How do self employed people keep focused on the job at hand?
omahonydonnelly January 5th, 2009
Oops… just spotted this languishing in the “pending” queue. Apologies all, especially Ann :-(. (CJ)
OK, it’s December 8th and I feel like I should be out doing some shopping and taking advantage of Clon’s 10-20% off. In fact I did take some time out this morning to pick up a couple things. Oh, then an interesting email newsletter came in and I couldn’t help reading it. Is it lunch time, yet? Maybe I’ll just put on the kettle and throw in a load of laundry… You get the picture.
When you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck, how do you keep focused on the tasks at hand? Two months ago (and a bit) we had a good talk on Time Management and all those things are good, but do you find it difficult to keep from being distraction when you are working alone nearly 100% of the time. Do have any techniques that you use to help keep you focused? I have recently picked up a couple (of course, they aren’t really working that well for me at this very minute, obviously, but for the most part…):
- Use your to do list and just keep plugging away at it.
- Set aside specific times for certain tasks. Monday am is my time for admin (invoicing, statements, etc.) Some of you don’t do that during the working day, but I need to. (I definitely need to schedule my time for my blogging and twittering, or else that will become the biggest time waster of all!)
- Set a target for the day or week (so many sales calls, jobs done, etc.) and give yourself a reward.
- Have a good answer phone/voicemail system and use it. I only answer my phone during certain hours so that I can avoid distractions from the outside world. This doesn’t seem to impact on customer service and many know that I run a small operation and expect me to be either on another call, in a meeting or out of the office temporarily. I make sure to make up for it when I do call by being prepared.
- Never give in to doing personal tasks during work hours — I do break this one occasionally and this is probably my worst downfall. I use the excuse that the kids need some of my time, but then it comes down to doing personal errands, etc. that really should be done during lunchtime (see below) or on the weekend.
- Be sure to take breaks - lunch and a tea break perhaps. Sometimes I work through lunch to make up for some other time waster that has come up, but I find I am less productive. I used to work in a printing company in and admin job, but sometimes I’d work O/T in the pressroom. In the manufacturing environment they had to have a 10 min break for every 4 hours and a 40 minute break for lunch. After packing boxes, etc. for a couple hours you really did need that break and you’d find yourself recharged and ready to head back on the line after. We all should use that as a work model.
- Get someone outside to provide a support (perhaps a SOHO Solo buddy, kinda like Alcoholics Anonymous). Sometimes I think the problem is procrastination because I have all the ideas going around in my head and no one to bounce them off of. I had some business coaching and I think that, more than the actual advice, having someone to talk the ideas through with brought energy to them.
I do well with this most of the time, but I do feel like I am losing a good few hours a week — and end up making up for it at night, when I should be concentrating on personal matters.
We all have different working styles and personalities and home living situations, but we all probably have at least one good tip that would benefit us all.
(OK, enough time wasting…..)
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