Work at Home Struggle

When I tell people that I am self-employed and work from home, their first response is “I wish I could do that”.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE being my own boss.  I LOVE being able to make my own schedule!  I LOVE being able to decide NOT to go anywhere and work in my sweats on any given day.  My struggle is in TIME MANAGEMENT.  More precisely is my inability to get into a routine.  I know all about setting work hours, etc.  The truth is, I haven’t figured out if I am trying to cram too much into a given day or week OR am I just not disciplined enough and get side tracked easily.  WOW!  That was definitely a tough thing to admit.  Have you ever heard “the busier I am, the more I seem to get done”?  Well, that is how I feel.  Of course, that really is a negative way of looking at things, isn’t it?  So, if I am not busy, I am not going to get things done?

With today being Monday, the start of a new week and the start of some new ventures, I am hoping (and praying) that I can get my act together.  I came across an article on theselfemployed.com about being productive at home…let’s see if I can make any of their suggestions work:

Don’t Be Afraid To Say No – I don’t have a problem saying no to outside appointments based on my schedule.  I space my appointments out based on my part-time schedule, my Thirty One party and event schedule and hubby’s schedule (that seems to be the toughest to manage).

Take Time To Socialize – WOW!  I almost wish that I was home all day just once in a while.  I feel like if I could work in my office for about 10 hours straight, I would at least be able to play catch up.  Does socializing include spending time with hubby just because he likes to have you working in the same room?  I know that sounds weird, right?  Rob loves when we are both having out in the living room even if we are both on the computer.  Just wish I could learn to make that a productive time.

Schedule Email and Social Media Time – Things like checking your email or catching up on Twitter and Facebook may seem like small tasks that can be fit into your schedule, but the truth is that these seemingly small things can easily become time sinks that will destroy an entire day’s productivity. Instead of trying to squeeze these activities between scheduled tasks, write them on your schedule instead and allocate enough time to use them properly to enhance your business. I LOVE this idea and I actually did it for awhile.  Time to go back to some of the things that worked.

Set Up An Office Space – LOVE my office space now that we have changed the “general office” into a working Thirty One office.  Rob even said how great it looked – less cluttered.  The only thing I didn’t hang back up was my “video camera” picture to remind me to work as if someone is watching what I do. Now, where did I put that?

Take Break Time Into Account – Not a problem.  I take period breaks all the time in my office.  Maybe dialing back my to-do list to make it a bit more manageable and realistic is a better place to start..

I would love to hear about some of your struggles working at home and how you have overcome them…Share your best tips with us so that we can help each other out.  I am definitely teachable.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!