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