Now before you get all ohhh ahhh over the fact that I can set my hours, work when I want to and when I don't want to, sleep until 12pm and work until 3am...let's be realistic. I have 2 kids, 2 cats and a husband. I fit work in between laundry, dishes, carting kids from one friends house or activity to another and playing peace keeper. Is this still a pretty sweet deal? Of course it is but it's HARD. It's hard to keep the distractions to a minimum when I have things to do. It's hard to force myself to work on marketing research, catalog labels and customer calls rather then sitting around with a cup of coffee and chatting with my friends abut couponing (which is pretty awesome, btw) and Game of Thrones (also awesome).
So for those of you that might read this and are thinking I'm crazy and I should just shut my fat face for complaining about the fact that I don't have to report to a shitty office 8 hours a day. I get it, I do. I'm super lucky in that I have the opportunities I do and that my husband 100% supports me even though it's putting a serious crimp in his beer brewing hobby (hello budget 2013!). HOWEVER, there are plenty of times that I wish I had the structure of working hours.
Which brings me to the point of this (so far) pointless post! Yep, I do have a point, I swear. Here are a few things that work for me but I've been seriously slacking on in the working at home arena:
1. Set work hours. Don't make them ridiculous, be realistic. On Tuesday and Thursdays I have no kids from 9am-3pm (so really 9:30-2:30 with drop off/pick up). Am I going to sit down and work for those 6 hours? Um, probably not. I'm realistic and I know I'm going to catch up with friends, have coffee, play on Facebook and maybe throw a load of laundry in. Instead my goal is to make a list of what needs accomplished in those hours and DO IT (no, blogging was not on the list for today, but whatever)
2. Get dressed. It's hard to feel like a professional while sitting at your desk or on your couch in PJ's. Don't do that. In my case I need to shower, get dressed, put some make up on and put my jewelry on. How we feel about ourselves reflects in how we talk to people. I hate the phone, I hate calling people more then anything else and it's 100x worse if I'm in lazy mode. This also means I appreciate those lazy days when I don't have to be dressed even more.
3. Put the phone away. If you are constantly attached to your phone (GUILTY!!!) I've found that you're more likely to put things off. How many times have you read an email when you're in the middle of something else and then you forget to reply? Come on, you know you have. I do it all.the.time. It's not at all intentional, I'm better off if I wait for my work hours to sit down and read my work emails and then reply to them all at once.
4. We're not that busy. Everyone has their own definition of "busy" and we all get so caught up in what we have going on but the fact is...we're not that busy. Stop playing the busy card, stop acting like nobody else can possibly understand what is going on with your life b/c it's SOOOO busy. It's life. Make the time for work, make the time for FUN, make the time to visit with friends, sip a cup of coffee or set up that playdate your kid has been begging for.
Like I said, these are ALL things I need to work on but I figure if I need to work on them someone else out there may need to as well.
Now I shall return to my regularly scheduled work hours!
2 comments:
Stacy, Stacy, Stacy- When you master those, can you please come and teach me? Cuz I really suck at the whole managing my time thing. Probably because I'm SO busy ya know ;)
Our mantra is EAT THAT FROG!, inspired by the book titled with that phrase by Brian Tracy. Every day, as soon as it is possible, do the ONE thing you are dreading most and after that, everything else will be easier by comparison.
We've been eating a LOT of frog over here this year, and it tastes great! :)
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