successful home working
Posts tagged procrastination
A good home working day – i Done This!
7
Despite being naturally untechie and a rather reluctant adopter, unlike San Sharma, occasionally I do stumble upon IT tools I like. I’ve already mentioned Pinterest, which is proving a colourful and popular way of posting content about home offices that doesn’t fit well elsewhere on the site.
Another little discovery I made all on my own is iDoneThis.com. So beautifully simple that even I could manage to sign up and get going without any help, it sends you an email at your chosen time each evening asking what you’ve done today. You reply listing the things you’ve ticked off and it builds up a satisfying calendar of achievement.
I find it motivating and a neat way of avoiding procrastination as I want to give a good account of myself every day, even if I’m the only one who’s checking! It’s also a good way of keeping track of progress, especially at those times when it feels like one step forward and two back. I’m sure I’m not the only home worker who feels like things never happen quickly enough. It’s good to remind myself that progress comes from doing the small things day after day, not just the big, flashy achievements, not matter how seductive they are.
And you can use it for other things like keeping track of an exercise programme, what you eat, or as a diary to record memories, dreams, anything you want to keep in chronological order.
Working from home and cake – perfect partners
75 months ago
So I’ve already told you about the unqualified success of last week’s How to Work from Home – The Inside Guide, which was a Marketing Masterclass with the irrepressible James Layfield. But naughtily I haven’t written about the previous month’s group. (Could it be any coincidence that the subject was procrastination?)
Our special guest was Clare Flynn Levy, a hedge fund manager until having her first baby converted her to the delights of flexible working. Clare is now the MD of Flexpaths, providing software to help organisations manage flexible working, and the founder of the Equilibrant Network for senior executives interested in flexible work. She was the perfect guest, and informed and entertained us equally with her experiences of combining work and home life.
It was interesting to see how, although we all share the challenges of procrastination while working mainly from home, people vary enormously in their response to it and how they overcome it. One of my principle beliefs about working at home successfully is that each individual has to find the best way for themselves, and so reading prescriptive articles (that you must have a separate home office, for example) is not necessarily helpful.
The great thing about these monthly groups is the opportunity to hear about different ways of doing things, while feeling encouraged by realising that the challenges – which we often feel are ours alone – are in fact shared.
One of the attendees, Claire Melvin of Claire’s Cakes, brought along some cute mini cupcakes for us, some with my house logo in green icing, which was a lovely thought. And I didn’t notice anybody procrastinating about eating one!
I’ve subsequently seen a photo of Eva Takacs’ newly cluttercleared workspace and will post it soon on the Home Office page. Eva, the founder of The Vent Service, was bemoaning the untidy state of her sofa, where she works with her laptop, at the first two groups, but now she has transformed it. Not only is the group an inspiring night out, but it gets good results too!
Kill procrastination at How to Work from Home
117 months ago
I don’t think I’ve ever come across a home worker who doesn’t think they are guilty of putting things off. This may partly be due to spending time alone and dwelling on that dreaded job we’re avoiding, whereas in a busy office it’s easier to put it out of your mind and concentrate on other things. Or it might be the tendency of folk who work from home to give themselves grief over what they’re achieving, not having anyone to compare themselves or commiserate with.
Whatever the reason, I’ve chosen procrastination as the topic for the next How to Work from Home – The Inside Guide meet-up at Central on Thursday 21 July, between 7 and 9 pm. We’ll be talking about why and how we procrastinate, when it can actually be helpful, and what we can do to kickstart ourselves on the jobs we need to do.
If you came along the the first meet-up in June I’m looking forward to hearing how you’ve got on with the tips you picked up that evening, and whether the changes you’ve made in your routine have been for the better. If you didn’t make it last time, come along and meet some fellow home workers in a friendly environment – it really is a great help to realise we all share the same highs and lows! As Catherine Raynor said afterwards – ‘I had such a boost from the experience.’
Members of Central come free of charge (but space is limited so please book a place) and for non-members it’s just £11 plus booking fee. It’s an ideal opportunity to check out what’s on offer at Central, and even if you don’t live in London it might be just the base you need when you go up for meetings. On my last trip it was an oasis after battling crowds, heat and dodgy internet connections!
Don’t put it off – come to How to Work from Home – The Inside Guide this month!
Just do it (but what?)
141 year ago
I like today’s Watercooler post entitled Doing Things. David Wike is quite right in saying that in keeping on doing things we will increase our chances of success even if we experience failure.
But which things? Some things are more likely than others to enhance our business, get more clients, make us better known or achieve a particular goal. The trouble is that there are so many other things that can keep us busy and provide a sense of achievement, but that will have very little impact on our progress.
Now I’m on the Key Person Of Influence (KPI)
programme I have lots of big goals to work towards, but I’m finding it’s all too easy to let the day-to-day routine stuff take up my time and then end up wondering where the day’s gone. It’s amazing how quickly the little things clog up your attention if you let them.
I have a ‘buddy’ on KPI who is working hard on writing a book and we have agreed to send each other regular stern emails to keep each other up to the mark. So I will send ‘How many pages did you write today? How many do you plan to write tomorrow?’ and after I’ve explained how I’ve been derailed by an uncooperative piece of software he sends ‘Full draft by next Monday.’
Makes me laugh, but I also take it seriously. It helps that we don’t know each other at all apart from brief meetings at KPI. Doing this with a close friend just wouldn’t work for me, I’d be too happy to fob them off!
And your time starts…now
151 year ago
A few weeks ago we were talking about procrastination, and ways of getting inspired to do something you’re putting off. I was interested to read iPhone/iPad developer Andrew Ebling‘s description of what works for him:
‘Breaking off a chunk of work that I think I can achieve in 25 minutes, writing this down, winding up the kitchen timer and working until it rings. Then I have a time 5 min break. It’s a trick borrowed from, or is rather the essence of, the Pomodoro Technique.
‘I’ve recently figured out an enhancement to this trick – as well as writing down what I hope to achieve in the next 25 mins (which I find in an important part of crystalising exactly what needs to be done), I also now write down the very next trivially small thing I need to do in order to get started. So for example if I’m preparing a presentation, it’s “Find the presentation template I was emailed the other day and open it in PowerPoint”. I really find this lowers the barrier for engaging in the task and then I tend to get on a roll and complete the task.
‘I think slicing tasks up is effective because it makes starting on seemingly over-whelming tasks much more possible, giving you a tangible amount of work you can do in manageable amount of time.
Ironically, it’s actually defining work to be done that seems to be 90% of the effort for me. It doesn’t take very long but requires the most mental energy.’
This sounded so effective that I have attempted the technique, but so far I’ve found that either I’m engrossed when the timer goes off, switch it off and just carry on working oblivious to time, or I’m on a roll and unwilling to stop. I’m going to persevere, though, because I think there are all sorts of reasons this is beneficial – to be more productive, move around more, rest the eyes etc.
Put things off – moi?
211 year ago
by Judy
in Homeworking dilemmas
Procrastination is a constant issue for home workers, to go by my own experience and that of the people I meet at talks and workshops. Sometimes it’s not the usual tools and techniques (start with the bit you like doing, divide it up into small jobs etc) that get you moving on something you’ve been putting off, but something more random.
I’d been meaning to send out my work from home newsletter for several weeks, but it just wasn’t happening – until earlier this week I read Nicky Kriel’s post on The Watercooler about her struggles with the very same problem. I think it was realising that I’m not the only one and learning that Nicky had managed to overcome all her doubts and technical glitches that gave me the impetus to make a start. Yesterday the newsletter went out. Which is good because today I’m at Frome Jelly and couldn’t work on it, but at least I can use my nice bright jelly beans picture!
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