{photo by like, totally. Is this what your brain looks like on distraction?}
My original intent with this Do What You Love column was to rotate between interviews with successfully self-employed people and regular posts that bring up the not always so sunny side of self-employment. So, I'm putting that into action! Next week I'll have an interview with Jan from Scoutie Girl and Daisy Janie, but today I'd like to talk about what I think is one the hardest parts of being self-employed: dealing with distraction.
Distraction can be a hard thing to keep under control in any work situation, but when you're self-employed, it's often too easy to be a slack boss to yourself. Especially when you work from home, you may find the distractions can get totally overwhelming! Home is where kids and pets and laundry and tv and sunny days happen, afterall! And sometimes, all those everyday life things can get in the way of your work priorities, and you may find yourself blown way off course.
Take today for instance. I'm writing this at 5:00 pm my time right now. Normally I post here before noon everyday. What's up? I've been terribly, utterly distracted all day long!
I woke up early and ready to work, but got started doing stuff that was outside my regular routine. I think that set my whole day up badly, as I started off blogging late and then little life things started getting in the way- finding a birthday present for Mom, worrying about the dog who was acting funny, paying bills online, doing chores, watering my newly planted garden, calling/texting/twittering, getting lost "researching" online... And wouldn't you know it, suddenly it was mid-afternoon and I'd whittled a whole day away doing a whole lot of nothing! Ack!
When days like this happen it can make you feel depressed, overwhelmed and like a big fat failure. It's frustrating when you know you have so much to do, and you just wasted a whole bunch of time that you could have used doing it!
So what's the magic cure?
Well, I'm still searching for a productivity tonic, but in the meantime, here are some things that may help get you back on course:
- Pull yourself out of the situation. If you find yourself getting too distracted, get off the computer, leave the house, get some food, go take a walk, etc. Remove yourself from whatever unproductive thing is grabbing your attention as soon as you realize it, and do something to clear your head and re-focus. That's what I had to do today and now I'm sitting here writing this, because I'm not letting myself get away with not getting it done!
- Make a list. It's easy to get distracted when you know you have a lot to do, often because it's hard to focus clearly on any single thing. When you feel your thoughts swirling to the point of getting overwhelmed, stop, write them down, prioritize them. Having them in front of you, right where you can see them will help. Then tackle your list one at time. Focus on getting one thing completed before you move onto another.
- Stick to your routine. One of the nicest things about being self-employed is being able to choose your own schedule, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a routine. You can create your day however you'd like, but once you've found what works for you and how you are able to best get things done, stick to that! I threw myself off this morning by not blogging first thing, and look what happened to me. Doh!
- Don't be too hard on yourself. I get so down and mad at myself when I have days like this. But I think letting myself get into a defeated frame of mind is more harmful to my work than having an unproductive day is. We're human, things come up, we can't be totally focused workhorses every single day. Use a day of too much distraction as motivation to make tomorrow better.
That said, I've made a new list of things that I think I can finish today. I'm going to start tackling as many of them as I can right now because it's better late than never, right? And I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes!
What do you do when you find yourself getting distracted? How do you get yourself back on track, or do you? Do you feel bad when you have a day where it feels like you didn't get anything done?
