One of the realities of working on a startup part-time (boot-strapping with consulting & other work to pay the bills) is that you must chip away at things. The caffeine-fueled all-night development sprints you read about are the rare exceptions, that come at a heavy cost to your health and productivity over the next couple of days.

Be As Smart With Time as You Are With Money

One of the best time-management strategies I’ve learned is to divide projects into two categories: those I need long-term focus on, and those I can work on on-and-off. A free 6-hour chunk of time is a much rarer commodity than a free half hour or 15 minutes. Imagine your time is like money that’s deposited in random amounts in your bank account, and withdrawn later, unused or not.

If you had $600, you shouldn’t spend your time shopping for all the office supplies you need, but spend it on the high-price items you have few chances to get. Buy office supplies a few at a time when you have $15, $20, $30 to spend.

Effort is important, but efficiency is essential.