Working from Home–To Do or Not to Do

I was a remarkable failure at working from home the first time I tried it. I created an office in the basement of our small home in Kansas. That was mistake number one—I am not a basement person. So I’d pop upstairs for any reason—more coffee, folding laundry, covering my tulips if it looked like a freeze might be coming on…I can’t name all the distractions because, honestly, I could mold anything into an excuse not to stay at my desk. My sons were still in daycare, but I couldn’t get my professional groove on. All those years of putting my pumps on in the morning, and suddenly, I was wearing my big duck slippers (they were quite impressive) to work.

The amazing good fortune of accidentally landing some big accounts (and trust me, luck early on in your business isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I still have issues embracing delayed gratification!) enabled me to get a suite of offices, some staff, some spiffy furniture and I happily left that home setting and the duck slippers behind me. But that was 1995. My life today is quite different.

Today, clients are more accepting of home-based businesses and technology makes it a snap to connect to everything and everyone we need from home. Plus, the days of huge clients falling from the sky seem to be behind me (dang it!) and the staff I can afford is Sage the Wonder Puppy. So, I’m working at home. Period. It’s taken me about two years to get to the point where I can say “yes” when people ask me if I work. It just didn’t feel like work to me. As my friend Leslie summarized it—working at home didn’t feel natural to me. Creating home—cooking, cleaning, laundry, entertaining, making a cozy place for my family—that’s what home is about for me.

So, that leads me to my personal step one…Get Over It!

I’m proud to report that as I sit at my desk, there are dishes in the sink, dog hair on the floor and dust on my shelves. That is a dramatic sign of progress—or partial recovery from my mild OCD, I’m not sure which!

If you’ve seen the movie About A Boy (Hugh Grant, 2002) you’re familiar with the idea of “time units”. I don’t necessarily divide my days into 30-minute increments as Grant’s character did, but I do give myself assignments. For instance, right now, I won’t allow myself to get up from my desk—even to chase Sage around and retrieve the Coke can from her mouth—until I finish the blog. Sage will be fine (I think) and I am better off if I stay in the zone once I start writing—whether it’s an email or a book chapter.

I also know what things I hope to accomplish in each day. There are things I will complete before I allow my attention to turn to the domestic needs I referenced above. I also expect to finish items that require my undivided attention before my kids get home—not so much because feel the need to lavish all my attention on my children—but because my office has no walls and I have to put on noise cancellation headphones to accomplish anything once they descend with their friends. I don’t like to to do that mostly because my children and their friends are neat humans and I find them interesting and entertaining.

Those things I expect to accomplish are also part of my Master List. This is one of the greatest time management techniques I ever learned from the only book I ever read on the subject. I still remember the title—If You Don’t Have Time To Do It Right, When Will You Have Time To Do It Over? I don’t know if it’s still in print. I borrowed my copy from my friend Tad. The takeaway was that you can use a DayPlanner, Card System, Palm Pilot, iPhone, Color Coded Quadrants to separate from the important and urgent from all other…but those take time. Systems take time. The Master List is One list for All your stuff. Period.

I recently moved from a legal pad s the home for my master list to a small Moleskine@ that fits in all my bags. I try to keep notes on the left hand pages and my to dos on the right. I carry it with me wherever I go and absolutely everything I must do—2010 Grad Night Committee; NCL Work; PEO Info.; Ideas that occur as I’m waiting at a red light: notes from a phone call with a client; menu ideas—it’s all in one little place. The idea of files for every activity holds great promise…and some of the things that start in the Moleskine as a small part of my existence may grow to warrant a file of their own, but this new take on my old legal pad system is great.

Here are a few Mimi’s Master List guidelines:

• Write in pencil whenever possible
• It doesn’t need to be pretty
• Cross completely through the items that are completed using ink. Not only is it easier to see what remains on the list than if you use little check marks, but it feels great to dramatically cross things off. I have one friend who writes things on her list she’s already completed just because drawing that line gives her such a sense of accomplishment.
• When it gets too messy to read, give yourself a quiet moment to rewrite your master list
• Start each day reviewing your list. You may need to reprioritize your assignments for the day based on something especially urgent or especially important…but you can only figure that out when you see your life in its full context. Your other life—getting those concert tickets; buying the birthday present; calling your college roommate—that belongs on your Master LIst. You can’t balance your life until you know what’s in it.

Okay friends…I have two more assignments to finish before noon. Then I have lunch with a new friend. The dishes and dusting will wait. Goodness doesn’t have to have spotless growing conditions!

0 comments 0 people listening

Sign in

• Comment help
• Get Livefyre

Post comment as

+ Follow conversation Following - Unfollow

Post to

Sort: Newest | Oldest