Personal Development Archives - Page 5 of 12

This Week’s Motivation: Planning and Productivity in a Home Office

Quote - Productivity is never an accident This week’s motivation is about planning and productivity in your home office – a good topic to start off the new year!

Do you make big plans, goals or resolutions every new year? I usually don’t do too well with a long list of resolutions…setting a few main goals is a better way for me to be successful in planning the new year.

I love the quote shown here because it really makes such a simple statement about productivity – but one that a lot of us probably struggle with. We all have days when we don’t feel productive in our home office and wonder where the day went; but we’d probably get more done if we had a better plan.

A few tips for planning:

1.Schedule every hour – If you have a long To-Do list, plan your day (hour by hour) instead of just waking up with a goal to “get it all done today”.

2. Get a few things done early – On days when you know family commitments will take you away from your home office, have a plan to get a few, short tasks completed early in the day so you won’t feel torn when family time starts.

3. Set up an accountability system – Share your plans or goals with a supportive friend, colleague or virtual group to help with accountability. You will be more likely to stick to a plan you’ve shared with others.

One example of how better planning has made a big difference in my home office is the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m taking part in the Challenge, which I’ve done 4-5 times now, and one thing I’ve learned is that participating in the challenge has made me a better planner.

Because the goal is to write 31 posts for the month, I know that the only way I can hope to complete the challenge is to plan my entire month of blogging. I choose topics, schedule publishing days, block out time for blogging every day and focus on only the writing during that time – no multi-tasking!

When I first started blogging, Ultimate Blog Challenge months were the only times I’d plan my blog posts for an entire month, (before that, I’d blog when I could fit it into my weekly schedule) …and guess what? Those Ultimate Blog Challenge months were the only ones when I blogged consistently!

Now I start every month with a blogging plan (editorial calendar), whether it is an Ultimate Bloging Challenge month or not (some months I don’t blog as often as others, but I still create a plan, choose my topics and schedule posts).

Taking the time to create a better plan for your home office, whether it’s for blogging or some other part of your business, pays off in the long run, when you are bound to see an increase in your productivity.

Have a great example of how better planning has made a difference in your home office? Share in a comment – I’d love to hear it!

Sign up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge – there’s no deadline, it’s free and I highly recommend it. Go to the website www.ultimateblogchallenge.com for details. *The Ultimate Blog Challenge months are January, April, July and October.*

The quote image was created using quozio.com – a great, free tool for creating and sharing quotes.

Build a Positive Circle of Influence When You Work from Home

Build a Positive Circle of Influence When You Work From Home You’ve probably heard that the people closest to you affect your mood and attitude, so it’s important to surround yourself with a positive circle of influence. But working at home can sometimes make you feel isolated. Some days, your only circle of influence at the “office” may be your kids and pets. And while kids and pets are blessings, we all know that as business owners, we need to connect with other adults who share our entrepreneurial spirit.

There are a variety of ways to combat isolation in a home office and build a positive circle of influence – here are a few tips:

1. Your family – you really can’t get away from them when you work at home, so get them on board with your business. Share your goals, work schedule and accomplishments. Celebrate success together. For more tips, see my post: Family Support for Home Business Goals.

2. Local groups – join local groups, associations and clubs that include like-minded business owners. Whether these local groups help the community, educate business owners or provide networking opportunities, choose groups that add positive relationships to your business.

Also take note of the time you have available and choose only 1 or 2 groups to start with – spreading yourself too thin by becoming a part of many groups will not produce the best results for the group or you.

3. Online “virtual” groups – social media sites offer many options for building your positive circle of influence. From Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Google+ Communities or Twitter Chats…you can do a search on each site for a group that shares your interests and goals.

Paid programs, mastermind groups or associations usually host some type of private group on social media sites. The new connections you make there can be some of the most positive, since other members have paid for access and are obviously serious about the topic.

Build your positive circle of influence by putting effort into each of these areas and you’ll soon find the right people to give you feedback, support or a reminder of why you chose to work at home in the first place.

image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

5 Tips to Help Concentrate on Major Projects in a Home Office

5 Tips to Help Concentrate on Major Projects

Concentrate on the work at hand…I think it’s more difficult than ever to do with social media and cell phones at the center of our daily lives. I used to think that multi-tasking was one of my best skills (as a WAHM with 3 kids, it was a necessity!); but I’ve come to the realization that multi-tasking isn’t the best approach to concentrate on the major projects in my home office.

Training myself to concentrate only on the project in front of me and focusing exclusively on it for a set amount of time, is the key to moving forward in my business.

What has helped me concentrate on my major projects and be more productive?

1) Scheduling a dedicated time for major projects

If I’m working on a major project that requires 10 hours of my time this week, then I will schedule those 10 hours over several days: an hour here, 45 minutes there, whatever fits in my schedule…because I know I don’t have 10 hours of uninterrupted time available.

2) Scheduling my major project time to coincide with my “peak performance” time

If I do this, it usually means I can get the project done sooner than I planned. For example, I am at my best in the morning and my least-focused later in the evening, so I don’t schedule time for working on major projects at 9:00 pm. I’d rather work on a major project early in the morning then check email or set up automated posts at 9:00 pm, when I don’t need to be creative.

3) Turning off distractions

What are your biggest distractions in your home office? Mine are the internet/social media, phone calls and (evening) TV. So I let calls to go voicemail, keep the TV off or limit my time on social media when I am working on an important project.

For me, this means actually logging out of social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter)…it’s too tempting to take a “quick” peek at Twitter – and before you know it, you’ve lost 20 minutes!

4) Starting the day with a Power Hour (or 30 minutes, most days)

I’ve read that your first hour of the day sets the tone for the rest of day…so I am making more effort to start my day on the right foot. This usually means getting up a little earlier, exercising, reading positive affirmations or personal growth articles to start out in the right frame of mind.

Whatever your “power hour” includes, the purpose is to have a plan for starting the day rather than hitting the snooze button and stressing out because you are running late.

5) Taking enough breaks

Working from home sometimes means we never take a break from our business. And that isn’t good for us or the business. So I am “scheduling” break time into my work time: after spending dedicated time on a major project, I immediately take a break.

That means a physical break too – getting up from my desk, going into another room to make a phone call, going outside for 10 minutes…it’s quite entertaining for my cats, I’m sure, to watch me dance and sing around the house on my 10 minute break! But it works! I come back in a better frame of mind, ready to concentrate on the important tasks of the day.

So those are a few ideas I’ve used to help me better concentrate on major projects in my home office. Do you have any to add to the list? Feel free to share in comments!

Quote - Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand

Top photo courtesy of stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

4 Tips For Unexpected Schedule Changes in a Home Office

4 Tips for Unexpected Schedule Changes

One thing being a mom has taught me is to expect the unexpected. The good, the bad…you can make the best effort at planning and the next minute your kids change the direction of your day.

Flexibility – being able to adapt to the unexpected – is an important skill to master in a home business as well as in parenting. After all, your kids will be in your office if it’s located at home…

A recent, unexpected change in my work-at-home schedule involved costumes and crafts (not my areas of expertise to be sure). My daughter’s school holds Homecoming spirit events one week each Fall, including a different theme of the day: “tacky day”, “western day”, “spirit (school color) day”, etc. Students dress up each day to show their school spirit.

My flexibility (and oh so limited craft skills) were tested when my daughter needed help throwing together a costume the night before “character” day. Yes, of course, it was last-minute planning…isn’t that the most fun way to design a costume?

On this particularly busy day, I had set aside time in the evening to catch up on some work when I received a call from my daughter (who was at a costume shop) – asking if we had paint, gloves, etc to put the finishing touches on her Cat Woman costume. Needless to say, I changed my evening plans and spent time helping my daughter with her costume.

So I stayed up a little later that night finishing up my work and it made me think – what are some things that can help you stay productive in your home office when your schedule changes unexpectedly?

1. Know Your “Must-Do” Tasks

What needs to be done every day for your business, no matter what? Those are your must-do tasks; if possible, do these things early in the day, before a change in your schedule can side-track you.

2. Set Up a Time “Buffer”

Leave some unassigned time in your daily schedule (call it “miscellaneous work” if that helps), so if unexpected things come up, you’ve built in time to deal with it.

Maybe you can leave 1 hour at the end of each day unassigned, to catch up on any items that got pushed aside by unexpected events.

3. Remember the Big Picture

What are your big goals? Keep your focus on them when daily plans go astray. An hour of my time to work on a costume is not going to deter my bigger business goals. It just means that on that day, I may not get everything done in my home office the way I planned.

4. Pay Attention to Your Attitude

If you accept that the unexpected is inevitable when you work from a home office, you’ll be less likely to get frustrated. Keep reminding yourself of all the positive benefits in working from home, and avoid the negative thinking. A little humor also goes a long way when you are working from home with kids, pets and chatty neighbors!

In my case, luckily, my limited craft skills were sufficient to help my daughter put together the pieces of her Cat Woman costume. She was happy with the results and had fun at school in her costume.

Our youngest cat though, not so much…my daughter’s cat apparel looked too real to Dexter: he got scared and ran the other way once she put on her mask and ears! Here’s a shot of him trying to brave:

Dex and my daughter as Cat Woman

Top image courtesy of MorgueFile.com