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| what's the first thing one does when embarking on a new venture? one orders mini MOOs, of course! |
i'm spending time on this stats thing to avoid the photoshop elements window that's open in the background. i'm trying to put together a little html newsletter and all of the templates have a photoshop base. and i have to tell you, i find photoshop to be the least intuitive, most cumbersome program, ev-ah, and i've only got the elements version of it. maybe i'm just too old, but it simply doesn't work in a way that my mind can make sense of. (i know that's a dangling participle, but i just can't bring myself to write: "it simply doesn't work in a way of which my mind can make sense." can't you just feel the difference? did photoshop wander away yet?) masks, layers, vectors...i find it all very confusing.
i guess i'm generally going through a period of adjustment. although i love the idea of being independent and working at home, rather than going to an office, i sometimes struggle with the lack of structure it gives me. while i can easily sit all day at the computer and at times, even longer than i ever would if i was sitting in an office, i have discipline issues. the hours i can spend are looking at inspiring things other people are doing on flickr or in the blogosphere. and that doesn't make me very productive. tho' i have bursts of productivity, i'm really inconsistent.
so i procrastinate by looking at blog stats and sniveling about photoshop. i guess i really should just get down to work...this newsletter isn't going to put itself together.
if you have any tips for developing discipline for working at home, do let me know!
12 comments:
sorry can't help you, have the same problem.
but i will be back to check out the advice.
The porn site stats are happening to a lot of people. It seems that goo.gl link that takes you to an "adult friend finder" is pervasive. It's on mine too and a friend of mine just closed down her blogger account and moved to typepad. It's a spambot looking for linkbacks, but it's still pretty freaking obnoxious. Especially when a not-thoroughly-caffeinated mom happens to click on the link to see where traffic is coming from and her 4 year old gets an eyeful from over her shoulder.
My biggest problem with working from home is all the EATING I do while working from home. *sigh*
I don't look at the stats much, now you have me curious.
You are very lucky to be able to work from home. I really want to be able to do that. My company is slowly coming around. They may even give us laptops. Of course they will also have to give us CS5.....I can't afford to buy that myself!
I never look at stats. I guess I need to figure out how to do it. I'm not very techie, you know. I have CS5, thanks to some underhanded Adobe tech not helping me until I bought it. I also have Elements, an old version for Mac. I never use it and have thought of uninstalling it.
We both work from home, but I don't get paid anymore, so I don't count. Mark treats the day the same way he did in an office. He goes into his office and works. I leave him alone, so even though we are both here, I see him at lunch a passing one another in the hall. I am usually outside, which helps.
i know the feeling. i have to keep all shiny objects away from my desk... ;)
ooooh, I'm here on Chrome. FF soooooo slow although I love it for greasemonkey etc etc?
OK, working from home....it's so easy to be distracted by flickr etc, washing, chores etc. The only way I can do it is (a) make it like I'm going to an office after I've dropped the children at school, ie house to be clean/tidy/breakfast dishes tidied away and ideally a load of washing in so that (b) I make a cup of tea and sit down at my desk as soon as I return from school run. (c) I 'try' to schedule all workmen etc etc to come on the same day otherwise it totally disrupts my whole day (d) I 'schedule' time off, so one morning I will block off as 'off' time otherwise it's too depressing (e) I set myself pathetic challenges like 'work for an hour, no cheating, then 10 mins of personal email/flickr etc (f) I go for a bike ride for 20 minutes when I'm in a total funk (g) I accept that sometimes I just can't be bothered and that's ok as long as it's not more than once a week (h) I 'try' to take a photo365 break at some point during the day (i) there is no 'i' in team. HA HA HA!!!
You could keep going forever with advice. Bottom line is that it's not easy working alone and at home but it's worse being in an office ;-) xx
I just read about a writer who goes through this whole pretense of putting on a suit and playing like he is going to the office first thing in the morning.
Check out christinekane.com for great advice on operating your own business.
She's got powerful advice and she gives much of it away free so that you can try it out before you invest any money. I've gleaned many good ideas from her. And yes, I did eventually invest in her Uplevel Your Life program. It was worth it.
my self discipline came from a lack of money coming in.....
Funnily enough I was thinking about you saying about the stats on here when we were at blog camp, partly because I wondered how I ended up with 110 followers on tumblr...
Oh, we could talk all day... So -some things that work for me, like spudballoo... when I drop the kid off at school at 8:20, I go straight to the coffee shop with my laptop - and STAY THERE for 2-3 hours with a bottomless cup of coffee. I give myself permission to wander for a few min every hour (onto email etc), but as long as I'm at that table, I stay pretty focussed. Then - I go home/out for errands or what have you, and enjoy the rest of the day - having the satisfaction of putting in my hours. I will often start up again at 3pm till 5pm, then put dinner in the oven. All in all - I have found this to give me a break from all the "shoulds" - you should be working, you should not be checking email, your should be more focussed... good luck!
I, too, love MOO...I had them do my cards to hand out at Blog Paws last year and was so pleased, over the top, with the quality and sincerity of the company...
I am afraid I am not the one to ask about focus...a year in therapy and finally to get to my basement mess, I have been tasked with 3 hours a week for 6 weeks and even then I leave it til Sunday afternoon at 3pm!
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