Author: Terry

How to Hold Yourself Accountable (in a Home Business)

Tips for Working From Home During the Summer

Feeling a little less motivated or productive as the summer goes on?

Between having the kids home from school, summer vacations, trips or activities, it can be quite a challenge to stay productive in your home office.  The “lazy days of summer” can strike anyone working from home. So how can you hold yourself accountable when you no longer have a boss looking over your shoulder?

Create your own Time Sheet

Write down the hours you are working in your home office.  If you’ve set a goal to work at least 5 hours a day, then keep track of those hours.  And don’t count the hour you spent on social media sites catching up on the last 20 years with a high school friend.  Keep track of productive hours.

Post your Work Schedule

If your office is in the middle of the house or you leave the door to your office open, get your family used to the idea that you must work at certain times of the day. If your kids are old enough, schedule your “office” hours when they work on quiet activities – arts & crafts, reading, movie time etc.  Getting everyone accustomed to your work routine makes the whole family accountable in a home business.

Find a Pseudo Boss

None of us likes to work for someone who makes unreasonable demands, but knowing that the “boss” will be upset if an assignment doesn’t meet a deadline can give us the motivation we need to stay on track. If you are now the boss, then find someone else to keep you accountable and call you out on your procrastination: a business peer, friend or family member. Let them know you have to complete an assignment by a certain date and ask them to check up on you!

Schedule a Reward

If you have some work to do that isn’t the most fun (which are accounting and tax forms for me!), then schedule a “fun” activity on the day that your work is due.  Like we tell our kids “if you clean your room, then you can go over a friend’s house”, tell yourself “if I finish my work by three o’clock on Tuesday, then I can go to the beach afterwards”. Now you have something to look forward to and focus on that can get you through the not-so-fun business activities.  Hold yourself accountable with a promise of fun!

Get a Grip

Most of us working from home have a big reason “why” we want to be here – to be home with our kids, to create our own “job” security, to get away from a boss or company dictating our life…so we need to remind ourselves of that “why” on a regular basis.  Look at your long-term goals daily, say a positive affirmation to start your day or create a visual (dream board, photo, etc) of what success will look like for you and your business.  And then realize that for most of us, success does not happen overnight.

We need to work consistently and diligently to make success happen – complaints, laziness and excuses will not help us reach our goals.  Be realistic as you hold yourself accountable: hard work is part of the equation.

“Accountability breeds response-ability.”
Stephen R. Covey

 

photo credit (derived from): peasap via photopin cc

Freedom with a Home Business

As we celebrate the country’s freedom and independence on the 4th of July, I’m struck by how those concepts can also apply to a home business.

So here are a few examples of the freedom and independence I have found in having a home business:

No more Boss: Just as the colonies wanted to escape from the rule of a king, a home business owner escapes from a boss. No one is standing over your shoulder, throwing a last minute “priority” assignment on your desk or asking you to work late 3 nights in a row. You have the freedom to set your schedule: how many days to work, and how long your work-day will be. You choose your “overtime” – an extra hour or two late at night when the kids are in bed, the house is quiet and you can concentrate exclusively on your work.

No more Rules: Whether it was the monarchy in the 1700s making random demands and outrageous taxes or a company today demanding a strict dress code and a “freeze” on raises…in a home business your freedom allows you to make the rules.  Is your dress code pajamas for 1/2 the day? Great – if you are working on the phone or computer what does it matter? Need extra funds one month for a special event? No problem! As the boss, you decide when to put in more hours and make more money.

No more Sacrificing Family for work: A king could call you away from your family on a moment’s notice and if you disobeyed, the punishment could be severe.  A boss can change a work schedule at his/her discretion and suddenly, your request for a day off to chaperon your child’s field trip is not good for the “company”.  One of the freedoms my husband and I treasure the most with our home business is the ability it gives us to go on every class field trip with our 3 kids. Sometimes my husband was the only dad chaperoning – which meant that he was assigned the more rambunctious boys in the class – but he loved it! Whether it’s class field trips, school concerts, show-and-tell days or just having lunch with your kids once in awhile, the freedom to work your business around your family is one of the best things about a home business!

No more Living by someone else’s Priorities: The monarchy decided what battles to fight based on their ultimate priorities, and today a boss decides your job duties based on his (or the company’s) goals. In your home business, you have the freedom to make your own goals. Even more important, you have the choice to change those goals or realign your priorities if something in your business (or life) has changed. And there’s no boss to let down (or king to disobey) – it’s just you; with your home business you have the freedom to re-write your goals every day if that’s what works!

So as I reflect on our freedom today and what our forefathers wrote: that all men in this country should be entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, in my home business:

“Life” means putting my family first, working a business around the most important people and things in my life

“Liberty” is the freedom I have to set my own goals and the freedom I have to build a business based on the principles that are important to me

“Pursuit of Happiness” translates to finding purpose and pursuing my dreams as I’m helping others in ways not possible before I had my own business.

I treasure the freedom I have in this country  – and in my home business –  to decide the right path to success and happiness for me.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Declaration of Independence

Happy Independence Day!!

Volleyball, Thunderstorms and Time Management

I thought I was organized this summer.  I felt like I was on top of the family / career scheduling game.  But it took an unfortunate turn in the weather to make me realize that I’ve got a long way to go STAY on top of the time management game.

My youngest daughter has been playing beach volleyball this summer for the first time.  She loves it and we love watching her play.  But the time commitment from a family is a big one!  Her beach volleyball tournaments are on Sundays.  Only 1 day a week….but it’s an entire day.

In my part of Florida, beach parking is at a premium on a normal day.  But when a local beach hosts a volleyball tournament, the only way to get a relatively good parking spot is to arrive HOURS before the tournament begins.  Because when the tournament is over, no one in the family, especially the exhausted volleyball player, wants to walk a mile to the car!

So for us this summer that means we get up at 6 am to arrive at the beach by 7:30 am.  The tournament starts at 9:00 am and depending on how well a team does and the pace of the tournament….we can be there until any time between 2:00 –  5:00 pm.  I heard from a veteran parent that at one tournament last year because of delays, they didn’t leave the beach until 8:00 pm!  Luckily, we haven’t spent 12 hours on the beach yet this summer!

What that has meant for me this summer so far, is that on beach volleyball Sundays, that is pretty much ALL I devote my time to (other than the daily chores: laundry, meals and extra laundry from the beach).  I purposely don’t put much on my “To-Do” list.  And that’s fine because the time we’ve spent at beach tournaments has been great family time!

Unfortunately on this last tournament day the weather did not cooperate.  We got up and drove to the beach as normal, through rain and thunderstorms, hoping they’d clear up in time for the tournament.  So we waited, and waited and waited…but by 10:30, with no relief in sight (and even more thunder and lightening), we came home.  It was disappointing, but out of our control.

But then something strange happened in my home office.  I had a whole day ahead of me that was suddenly wide open – nothing was on my To-Do list!  So I spent 3 – 4 wonderfully productive hours in my home office getting so much done!  That one unexpected afternoon of productivity motivated me like nothing else has all summer!

My unexpected “free” afternoon has taught me several things about being productive in a home office:

Time management only works when we make a schedule and stick to it

Without an overloaded To-Do List and nothing else to distract me from an afternoon in my office, I accomplished a lot. So when I schedule a few hours in my home office, I need to streamline my To-Do List and then stick to it. (And not let anything, especially email and social networks distract me!)

Summer means getting creative with home office hours

Even though my kids are now teenagers, I spend a lot of time during the day driving them places, attending their sporting events and just enjoying their company. So with my kids home for the summer, I have to find ways to carve out the necessary time in my home office – if that means getting up earlier several days a week or putting a sign on my office door “Mom is working” for a few hours – I have to be diligent but flexible in scheduling my office hours.

Plan for the unexpected during the summer

The weather in Florida during the summer can be unpredictable to say the least! If it’s not the weather but other surprises – cancelled appointments, sick kids, home repairs – it can mean you are suddenly going to be home when you planned otherwise. So if I have special projects set aside (maybe not the most pressing in importance, but things it would be nice to get done), I can work on those items when my schedule takes an unexpected turn and I have several free hours available.

And as always, the better my time management skills get, the better quality time I can give to my family.

 

A New Month, A New Goal

A new month means new goals

The beginning of the month is a great time for setting new goals: you can turn the page of the calendar and begin a fresh start. Any frustration or disappointment from last month is behind you now. You can start the new month excited and committed to those new goals.

But sometimes…life happens.  Kids get sick, the washing machine breaks, family comes to town unexpectedly and before you know it, you are losing your enthusiasm; you consider putting your goals “on hold”.

The important thing is to not give up! Here are 4 quick tips to help:

#1 – Map out your goals:

Make a goal poster or vision board and look at it every day.  Include positive quotes and affirmations along with specific actions steps to take.

#2 – Set up an accountability system:

Find a mentor or colleague who will hold you accountable and communicate with him or her on a regular basis. I find that emailing an accountability “buddy” on a regular basis helps me stay on track.

#3 – Include your family in the goal:

If your children are old enough, explain to them how reaching your monthly goal will benefit their lives (a vacation fund, special dinner or trip to the park).

If your children are younger (and a major reason you get sidetracked from your goals), enlist the help of a spouse, friend or family member to take the kids for an extra hour or two each week so you can dedicate that time to working toward your goal.

#4 – Keep track of your success:

Acknowledge the steps you are taking to reach your goal, no matter how small they seem at the time: many small steps can get you to same place just as well as one giant step. The important thing is that you keep moving!

Take time at the beginning of the month to set new goals  – and you’ll find yourself growing with that action itself!

“You are successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.”
Chuck Carlson

Top image courtesy of MorgueFile.com