Family and friends can be the biggest motivation robber to those starting or trying to maintain a home business. They probably don’t even realize what they are doing to your motivation and business momentum.
Because you are at home and not at an office downtown, people have the idea that you are not really working, and therefore are available for neighborhood coffee get togethers, available to babysit the sick grandchildren so their mother can “go to work”, as well as chit chat on the phone half the morning.
I learned many years ago that the only way to let people know that I was at home because I was WORKING, was to learn the word NO! I’d explain that I wouldn’t be available to go shopping because I was over my head with a project and was on a time table to get it done, or that I was behind on getting craft items ready for the next craft show, therefore had to buckle down and keep with my schedule of WORK that I’d set up for the day.
You will find that those people who have the opinion that just because you’re at home, you’re not really working will make comments like “what do you mean, working? You’re at HOME, aren’t you?” That’s the time to inform them that you are indeed working at home; that you run a business from your home and that your working hours are such and such. If you make yourself a regular work schedule and insist that people, including family members, respect your work schedule, they will realize that you do mean business with your home business!
You can also cause your own lack of motivation by picking up small, but deadly, non-work habits. That second cup of coffee and reading the paper for 30 minutes can be a great time waster. Running back and forth to the kitchen to refill your tea glass or realize you hadn’t cleaned off the breakfast table so rush out to take care of that will waste more time than you think.
Take care of the kitchen table and prepare a large drinking cup of tea or water BEFORE going into the office area to work, then stay in the workshop/office once you’re there and WORK.
There’s a simple strategy you can use to keep most of this from happening. It’s to make the important project you’ve been procrastinating on a priority and working on it first thing every morning. The whole process starts the night before. Before you call it a day, sit down and make a simple plan for what you want to get done the next day. Identify the three most important tasks. These will be things that start to move the needle. Maybe they are all focused on one main project, maybe it’s several things you know you should be getting done.
The greatest statement about working at home is that you can “work in your jammies all day”. Some people can indeed work in their pajamas, while for other people the idea of being in pajamas doesn’t give the feeling of work, but of relaxation. In that case get the jammies off, take a shower and put on REAL clothes so you can get the feeling of WORK, not rest and relaxation. By creating a feeling of work you will find yourself getting into the schedule you have set up and sticking with the program until you get finished what you’d set out to do that particular day.
A jet leaves a vapor trail in the sky as it completes its work – what kind of mark are you leaving so others can readily see that your home business is working? To tell others you are working at home means there must be visable signs of accomplishment that others can see.
