The irony behind this blog post is that I had to motivate myself to write it. Not because I didn’t want to, but because running a business, playing football (yes, I play women’s tackle football for the Halifax Xplosion), and maintaining a life is hard!! (Whaaaat?!). Working from home can be a challenge for a lot of people. I myself have had to jump over some barriers to be able to make my efforts successful, and to use my time wisely. I want to talk a little bit about how I stay productive and motivated throughout the week. There needs to be some background information first.
I PROCRASINATE!! But in a weird way… instead of writing, or really sitting down to focus on a specific project, I will look for research articles and read them… and then sort them into a pile of “which project does this work with”. Its like this productive procrastination that I don’t feel guilty about. I get an abundance of knowledge on a topic, sometimes too much… But that being said, being productive and motivating yourself to move forward with your tasks is what makes you successful in whatever it is that you are doing, and sometimes I just need to put down those research articles and start creating my own!
Here is a list of things I do to make sure that my contracts are moving forward, and I am staying on task every day.
1. Get out of bed (duh). I work from home about 90-100% of the time, and when you work from home it can easily become a habit to stay in bed right until that moment you need to go into the home office to start doing something. So, what I try to do daily is get up and shower and then eat all before 9am. I make it a point that I am going to have my emails checked by 9:30am, so that way I know that I can check that off my list of things I’ve done. I have found that by doing this I am more productive, less likely to procrastinate, and it just starts the day better. You need to think about going into the home office the same way as going into work every day at a specific time.
2. Every evening I create a “to do list” for the next day. I separate the items on the list into categories. I rank them by priority within each contract, and I always include personal life tasks as well. What has really started to happen in my life since starting my business is that there is no scheduled work day There is no such thing as a 9 to 5 type of day. There are lists, and I have to get those items completed for the contract to move forward. Sometimes it can look like “Run structural equation model, create graph and table, build draft for infographic, start the slow cooker, and clean football gear”. By doing this, I can manage not only my business but my life as well. Those “to do lists” are life savers!
3. A reward system! When I complete items on my list it means that I can reward myself. And they can be small rewards or if you accomplish a lot, they can be huge! I recently finished a slew of contracts within a week of each other, so I really wanted something big. The weather is beautiful now, and it makes me want to go outside!! So, I had Jody (my partner) set up/build a gazebo/canopy outside on the deck so I can work outside if I want to! Thankfully, he can get these things finished in a day, so the reward is essentially immediate! Having a reward system is probably the most motivating thing I have decided to do since starting my business. That positive reinforcement works wonders.
4. A HOBBY other than work! Seriously, it seems hard to get the time to do something other than work and still get everything done. But I have made it a point that I am dedicating my time to football as well. This means 2 practices in the evenings a week. My Saturday is always game day. And! I make an effort to do cardio based things to keep up my conditioning for the game. The Football season is almost done (June 23rd), so I will be looking for something else soon to keep that balance, but it gives you a reason to not do work every minute of the day.
5. This next one might seem mediocre for some people, but myself personally I need it. MUSIC. I have playlists for different type of work that I am doing. If I am doing a statistical analysis, I am typically listening to some intense rap music. If I am reading an article, my music typically is slower and is more instrumental. Having the music really gets you going. I also can see how much I get through based on the length of the play list. I can say “well this play list is an hour long, I should have completed my analysis by then and have a good understanding of this dataset”. It is something that helps me personally. But it may not be for everyone.
6. When all else fails and I am just having a hard day getting things going. I will change my environment. I will go into a contract, I will set up meetings, I will write a blog, or I will switch gears and look at a different contract. Sometimes when you are consistently working on one project, just changing it will give you a fresh start.
Everyone is different on how they stay productive or keep themselves motivated throughout the day. If you are anything like me, you have ADHD and you are thinking about 1 million different things at one time and really need to have a routine that keeps you grounded. I hope that by me sharing some insight, you can figure out what works for you!
KC