Self employed - organisation and motivation

[Queen Jess]

To those of you that are self employed full time or even part time, do you have any tips and tricks to keep yourself motivated and working efficiently? I think I do things in an ad hoc way (which isn't the most efficient), but also don't know when to stop and take a break.

I was thinking the best thing might be to have a checklist of things to do for the day and once I am done I can relax. Otherwise I'll never get any down time knowing me..

 

[Jon]

In a nutshell. It's VERY hard.
I think it's fine if your target each day of just to do a survey or two but when you have say 'write 2 blog posts and do 2 hours of Leapforce work' it can be much harder as that work can be done at any point during the day so it's easy to be quite slack about it and then get into the mindset of 'well I'll just do double tomorrow'

Checklists can work but I would say they need to be planned out the day before or otherwise, you can be quite flexible with what you REALLY need to do that day!

Chatting to fellow 'work from home' folk I find always help keep me on track as 9 times out of 10 they are always working the same boat.

What is it you are trying to achieve?
Better structured days?
Earning more money in the time you have?
Having more days off in between working?

 

[Queen Jess]

In a nutshell. It's VERY hard.
I think it's fine if your target each day of just to do a survey or two but when you have say 'write 2 blog posts and do 2 hours of Leapforce work' it can be much harder as that work can be done at any point during the day so it's easy to be quite slack about it and then get into the mindset of 'well I'll just do double tomorrow'

Checklists can work but I would say they need to be planned out the day before or otherwise, you can be quite flexible with what you REALLY need to do that day!

Chatting to fellow 'work from home' folk I find always help keep me on track as 9 times out of 10 they are always working the same boat.

What is it you are trying to achieve?
Better structured days?
Earning more money in the time you have?
Having more days off in between working?

Well I find I like pfaffing around and before you know it I've wasted a morning and I can't really say what I've done.. it doesn't help that I waste time looking for MB odds and then when I can't find them it disrupts "my flow". But on the other hand I don't think I will do X and then stop... I always think I should get a bit more done and so it doesn't matter if I have 2 mins or 2 hours, I will still work to fill the time.

I feel like I need to be more efficient, but feel like I have achieved something/what I wanted and then can have time to relax a bit.

 

[Jon]

Well I find I like pfaffing around and before you know it I've wasted a morning and I can't really say what I've done.. it doesn't help that I waste time looking for MB odds and then when I can't find them it disrupts "my flow". But on the other hand I don't think I will do X and then stop... I always think I should get a bit more done and so it doesn't matter if I have 2 mins or 2 hours, I will still work to fill the time.

I feel like I need to be more efficient, but feel like I have achieved something/what I wanted and then can have time to relax a bit.

Yeah, that's the issue I have work blogging. Because the earning potential is LIMITLESS I always think 'well I can go and write this or refine this post etc' and that I should be doing SOMETHING!!

Do you have a set amount you want / need to earn each month that you could use as a target and then once you've done it you can take your foot off the gas

 

[Queen Jess]

Yeah, that's the issue I have work blogging. Because the earning potential is LIMITLESS I always think 'well I can go and write this or refine this post etc' and that I should be doing SOMETHING!!

Do you have a set amount you want / need to earn each month that you could use as a target and then once you've done it you can take your foot off the gas

I really want to get up to £1000 a month to start making inroads into my scary mortgage, but I just don't think it is realistic with an overactive 14 month old and a full time job. Maybe £500 as a minimum or £750 at a push.

 

[Andrew]

I really want to get up to £1000 a month to start making inroads into my scary mortgage, but I just don't think it is realistic with an overactive 14 month old and a full time job. Maybe £500 as a minimum or £750 at a push.

It CAN be done! But not overnight. I think everyone expects that they'll be earning megabucks straight away and then gives up pretty quickly when they don't. I was happy with a £100 a month when I started and soon hit more. the key is routine though and that's difficult with the little one in tow. I think a checklist and targets are the way to go. That's what I do anyway and it seems to work. Some short-term goals and some long-term ones as well and the ideas of the steps you need to go through to get to the long-term goals could be good. Why not use it for one of your next blog posts?

 

[Queen Jess]

It CAN be done! But not overnight. I think everyone expects that they'll be earning megabucks straight away and then gives up pretty quickly when they don't. I was happy with a £100 a month when I started and soon hit more. the key is routine though and that's difficult with the little one in tow. I think a checklist and targets are the way to go. That's what I do anyway and it seems to work. Some short-term goals and some long-term ones as well and the ideas of the steps you need to go through to get to the long-term goals could be good. Why not use it for one of your next blog posts?

Well I am hitting £500 pretty consistently at the moment. I think if I was better organised I might be able to get to £750.

 

[leighc10]

For me I like to treat the day as if I was going to work in an office i.e get up, showered and changed and ready to start work at 8am. It gets me in the 'work' frame of mind.

I am also quite strict with myself and limit myself to tea breaks and have a half hour lunch break. I also listen to the radio rather than have the TV on as it's less of a distraction.

This works for me and keeps me focused on the job in hand.

I do however keep loads of tabs open which sometimes distracts me but this is something I'm trying to stop!

 

[Jon]

For me I like to treat the day as if I was going to work in an office i.e get up, showered and changed and ready to start work at 8am. It gets me in the 'work' frame of mind.

I am also quite strict with myself and limit myself to tea breaks and have a half hour lunch break. I also listen to the radio rather than have the TV on as it's less of a distraction.

This works for me and keeps me focused on the job in hand.

I do however keep loads of tabs open which sometimes distracts me but this is something I'm trying to stop!

That sounds like a good plan about having the radio on instead of the TV!

I also tend to try and do 3-4 hours work 'outside' the house. So go and work from a coffee shop or a library or something. I always find I'm then in the mindset of 'well I came all the way up here so I NEED to get this work done now!' which helps push me on to work better

 

[Pixieyrj]

There is only one motiviation to work

MONEY!!!!!

No work no money.........