Self Employed people and time

[Andy Hamilton]

I know that some of you are self employed on here or work from home.

So how do you manage your time and make sure that you are not overworked and get stuff done. I must admit I seem to work in bursts and there is little structure to my day. It seems to be sort of working but I don't think I am being as productive as I could be.

[red]

i home ed during the day and have a part time job as a book keeper.
we officially quit the home ed at 3 - although the childcare continues, and learning goes on all the time etc, but I can get outside then

as for my part time job, well i go outside when the sun shines and work late into the evening, which means I was doing the payroll year end at 1 am Easter Sunday. (well Monday by then), So I'm just tired. But consider myself lucky that I can arrange my hours to suit me.
himself works from home a couple of days a week, but has to keep to office hours.. however it does mean he is home early those days (no journey time) so we go straight outside.

[Thomzo]

I used to work from home but have the benefit of an office in the garden. I found that once I was there it was much easier to get into work mode and forget about the house. If I tried to work at home other things, like ironing or cleaning the loo, bacame far too tempting.

From my student days, I remember that the only way I would get any revising done was to set myself a time limit. Say 1 hour. I would work solidly for that hour and then "reward" myself with 15 mins doing something else. It seemed to work for me.

Zoe

[The Chili Monster]

I've been working from home since the beginning of the year. I find that if I dress as if I'm going into work I get more done. To-do lists and timetables help to an extent but mostly it's about self-discipline.

[Andy Hamilton]

Loads of people seem to have a shed to work in outside, I like the idea but just not going to happen at the moment being as my garden is too small.

I also like the idea of dressing for work, that way I would not have the distraction of nipping down the allotment.

To do lists even mentally are something I should start doing properally.

All good advice, cheers folks.

[colhut]

Well, I work from home 2 days a week. I've not found it hard to stay focused. My job is almost entirely based on computer and once I am sat in front of it I am in work mode (in fact the number of times I just "check" something in the evening because I happen to be at the PC is quite high). Another key element I think is working set hours, again an easy choice for me as I match the hours I'd normally be in the office. That makes it easy for my co-workers and easy for me mentally as the time at which I work remians constant. If I am honest I am not sure I'd do so well if I was project based, I might be tempted to go into homework mode and leave it all to the last minute.

[Stonehead]

Loads of people seem to have a shed to work in outside, I like the idea but just not going to happen at the moment being as my garden is too small.

I also like the idea of dressing for work, that way I would not have the distraction of nipping down the allotment.

To do lists even mentally are something I should start doing properally.

All good advice, cheers folks.

My office is the entire croft.

I dress for work - boiler suit, wellie boots and either a woollie hat or an Akubra (depending on weather). Then change for dinner.

I have a vast to-do list, so I ignore it and just do what most needs to be done at any given time.

As for time management, I wake up when the sun comes in the bedroom window and then work until all the jobs that most need to be done on that particular day are done. If it's winter, that equates to about a 5.30-6am start. The rest of the year it can be really daft times!

People do ask us both how we manage to do so much, to which we reply that we simply do what we need to do without thinking of all the reasons why we can't do it. That doesn't tend to go down well.

This probably doesn't help much but you never know.

[Cornelian]

I'm a writer, working from home, and the only way I can be productive is to really structure my time. I MUST be writing by a certain time (say 8) and I MUST continue until I have accomplished my set task for the day.

I am also very careful to clearly differentiate my working space from my 'home' space - so by about 3 in the afternoon I have shut of the computer and walked out the office door and closed it firmly behind me.

So I set a task to accomplish each day and always always get there, no matter how much I want to go out and fiddle in the garden. Absolute discipline.