Sunday, June 13, 2010

Getting My Mojo Back

I'm going to blame it on it being June. I'm going to blame it being summertime. Summery, sunshiney, warm, blue skies-ey, birds singy good 'ol summertime ... yeah. Guys! I've totally lost my work mojo, and I need to find it.

It's worse being a work-at-home working girl. I've learned that I have pretty much zero discipline. My first month working from home, I was good. It was like I was a new student, like it was the first month of my freshman year of college where everything was gung-ho and nothing was going to stop me from getting to all my classes and doing all my homework and making my bed every single morning. Wha' happened?

Here's all my excuses.

1) I don't have a dedicated work space. I'm either working from the couch, from bed or from the kitchen table. It's too much temptation to watch a little TV, take a little nap, or go outside and lay out by the dreamy blue pool that I can see outside from my view at the kitchen table. Bad.

That's all I can think of. I'm out of excuses already.

I disgust myself.

What do you girls do to get yourselves out of a rut and into go-getting, turbo-tiger awesome-as-heck working girls? Tips, pep talks, anything ... now, please!

10 comments:

Jenny @ Practically Perfect... said...

Not having a dedicated work space would be tough! Is there any way that you can create one? I think that IKEA has fold-down wall desks that don't take up too much space!

I'm not a work-at-home girl, but I'll tell you what my sister does - she gets up, makes her bed, and gets completely ready first thing (shower, hair, shoes) rather than eating breakfast in her PJs. She said that helps her mentally feel like she's "going to work". Good luck!

MonsteRawr said...

I don't work from home, but when I do have something I need to work on that I'm not feeling, I find two things really help. If it's computer work, I actually find that working out on my deck helps me focus. It's quiet, it's peaceful, and I very quickly run out of distractions. The other thing that helps me focus is playing classical music. Complete silence makes me antsy, and tempted to turn on the tv, but having some soothing music with no distracting lyrics keeps me relaxed and focused.
Oh, and I'm also a big believer of the to do list. Even when I'm just doing chores on my day off, having a visual reminder of everything I need to get done keeps me on track and off the couch.

Anonymous said...

Law school finals are somewhat the same as working at home and I have found on the days when I got out of bed and acted like I was getting ready to go to class or the library were the days I was most productive.

I also recommend like someone said above, getting a set work place always helps. I need that and a to-do list to be productive on a normal day.

PR Working Girl said...

these are all great tips! too often i don't get ready and just stay in my pajamas, so i will try that and see if it makes a difference. today i also tried going to a new place, a quiet little coffe shop with free wifi, to work and found it very helpful too.

Rebekkah Rose said...

I am an independent contractor. My goal is to building my consulting business. Up until this week, I only worked 1-2 days a week for my single client. This meant I had A LOT of free time. In fact, I had too much. No matter how hard I tried to be disciplined and use my time wisely, I couldn't enforce it. So, I let myself over indulge until I was so bored of the routine that I had to do something else -- usually the something else was work-related (website, networking, market research, etc..).

Making money is also a key motivator for me. I was barely able to cover my monthly bills and still have some emergency money left over -- even when I severely limited my spending! Nothing like determining that life could be so much better if I actually focused on my work.

Good luck!

Canadian Girl said...

Hey WG!
I am running my own painting business, and often have to complete alot of tasks myself.
What I have is my big hefty planner. OH yes, we all usually have one sitting somewhere.. but do we use it!
It makes me really think about my productivity!
I am a HUGE procrasinator and sometimes have a hard time getting motivated to complete a full days work when I can nap, see bf, etc!
So I have to 'schedule' everything. Hour by hour.
Food, emails, social time, work, work, breaks, facebook, sleep, etc!
little things get you distracted..so if we schedule these things, we have already made time for them and limited it!!
To go over the top, I make an excel document of my week and EVERYTHING I plan on doing, printing it and posting it on the fridge, sending it to friends (boyfriend..), etc.
Hope this helps!
:)

emily @ cabin fervor said...

Hi! Just popped over from 20sb!

I've been a work-from-home working girl for almost 2 years now. It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but here I am. I am pretty good at staying on task MOST days (or maybe I should say that I don't procrastinate or waste any more time than I would if I were back in the office.)

My tactic is to go for a run or workout during lunch. I work in my PJs till then, sweat for 30-40 min, then take a quick shower afterwards. It really breaks up my day nicely and prevents me from feeling sluggish and couch potato-y. I also don't have cable, so I'm sure that helps too!

Kelsey said...

get yourself a work space! or like pick one spot where it's work time. I'm easily distracted as well.

Anonymous said...

I need to follow some of these tips too. I have a desk and I don't use it. Instead I sit on my bed. It's bad. I should use it cuz I am losing my work mojo too.

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