photo credit: teramchugh.com
I’ve been thinking about this lately … I’m not sure my time-management is very good!
I work from home, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I realise how easy it is to get distracted. (I wrote a blog a few months ago about working from home, please read here). This isn’t about being disciplined or motivated. Many people say, ‘How do you work from home? It’s so easy to switch the TV on and chill out for a bit …’ but I don’t do this. I love what I do, so I don’t need excuses not to work.
However, I felt the need to write about managing my time … because I’m not sure about anyone else, but why does there never seem to be enough! Now, if you follow me on twitter, facebook or read my blog, you’ll see that I am a positive person. I’m passionate about people following their dreams and achieving their goals. So when writing this I didn’t want it to come across as a negative post, because it’s far from it.
The thing is I’ve been looking at how I get distracted and if I’m managing my time effectively … I think I am, but I always feel like I don’t have enough time. There is always something to do, somewhere to be and I laugh when people say they are bored!
Boredom … what is that?
As I said I didn’t want this to come across as a negative post, because I love the fact I’m never bored. I also love the fact that I don’t have a strict 9am-5pm schedule. I love that I can work around my children, and that working on a night doesn’t feel like a chore (unless it’s tax stuff 🙁 – yes, it’s that time of year!) I just wish there were more hours in the day, so I could do more of the stuff I love! This is obviously a good thing, I hear you say.
So when I started to think about what I am achieving with my time, I started to make lists of things I’d achieved in the last few months and I’m definitely moving forward. Most days my to-do list is ticked off and then I start another one from the HUGE main to-do list, (yes, I have one of these, and generally that gets added to everyday). If you follow me on twitter, you will see the mass of inspirational messages I tweet, but I don’t put any inspirational messages out there that I don’t believe in: I’m enthusiastic, positive and I love that I’m doing what I love. I’m excited about life. I want to tell the world to follow their dreams and their passions as life is far too short.
And all this is really good stuff … but like most people I am terrible for being distracted: answering emails, answering the phone, sending and replying to text messages and the worse thing about working from home … is the housework … there are some of you reading this and totally agreeing. It’s so easy to sort the washing out or quickly hoover around before sitting down at my desk. I have become a little stricter with myself for this, although it’s hard to leave a mess … I have a 7 and 5 year-old, do I need to say anymore? But I’ve found if I keep my office tidy this becomes my santuary and I can ignore the rest of the house (and hope and prayer nobody comes to the door!)
Anyway, as I said this wasn’t a whining post, as I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else, but I know there are plenty of other people out there who are in the same boat as me. So I decided to share some of the articles I found on time-management and working from home. I would do my own list (as I know what I should be doing … but hang-on the phone is ringing, an urgent email has just come through that I really need to reply too … and the washing machine has just stopped 🙂 ).
Hope these help some of you …
I love this article: their quote – ‘There are two types of time: clock time and real time’, Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553
Tips from the NHS: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/time-management-tips.aspx
I also found some time-management games! Now I haven’t tried these myself because I haven’t got time to play them. 🙂 However, for anyone interested in testing their time-management skills, just type ‘time-management games’ into google – you’ll be surprised with the list!