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Things I Did Instead Of Writing Helpful Time-Saving Tips For You This Week
Amy Storch of Amalah.com | January 13th, 2009 - 3:00 PM
So, I work from home. Most of the time, this is the perfect arrangement: I enjoy writing, I enjoy my children, I enjoy showering after lunchtime.
I won’t lie, though: working independently from home requires massive amounts of self-discipline. There are a zillion distractions and no one but yourself to keep you on task. I’ve never even met a good number of the people I work with now — or even spoken to them on the phone, now that I think about it. I might go six months or more in between face-to-face meetings with my employers. I work hard to maintain a reputation of being reliable and diligent and good at what I do…but…there’s also writer’s block, the Nintendo Wii, another cozy nap with the baby, and what was the name of that guy in the movie about the thing at the place? I should go check that out on IMDB.
I try not to let this sort of thing happen — I have a VERY STRICT rule about no daytime television (no soaps, no talk shows, no Showcase Showdown, alas) for myself, my work generally gets priority over everything (except my kids, of course — I do everything during naps and independent play time and preschool and I will only turn on the TV if I’m truly well behind the eight-ball on something), and I’m very careful about the aimless web surfing that can kill an entire precious naptime — but sometimes it just doesn’t work. I lose direction or focus or can’t think of an idea or I’m tired or OH LOOK SOMETHING SHINY!
For example! The very entry you are reading right now was submitted well past the agreed-upon deadline. Some of the things I did instead:
1) Reorganized my TiVo Season Pass list.
2) Nursed baby.
3) Looked up frittata recipes.
4) Made scrambled eggs.
5) Nursed baby.
6) Oh man, Die Hard is on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this from the beginning.
7) Checked inventory of leftover Halloween candy. Yep, still making a nice dent in that.
Read blogs.
9) Nursed baby.
10) Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii.
11) Read more blogs.
12) Showered.
13) Changed baby’s outfit for absolutely no reason.
14) Nursed baby.
15) Twitter, Facebook, more blogs, email, looking up random things on Wikipedia.
So. For someone who makes a living writing the sort of things bored people waste time with on the Internet, I sure can manage to waste a hell of a lot of time. Usually on the Internet. Then I get really good and behind and frantically pound out deadline after deadline in record time because OH CRAP.
So YOU tell ME, fellow readers-of-blogs and work-from-homers and stay-at-homers and even you work-at-an-office-but-still-like-to-read-blogs-types? How do you minimize distractions and stay on task?
Keep everything on a reader, so I don’t go check amalah.com 15 times a day. You know. Just in case.
I love that the eighth bullet got turned into a smiley face with sunglasses.
Well since I don’t have children (except my kitties, who are pretty low maintenence) I can do the following:
Get up at 2 in the morning and do my work then while the fiance is sleeping and CANNOT DISTRACT MEEEE.
It’s the ONLY way I get ANY work done.
How do I minimize distractions and stay on task? I, uh, don’t. Case in point: I don’t even have kids and I’m on a website for moms. While I’m at work. Under threat of being laid off this month. I rock.
Not qualified to comment on this, as I am at work… in an office… reading this, and your blog, and that other post and surfing the web for other stuff while wondering if I’ll even have enough time left to grab lunch before my afternoon meeting or if I should just make some toast.
I look for dream jobs and apartments in far away cities on craigslist…..ahhhhh wanderlust!
Well, reading your blog certainly isn’t one of them! When my internet is down I get a lot of work done, but I can’t always make that happen!
I am a fellow work from home mom and the only time I work is when my husband is home.
I allow naptime to be my time and work time is usually right after dinner until bedtime. And even then staying on task is complicated because look at all those shiny unread blogs! I usually just set short goals like before the kids need to go to bed this, this and this has to be done. Pressure is probably my only motivation even if it’s self inflicted.
Good Luck! I know how hard it is!
Um, I don’t… that’s why I’m here. That said when I do find a big pile of work on my desk (at an office) I make deals with myself and the clock or the pile. If I work until 2:41 I can then spend ten minutes reading blogs. Or if I get another ten forms done I can check in on the Fug girls. Is that weird?
Well I just spent the last 90 minutes frantically going through spreads to meet my deadline because this morning I spent three hours reading blogs. Seriously, I was just going to check and see if there was anything good written since 4:55 last night…
It’s so good to know I’m not alone in my bad habits *sigh*.
Hillary, you’re not alone. I’m at work, I have no kids (until August at least), and have I mentioned I work in the housing industry and everyone is getting laid off? Yeah, great, spend more time reading blogs… Managing my time is NOT my strong point in that respect.
Girls - can I just say I love you? Because I thought it was just me who behaved this badly at work.
Thank you, thank you for all being addicted like me!
I’m a work-at-homer and I don’t avoid distractions. For instance I was sitting here working away when I noticed a new post on the Amalah blog. I had to stop working and read what Amy, Noah and Ezra were up to.
My favorite two bits from this here post:
1. Knowing I am not alone in the showering after lunchtime routine.
2. The way the Eight parenthesis made a smiley face with sunglasses.
I always ask myself, “would I rather be sleeping?”. As a telecommuting mom of two little ones, there are lots of distractions, but very few of them worth more to me than sleep. During the day, when I have childcare, nap time, or any other kid-free time, and I find myself off-task, I remind myself that these things will simply steal my sleeping time. Inevitably, I will have to lose sleep to catch up.
Is there a great reward for you? Something that you would always choose over your distractions?
I wrote a post about my approach to time management on my blog.
I also find it best to leave the house and go to a coffee shop when I need to get something done. The context switch of a different physical location really helps remind me that I need to be working. I realize that may not be an option for you if you are using nap time to get work done. Maybe you could designate a desk that you *only* sit at when you are working. Or a sign that you put on the wall behind your monitor when you are working. Anything to clearly remind your brain that now is “work time”.
Botoom line: pracrastination makes perfect!
I really struggle with this so will have to come and check your other reader’s responses later - at the moment I am trying to use FlyLady principles - 45 minutes of work, 15 minutes for me, using a timer.
I love the comments on this post. I wish I had something to offer, but I’m in the same boat as hillary.
Yet another unqualified-to-answer poster, since I’m right at this instant putting off an assignment to write this.
RIGHT NOW.
It’s all very meta, isn’t it?
I’m guessing I shouldn’t admit to the 4 tabs I have open right now, each of which shows a different blog, and the unfinished lecture I need to write just sitting there under Coke Zero cans and York Peppermint Patty wrappers, huh?
I have installed Leech Block and Rescue Time on my work computer. Leech Block allows me to block websites at certain times of the day (in Firefox, to minimize distractions) and Rescue Time sends me an email weekly with stats about how I used my computer. And yet somehow here I am reading blogs during work! I have major self discipline issues
Avoid distractions: that’s a hard one. If I’m really trying to do something important I will work on it for 20 minutes and then take a 5 minute break to read something online. Works for me.
When I worked at home when my 4 kids were little, there was no Internet to distract me. I had neighbors dropping in because they thought that my job (reading and grading English papers for a local community college) wasn’t really work since I was at home. I usually worked after the kids went to bed.
I love amalah.com it makes me laugh. I can so relate due to the fact I was pregnant at the sametime just a month difference and I also have another child whos 5. Anyway I just wanted to shared that I love reading Amys blogs. Keep up the good work and making me laugh.
Ha! No self discipline here. The way I rationalize not folding 3 loads of laundry, unloading the dishwasher, and not cleaning the bathroom is that “I am a stay at home mom, not a stay at home housekeeper.” Works for me:) Instead I choose the internets.
Yeah - um, that whole stay focused thing?
HAHAHAHAHAHAH -
as I sit here, at work, not a mom but addicted to the zero to forty blog, (have read whole thing over and over getting excited and terrified about when I finally AM pregnant(fingers crossed)), reading amalah.com, and finally cranking out work when it looks like someone is going to walk into my office and beat me over the head… *sigh*… so yeah, I would SUCK at working at home…
I work from home, and usually treat blog-reading and other web-surfing as “meals.” I read the “really important” or “really funny” things while the coffee is brewing in the morning. I take a little break during lunch - take the dog for a long walk, read a couple more blogs, answer those burning questions with IMDB, and shower. Finally, I take a “snack” break to do some more web-surfing and blog-reading…and then work until the wee hours of the night, if I’m home.
As a stay at home wife with no kids and hopefully none for a while thank you (I’ve only been married for about 2 years)! I read blogs (all of yours so it doesn’t really matter where you write, just keep writing somewhere! I was so sad when zero to 40 was over and I don’t even have kids: ) ),play games online, facebook, random searches etc., read books (I was addicted to the “Twilight” series recently and read all 4 in about a week and a half… yea nothing got done then) you know any thing but what I should be doing. I think it started to get really bad in college and now that I don’t have any papers to do the procrastination has gotten a little better but not much!
i’m positive i could never work from home - the fridge, good god the fridge - i’d never get anything done and i would weigh 5,000 pounds.
Hmmm…do after dinner dishes, fold laundry (clean pile number 2), or comment on blog… well, you see what I have chosen. We have dial-up (gasp) so I don’t go online too often, but when I do (after the kids are in bed or when hubby takes them out to see Grandma, like now), it is HARD to make myself stop reading blogs. Being home with 3 kids (5, 3, and 3 months) is difficult and isolating at times, and there is so little time to myself. Besides, hubby said I could leave the dishes for him… I enjoy your blog–you always make me laugh or cry, sometimes in the same post!
Yess, the fridge would pose a problem. And facebook, and Amy’s blog, and the dogs, and tea with my girlfriends, and nagging husband, and and and . NOT a good plan for me.
I’ll have to get back to you on that one. I’m too busy right now reading blogs and updating my facebook profile.
If there’s something I really need to do, I do my best to simply not turn the computer on. Because otherwise…I don’t have any idea how to minimize distraction. Right now, I’m posting here instead of going up to get ready for a much-needed run.
Heck if I know, I ended up going into work on Saturday because I accomplished nothing while “working” from home last Thursday and Friday.
I only surf the net late at night after the kids are in bed and all the work is done. I never surf at work. Uh…but that’s only because I’ve got a room full of teens watching my every move. So my tip is: get a bunch of teens to watch you all day and put yourself in the position of having to be a good example.
When you find out, let me know!
When you’re in interactive marketing like I am, it’s easy to play off my facebook surfing/blog reading/overall slack-off-ering procrastination etc. as “research.”
When I stayed at home it was a good day if I managed to get my bra on.
Stay on task. Are you kidding me? I’m trying to figure it all out. With 3 kids, I need every little discraction that I can get. I’d go crazy if I stayed on task all the time. The rebel in me will not allow it. I like shiny things.
The only way I have found to keep focused is to use my timer. 15 minutes of focus is a lot more manageable for me than, uhm, a lifetime of focus.
I am a SAHM as well. I guess the only time I get real stuff done is after she is asleep..I am constantly maikng lists and charts to help me but in the end it is just a visual aid to disappoint me..most times…
Timers. I tell myself I will do X for 10 minutes before checking my feed reader or IMDb or whatever, and often I will end up focusing for twice as long. but if I start out with a manageable chunk of time I am much more likely to get it done.
I love that the eighth bullet got turned into a smiley face with sunglasses.
Also, this.
This is a constant battle, but for me it is at WORK and not when I work from home (only one day per week). When I’m at home, I feel so guilty I work and work but at the office … I check your blog (and others) for updates about 1000 times. Every minute. I must make myself stop, and yet …
It is NO BETTER in an office, especially in the VERY open plan, ‘creative’ one I work in. Just yesterday I agreed with a co-worker that we actually get twice at much work done at home where there are fewer distractions…
Oh no, am I at work again? Must do something to remedy that problem. Time to check out amalah.com!
Currently, my management of time sucks. I get annoyed when work takes my play time away. But at the end of this month, I will be a stay at home momma and I know I won’t have a lot of time for internet play. I am sure I will hit a routine eventually that will allow time in the office but I bet it will be weeks.
I live for the distractions… See? I’m totally (suppose to be) working now!
Also as a work from home mom (I babysit) I have a rule that the tv and computer be shut off at 9. And I almost always follow that rule, most days…usually.
I’m in the same boat as you. I have no idea, but when you find out, let me know!!
I give myself 30 minutes in the morning to catch up on blogs, then I work until my son is home from school. After he goes to bed, I work another 2-3 hours, to catch up. I don’t get as much sleep as I’d like, but I get it all done. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, I get a NAP.
I feel so much better now knowing I am not the only one who can’t stay focused even in the office. Sometimes I try the “reward” method - you know, finish the document then read Amalah. That usually morphs into “finish one sentence” then you deserve a surfing break. I suck.
I too have a difficult time managing to stay on task when working from home. It’s amazing how appealing laundry is when there are work type things that need to get done. It doesn’t help that I am, by nature, a procrastinator, and always have been. I just try to make small manageable goals, and hope for the best!
The act of getting up, showered and dressed for work got me into my routine before I was a mom….now I swear I have ADD - I can’t even get to the shower without stopping to pick up some toys and put them away and oh that’s a dirty dish (go to the kitchen) and look! the garbage is full (take it out) and pick up the newspaper and read the living section and what was I doing? Right! Shower! It goes on and on and on…..I used to be very focused.
Lego Indiana Jones ROCKS!!! Out loud!!!
I have a four-month old son, work “outside the home” 32 hours a week, write a blog, and read tons of other blogs. The only way I can get anything done at home is by creative multi-tasking: for example, checking my voicemail while sitting on the toilet. Or folding laundry while nursing the baby. Trying to convince the baby that folding his laundry and putting it away is a really! fun! game! that he wants to watch me do!
I could never never ever work from home because even at work I can’t stay focused. And I’m not even a mom any more. Well, I’m a mom, but they are great hulking things, all older than I think I am, and emotionally I consider my teenage grandsons my peers. I have all my favorite blogs bookmarked and I keep IE minimized on my desktop, and I send a document to the printer, and while it prints I sneak looks at a blog, or check my MouseHunt traps, or have a couple battles in WarLords, change my FaceBook status, check my personal e-mail, whatever. This morning I managed to work in a little shopping, wait til you see the sunny yellow sweater I picked up for only $24.95! The only thing I don’t do is play Pogo games (I am an addict) at work because there is a download involved, and playing Pogo games would be WRONG at work. Yeah, like all those blogs and e-mails and shopping sprees at Amazon and on eBay are right.
I grew up without television. Seriously, I was 13 before we got one, and I was 34 when we got our first color set, and computers just blow me away. I can find a million things to do at any given moment besides what I am supposed to be doing, which is transcribing this tape that one of the lawyers here dictated. I have my headset on, do I look efficient? Been workin’ on this one paragraph letter over half an hour now.
If it’s any consolation, I’m just as bad at home. I get up on Sunday mornings and it’s 1:00 pm before I get around to the morning shower. On weekdays I get up at 4:45 in order to have 2 hours to get ready, and first I check my e-mail and then every day I end up realizing that OMG I have to leave here in 1/2 hour! and I’m off to the shower.
I’m going to make such a terrific retiree!
I work in an office and spend too much time reading blogs. I’ll lock my computer when I really have to work.
Love the #8!
I’m all about the reward system: finish a work task, then check a blog. Except I usually get sucked in for longer than planned and by the end of the day I figure “there’s only an hour left, might was well write off any work and just try to do better tomorrow”.
Well, I’m obviously not doing too well since… here I am commenting and clicking on every link from every site you write on! And, yes, I am at my full-time job in my office and about to quit in February to work from home when my baby is born. I have GOT to stop this!
I do get all my work done at the last possible second and in RECORD time, I might add!
I can so relate to your list. I laughed and am still laughing. OUT LOUD at my desk… BTW did I mention I am assistant to the president of a huge company and I’m right outside his office within hearing range??
That is a terrific question. I have not mastered that (but I’ll be checking back often to see if anyone else has…lol).
Hooboy am I a whiz at wasting time on the internet, or doing whatever really. We call it futzing at my house. I’m a futzer.
I’m just amused that the editor turned your number 8 into a smiley!
I’m impressed that you have the discipline not to have daytime tv on Amy! Even when I’m wasting time reading blogs or updating Facebook, I have the tv on as background noise. So yeah, I’m being completely unproductive right now other than serving as a pillow for my dog. Life’s rough, huh?
I also work in a situation of autonomy that requires volumes of self-control. What I do is make lists and dole out the rewards. When I finish X items, I get Y reward. It works for me because I see it as the price of autonomy. And if I blow it and don’t get the work done, I’ll need a more traditional job with a boss and deadlines and. Ugh.
Also: I TIVO any TV I might want to watch and only watch when I am caught up. As it turns out, I watch almost nothing (my son thinks I TIVO as a hobby). But I know that not everyone can give up the TV so easily.
As a work at home mom with a 2 year old in preschool, I can tell you I have my productive days and not so productive days…more the latter lately since I’m pregnant and miserable…. HOWEVER, I do a lot of random time wasting on the internet and by watching (I am not ashamed to admit it) Friends and Sex and the City reruns that my DVR records for me so I can be amused during the day. I NEED background noise to be able to focus…. Ok whatever, I’ll just keep telling myself that!
Sometimes, I thrive on pressure and pound it out quickly. Sometimes, the cursor mocks me.
I obsessively maintain a to-do list with incredible amounts of detail, then I take great satisfaction in crossing off every little accomplishment.
* Take laundry out of dryer. Check!
* Fold laundry. Check!
* Put away folded laundry. Check!
See how busy I’ve been? Time for a break.
I like to think of reading blogs as one of those things on my to do list. For instance, though I am at work right now and have many things to do–it was important that I come read this because I had a tab with it open waiting for me. Closing a tab or a window is like checking something off the list and man I love checking things off the list.
Oh boy, this was the perfect post to read today, this week, this month! I work from home, have no kids (another one on a mommy blog site with no kids!) Some days, everything is a shiny thing that must be attended to. But I have to say, the blogger world gets me in the most trouble. I wake up wondering “I wonder what so and so will blog about today?” Really, what did I do with all my time before I found blogs? Certainly nothing as important as reading them has become! Then, I look at the clock and OMG! Where has the day gone? I say “self, you hung out with friends and it was all worth it but you’d better get to work now!” So I do until I realize there was one little blog I forgot to check and then, well, it’s off the races again. Need proof? I am HERE and have no idea how I got here and now I am posting! I tend to think there is a lot of avoidance going on. Ya Think?
Um, what was the question? I’ve lost it while reading comments… Oh, yeah, staying on task - weeelllll, I do have the washer and dryer going right now, so technically I am performing task, yes?
As a SAHM starting grad school (from home), I am worried that your too-funny blogs will be my downfall, so I have committed to using a reader and not hitting refresh five bazillion times a day…ACK, change stinks!
I put my kids in daycare a couple days/week and went back to the office. It’s the only way I can focus now. I did make the work-from-home gig work pretty well for a couple years though.
Well, since I teach in a public high school, we have the requisite Computer Nazi who makes sure that all interesting and useful web sites are blocked. Yes, even from the teachers. So I spend all my ’spare’ time searching for ways around the blocks. eg Jennsylvania can be accessed through Google…… mwah ha ha
I don’t stay on task. That’s my problem. I need to hear more about your strict rules.
Adderall?
uhhhhm. yeah. i’m with hillary on that. i don’t even HAVE kids, and what am i doing right now?? riiighttt.
i give you credit. i can’t stay on task and i work in an office, face to face with my bossES. and his snarky little remarks. did i mention i sit about 20 feet away from the CEO? Yeah. I can’t focus. Not for love or money.
When I work from home I’m using my company laptop and all the good sites (blogs, FaceBook, Twitter, LiveJournal) are all blocked. I keep trying to convince myself that TV doesn’t distract but it does.
I really am more productive when I’m in the office.
Focus…what’s that? My kids are in their teens, and I think I’m a week behind in life right now. So a big, “You go girl!” to you Amy for keeping up on your deadlines with those two adorable boys of yours.
The ONLY thing that works for me is to NOT have internet access when I’m writing. And to not even own a TV…
Its amazing that I finished my college degree from home. I didn’t have a baby, but kitties, DVR, YOUR BLOG. I’m still working my way through the archives.
i have a special desk and computer for work, and a separate set up for fun. i also go to coffee shops or, if home, disconnect from the internet and just write. i agree with pp–it’s very hard.
I used to pride myself on having a reputation for being hardworking and diligent and mostly on time with deadlines, and then I don’t know what happened, but now I’m consistently a month or TWO behind. I just plugging away at the list, in between trying NOT to let my daughter spend all day watching Max & Ruby and Oswald. Some days, I’ll admit it, she watches a LOT of TV.
[...] But can we really be productive in such a busy, distracting environment? I certainly get more ‘done’ when I work from home – but then of course all that Information isn’t Flowing via me if I’m not there. On the other hand, this post and accompanying comments on mommy blogger site TheMomSpeak suggests that the average full-time homeworker isn’t exactly Productivity Central either. [...]
So your no daytime TV rule INCLUDES The Price is Right? Blasphemy!
I make a mini calendar for the week on a sheet of paper with room for about five things (work and non-work related) to accomplish for the day and check each thing off as I go. My husband accuses me of making unrealistically long lists, so this helps keep things under control. Plus, I get a huge sense of accomplishment when I can check something off. I guess I’m still a sucker for a gold star.
Umm yeaaaah. So totally slacking here at work. In the office. No one is getting raises this year…. do I hear the whip cracking? I care not! I totally hear you on the Wikipedia, IMDB thing. Sometimes I lay in bed at night and think, I wonder who does Elmo’s voice? Or, what the heck is a leauge when your talking distance? Hmmm I’ll have to check when I’m at work tomorrow. Hope they don’t check my internet hits! =) I’ve convinced myself that I work best under pressure so I’ll continue to slack until I have to go into a last minute frenzy. Vicious-cycle, how I love you! Meanwhile my co-worker who has the gall to be working is getting on my nerves. Can’t you take that “business call” somewhere private? I’m trying to read BLOGS here. UGH!
Guiltily right there with you. I work in the office part time and at home part time. Lately, the amount of work done per week has gone from nominally 25 hours, to perhaps 10 hours. The sad part, I suppose, is that I get enough accomplished in that time to actually keep them happy.
But yep. IMDB, wiki… don’t forget amazon and ebay… Basically I’ve gotten to the point where I think I’m going to ask my husband to come in and put in a password I don’t know onto my internet explorer so that I can only visit the half dozen work related sites that I put in the “safe list” (fedex, ups, dictionary.com). That’s the only way I can think of to keep myself off the blogs, the icanhascheezburger, babycenter/whattoexpect, and so on….
You do more while not writing than I do during an ordinary day. There must be a secret secret. I can barely post once a week to my regular old blog.