Friday, April 19, 2013

A gift of time

Around 5am every day, I check my email. 
This morning I opened my mailbox to discover that I have received a precious gift.  No, I didn't win a few million in the Brazilian lotto, and my hereto unknown uncle Abdul didn't die and leave me millions in an undisclosed bank account.
The gift is TIME.   Just as unlikely as the other two you say?  Not at all.  You see, the reason I get up to answer email so early is that a big part of my business is e-commerce.  I sell downloadable patterns in my Etsy shop, I teach online classes, I write and I edit the stuff other people write.  In the last few years, the internet has indeed become a net that contracts the globe, and brings people together across vast distances and time zones.  It has also made people crave instant gratification.  A growing portion of my time every day is spent corresponding with customers, and sending out ePatterns.  My greatest worry is keeping my internet connection live wherever I am, and replying to emails timeously so that I don't lose sales.  
Today Etsy announced that they have brought their automatic download facility online.  In future when someone buys a pattern or tutorial in my Etsy shop, Etsy will automatically and immediately on payment forward a download link to the PDF files on my behalf.  This means that I will SAVE TIME every day. 
What am I going to do with all that time?  Sleep late every morning?  Ha-ha, hard working business owners don't do that.  I'm going to do what I used to do before computers ruled my life.  Get up at 5am and do something creative and physical with my hands for an hour or two.  Something to look forward to!

2 comments:

  1. Time is a precious thing. I'm glad you have found a little more for your day.
    Hugs

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    1. Yep, already put it to good use this morning washing floors... It is pouring with rain here in South Africa. Being a country with little rainfall, the dogs think they are going to melt. They cry pitifully to be let inside, only to dart outside and check the falling water a few moments later, then they come back inside and do it all over again. I'm going to be the mop lady for the next few days!
      Wishing you a relaxed and creative weekend.

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