Standing Out

Does this seem familiar to you?

Wake up.

Start working (notice I skipped brushing teeth, getting coffee, getting dressed…)

Stop working to open the door/gate/whatever for UPS/FedEx/USPS person.

Resume working

Stop working to get dressed/brush teeth/eat breakfast

Resume working

Stop working to pick up the clutter, start a load of laundry, feed the dog.

Resume working

Stop working to [fill in random household chore here]

It can be extremely tempting to tend to household chores and similar things when you work out of your home. But have you ever considered the real impact on your productivity that comes as a result? It’s major. It can take me twice as long to do something if I keep stopping to tend to the house.

The laundry can wait. If you didn’t work from home, it would have to anyway. You work from home because it’s a nice perk, not because you can work and do the dishes and dust the living room and make the kids’ beds.

I suppose you might work from home so you can do those things, but I challenge you to spend one weekday brushing off all that stuff until 5 PM. Then, stop working and tend to your home. You’ll be surprised that you accomplished way more when you focused on just one thing at a time.

To our success,

Tia

Recently I had a frank discussion with my sister about the goings-on in my life, and I was complaining about the fact that I never seem to get anything accomplished - at least not what I set out to do. Things always come up that throw me off.

She responded with something so simple that it’s almost impossible to do, because we are highly complex beings that expect things to be more difficult than they are.

She said, ‘Bind yourself to your word.’ Essentially, when you say you’re going to do something - force yourself to go through with it. Don’t lie to yourself. Keep the promises you make to yourself.

Seems easy, right? Wrong. We keep promises to others because of our reputation with them…

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I’ve come across more than two handfuls of articles that say that small business owners are ones to haphazardly chase after new ideas, start a million things at once, try this & try that, waste money going in a million different directions, etc. We want to make money. We want to change the world with our sweet new idea. We want everyone to love and adore us for making their lives, their office, their relationships or their future that much better. But once we get our brilliant idea going a bit, our wandering eyes are distracted by that guy’s brilliant idea, and so our wheels get turning to try and figure out how we can make that successful, too.

Like it or not, these theories about the behavior or small business owners and entrepreneurs are actually very true. As entrepreneurs, it’s in our DNA to try new things, discover new ideas and work them out, and to try, try again.

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As a small business owner, you’re probably used to working all weekend. I know that I am. Again, in my earlier post about workahol-ism, I don’t generally consider my work “work”, but for the purposes of this blog I will.

I had a work-free weekend on Saturday and Sunday and I must say it was wonderful. I’m in this very stressful state in my business where I’ve got a ton of work and great clients but I’m also trying to add substance and foundation to my business at the same time, so I’m busily formulating marketing plans, learning new biz dev strategies and trying out every suggested tool out there to make me more successful. In the midst of all that, I’m trying to do my work so that my clients continue to love me and refer me.

So, “not” working (although I do always check email at least once during the weekend) this weekend was a welcome break for me. I hung out with my son, went to church, made progress on my moving plans (moving to Erie, PA in two weeks) and thought/worried about things unrelated to work. It was surprisingly freeing and refreshing!

My tip for the week: PLAN to not work this weekend. Yes, make a plan. In order to not work this weekend, you will probably need to take some measures to ensure that everything is covered and that you don’t have to work. TAKE THEM. If you never take a single piece of advice from me ever again, take this one. You will come back to work on Monday refreshed, revived, renewed and with a new sense of purpose for your business. And get this: that feeling never gets old. Never. You can have the same feeling EVERY Monday, if you really want to. Just try it. And if it doesn’t work for you, you can come back and say, I told you so.

In the pursuit of more & more business, make sure you bite off only what you can chew…and make sure it’s work you WANT to do. I’ve made the mistake, in the past, of accepting work I didn’t really want, and paying out the nose for it in time and effort.

It’s OK to decline an offer for work; however, if you commit to something, you have to see it through. Moral? Be choosy. Even in the “strugglin’” days.