Monday, January 20, 2014

Late-Night Resolutions for the Week

It’s a little after 10 PM now.  Tomorrow and Wednesday I have the longest work days I’ve had in a while: a full day of hours for my lab job and tutoring clients in the evening.  I’m excited!  Paid work ahoy!

I fully admit that time management is not my strong suit.  I can manage it; I just don’t really enjoy it.  This week will be the biggest test in juggling two jobs that I’ve had yet, and I’d like to show myself that I can handle it.  In the spirit of late-night resolutions (the best kind!), I hereby resolve that this week:

I will be showered and dressed by 10 AM every day.

I will be working on something productive—paid work, tutoring business-y stuff, or my own writing projects—by 10:30 AM.

Today was not a bad day for productivity.  I spent over four hours doing work for my two jobs, but I also didn’t shower and get dressed until close to 3 PM.  I’d like to be more serious on my work-at-home days by preparing for the day as though I were going off to work.  I might even start packing a lunch for myself!  I like the security of knowing that lunch is ready to eat whenever I’m ready for it.

For those of you who work at home regularly, do you have any tricks for keeping yourself focused and humming along?

3 comments:

Chrissy said...

One thing I like to do is prep the next night. I like to get straight to write as soon as I wake up, so the night before, I set my coffee maker and open whatever word document I'm planning to work on. That way when I sit down, I'm ready to go. I also make a to-do list the night before, so when I need a break from writing, I can glance at my list and see "laundry," and putting that away will be a productive little break from work.

That said, I'm usually done being creative by 1 or 2pm. So even though my day starts early, it ends early, too!

I like the idea of packing a lunch, even for a work-from-home day. I might have to try that!

Rosiecat24 said...

Oh, I like the idea of writing a to-do list the night before! When I'm working full-time days, I definitely prep breakfast the night before. I can see how having the to-do list done in advance would clear the way for a peacefully productive morning.

I'd REALLY like to make more time for two things: marketing for my tutoring and blogging. The latter includes blogging for tutoring in addition to the other two blogs I write. (How many blogs does one person need? Maybe three?) So my desire to be more productive comes from a genuine place of knowing that I have more to give the world, but I'm not managing my time well enough to make it happen.

Happy day, friend! xo

Nicole said...

It helps me to give myself a set time for breaks, and have some of them be other work (like dishes/laundry), some of them for food (lunch, snacks), and some of them for relaxing (facebook, read for 20 minutes, stretching). It helps to keep me focused to say, "Only 1 hour till x... only 30 minutes till x... only 5 minutes till x..." Making a to-do list is also a great idea. Good luck!