Elliot, just out of curiosity, what is a typical day for you?

This question was posed to me by Ron in the comment section one of my recent articles, and I figured it might make an interesting post. Because I work full time for myself (from the comfort of my apartment), I think my schedule is fairly unique.

Monday through Thursday, I am almost always up before 8:00am either because of my dog or my Wife and I immediately begin my day. I scan through my emails, seeing if Google Alerts brought any interesting headlines – either for my blog or Lowell.com. If there’s nothing of immediate interest, I follow up with emails that were sent overnight.

If there is an interesting domain news article, I will analyze it, do some research, and think about the impact on my business or the industry, and write an article, usually set to publish in the early afternoon. If I find an article of interest related to Lowell, I will either post the full press release (using good SEO so it stands out), or I will post a synopsis of the news.

The difference between my blog and Lowell.com is that I believe I am a domain expert, and I am comfortable discussing the impact of a particular bit of news in the domain space. I am not a Lowell-expert, and I don’t want to write an editorial on Lowell.com that would be inaccurate and show my lack of awareness.

After this, it can be anywhere from 9:30-11:30 depending on the amount of news and emails I have. After this is done, I will spend some time reading a few domain blogs, a couple of domain forums, Yahoo Finance, NY Post, Techcrunch, CNN, ESPN, and a few other select websites. This is both for my enrichment and to see if there’s anything of particular interest for my blog. I don’t like simply writing about domain news here… I like writing articles that I would be interested in reading elsewhere related to domain names or the Internet, and I find that most of the more interesting articles are found simply by reading the news.

I usually have a quick (working) lunch and spend the afternoon making domain inquiries to buy names, contacting potential buyers for my domain names, speaking on the phone or emailing business colleagues and friends, or writing articles for Lowell.com or my blog. I spend quite a bit of time researching domain names, although the irony is that some of my better deals this year have been on names I bought within 2 hours of inquiring and flipped after a couple of emails within a couple days. It seems that I spend much more time writing articles, and in the whole scheme of my business, that is far less profitable – go figure.

Last year, I spent quite a bit of time building websites and managing the websites I already built. Although some of those sites are making money now, I decided that I would stick to my core business in 2010. As a result of that decision, I enjoy having the extra time to research acquisitions and find domain buyers. I am lucky that my domain sales have gone back to 2007-2008 levels, as there is far less pressure on me to generate revenue on my domain investments that did not quickly sell as I had hoped.

Last year I worked much more, and I found myself “spinning my wheels” quite a bit.   This year, I am usually able to wind down in the late afternoon and try to hit the gym for a run after 4pm, depending on the day. Unfortunately, I have high cholesterol due to genetics, so it’s urgent that I keep myself in decent shape and stay fit. When I had a full time job and was managing my business at night, I didn’t work out very much, and it was detrimental to my health. I worked a lot of 16-18 hour days, and I promised I wouldn’t do that this year unless absolutely necessary.

In the evenings after dinner, I usually watch tv with my computer on the coffee table, and I answer emails that come through. I am generally in bed and sleeping between 11-midnight from Monday to Thursday.

Throughout the day, I am always connected via Blackberry. Whether I am at the gym, running errands, or doing just about anything, I am almost always connected to my work. I love what I do, but despite being able to set my own hours, most of my focus is on my business.