as you can see, I really just don’t have the time to do it, especially if it is something they’d like to have done on a recurring basis.  I don’t mind writing the occasional article for another site, but even that has to be done when I am not working on something for me.  I also don’t mind doing the occasional interview, though, especially if I get to discuss one of my passions in life. 

So there you have it.  It looks and sounds like a lot; maybe it is.  I really don’t consider this to be overly impressive, really.  If I didn’t have all of this to do, though, I’d spend the day cooped up in my apartment, alone, and would need a cat, dog, or another human to keep me company. I hate to be idle, and am always reading or watching something.  I guess that’s one reason school appeals to me.  Even if I am sitting in the lobby waiting on a doctor’s appointment or waiting to get my hair done, I am busy with my Blackberry surfing the net or Twitter.  And that’s where you’re likely to find me. 

I think the two things that make all of this work for me is ensuring my priorities are in order and dedicating specific time each day to getting the high priority items out of the way before doing the less important stuff.  I like the way my life is structured right now, and as long as it continues to work for me, this is the way I’ll do it until next May when I’ll begin the next chapter of my life.

1. Alexa’s Update # 15 Well, I am officially one fourth of the way to...

 Email This  Print This