How To Work Efficiently When You Are Your Own Boss
I just have recently been layoff from my former full time job. Then I should have a lot of time to work in my online business, Right?. Yep, I really have a lot, but that does not mean I am doing more than I use to do when I were on my full time job.
How come that be?. Well, I am at home where my family it is also, so when I am trying to work my son likes to come for me at my laptop and just pull my hand to take me with him, then I just went and play a little then I return to my work. Suddenly I can hear my wife calling me, she seems to need me for something that she use to do it by herself but that was when I were at my full time job but now I am here and so they may think I am just on vacations. So they use me as I were not doing anything worthy since nothing worthy can be done if you are at home, Right?
WRONG!, when you are working from home you can actually made more money than working in any full time job and with a lot less of stress. I know it because I am a lot more relaxed then ever, even that I were been layoff. I guess you get the picture, this maybe some of the problems you will find after you finally quite your job, so better follow this simple tips to avoid any problems after you are on your own.
How To Be Highly Efficient.
1.- Setup your own working hours.
Time at home can be more productive than in a regular workplace since they are not continuous interruptions and since you are the boss nobody it is above you to give you orders that avoids you to finish the task "You" think are more important to do. But you still need to establish the working time ground rules for you and your family. Actually you can put this hours around the needs of your family and see if they allow you enough time to work in the day. The best way I found is a PDA that can be synchronized with outlook or any other software that allow you to write your own schedule.
2.- Make a List of Tasks to be Done. Always the night before your next working day think in at least 6 tasks to be done during your working hours. Do the same at the end of your working time, another 6 tasks. If you did not finish some of your previous tasks then put this ones as first in your day and just complete the list to be 6 tasks, do not worry if the tasks cannot be done in a single day, the idea of this method is to have always 6 tasks ahead of you, so you will always know what to do next and avoid mind blackouts. If you can write a longer list, then do it, but prioritize which ones should be first and be on your daily 6 tasks list. Since you are your own boss, there will be no one to push you, then you need to push yourself to accomplish your commitment of working efficiently. 3.- Dress For Your Working Day. Since you will be working at home, you do not need your business attire. But working in your pajamas may make you think in returning to your bed, just for 5 minutes, but believe me those 5 minutes can become 50 minutes or more. Besides that, your family will see you are taking your business with more seriousness and may make them understand that you need to have that time for work.
This home office should be for working purposes only. You need to have it organize for work and set up separate email accounts for your personal and business use, and never get into your personal email accounts during working hours. The less temptation to do personal things will translate to greater work efficiency.
Once you leave your home office, do not return until the next day. It is really important to keep your personal and work life separate, even though you may be tempted to do more work. The more you create total separation between work and personal life, the more efficient you will be at your working time. Last Notes. A good advice will be to schedule everything you need to do during your day for both work and personal tasks, this ensure you will not overlap any of both lifes. For instance, this is my weekly schedule. Just use it as a reference, make your schedule according to your own needs and life reality.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| 6:45 AM | I wake up and try to wake my son (the hardest task of all) | I wake up and try to wake my son (the hardest task of all) | I wake up and try to wake my son (the hardest task of all) | I wake up and try to wake my son (the hardest task of all) | I wake up and try to wake my son (the hardest task of all) | Family time | Family time |
| 7:40 AM | Drive my son to Kindergarten | Drive my son to Kindergarten | Drive my son to Kindergarten | Drive my son to Kindergarten | Drive my son to Kindergarten | Family time | Family time |
| 8:00 AM | My Breakfast at my home office. Starting reading emails | My Breakfast at my home office. Starting reading emails | My Breakfast at my home office. Starting reading emails | My Breakfast at my home office. Starting reading emails | My Breakfast at my home office. Starting reading emails | Family time | Family time |
| 8:30 AM | Beginning to work on tasks | Beginning to work on tasks | Beginning to work on tasks | Beginning to work on tasks | Beginning to work on tasks | Family time | Family time |
| 12:50 PM | Pick up my Son | Pick up my Son | Pick up my Son | Pick up my Son | Pick up my Son | Family time | Family time |
| 1:00 PM | Lunch Time | Lunch Time | Lunch Time | Lunch Time | Lunch Time | Family time | Family time |
| 1:50 PM | End Lunch | Mom pick up my son. Play time at her home. | End Lunch | Mom pick up my son. Play time at her home. | Mom pick up my son. Play time at her home. | Family time | Family time |
| 2:00 PM | Play time with son | Continue working on the daily tasks | Play time with son | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Family time | Family time |
| 5:30 PM | Play time with son | My son get back/Play time | Play time with son | My son get back/Play time | It´s Friday Movie Time with my wife | Family time | Family time |
| 7:00 PM | My son shower time | My son shower time | My son shower time | My son shower time | It´s Friday Movie Time with my wife | My son shower time | My son shower time |
| 7:30 PM | My son Bed time | My son Bed time | My son Bed time | My son Bed time | It´s Friday Movie Time with my wife | My son Bed time | My son Bed time |
| 8:00 PM | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | It´s Friday Movie Time with my wife | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks |
| 10:00 PM | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Pick up my Son at my Mom´s home | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks |
| 10:30 PM | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks | Continue working on the daily tasks |
| 12:00 AM | End of working day | End of working day | End of working day | End of working day | End of working day | End of working day | End of working day |
This is only an overview of my daily life after my layoff. Actually you may need to do the breackdown of the tasks and schedule them and give a time to complete them and try to really finish them on time as close as you can. This way you will do a lot of work in the less amount of time possible. Figuring it out how your daily tasks will be before you quit your day job will ensure a very Efficient and more productive work life and of course you will grab a lot more money from your Online Businesses in less time.
How´s your daily schedule? Is it Efficient? Let us know, just leave a comment.
To Your Success,
Luis Torres
www.marketing-business-review.com
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Great post Luis,
I don’t schedule much especially on weekdays because my routine is basically the same. Go to uni, come back home, do little revision, work online for few hours, eat, and sleep. but in the weekends, I always set myself a schedule with all the things I do to help me stay organised because it's easily to get distract when your home all day with the family been there and all.
Hi Salwa,
I am glad you like it. Well I needed to organize myself since I am at home all day after my layoff and my work it is completely online so It was urgent to make a real working time since my son seems he do not care too much about this, so I better wirk when he is not around and this way I can have more quality time with him and of course my Obline Business too, lol.
Your Schedule matched with mine Except i have to spend 12 valuable hours of my day with my boss. So you are a family man. Good to read this post luis.
Hi Shanker,
I am very glad you came by my site. Yes I am a family man, that´s why I love to work online you have a lot more time to spend it as you like.
Luis having any success with your business
I also forgot to mention you sure have a busy schedule including all of the things you need to do
Hi, Welcome to my blog. You are right, all the responsibilities are yours and therefore you need to be more organized and need to push yourself to make the work needed.
Hi, Welcome to my blog.
Actually it is only 8 hours a day of work, is just that I cannot work all the hours straight, well somedays I work for maybe 11 or 12 hours but most of days its 8 only. But this is my own schedule, it is just an example but if you work at home you may need to work it out with an agenda if you want to be more efficient.
Been home has its advantages but also its setbacks but they can be overcome to have a fulfilling familiar and working life
Yes I have but when you love what you do it is not actual work.
I once heard “Love your work and you will never will work again in your life”
For me this is true, I do not feel I am working, sometimes it maybe the other way around, I am getting too addict to be online, but I need to ease it a little and stay part of my time with my loved ones.
Hi, Welcome to my blog.
I really stink at staying organized… but I have gotten better over the past month or so… it is tough with distractions! I need to stay focused with my online business and I only do it part time.. i imagine it would be a much bigger challenge if it were my full time job! I would definitely need to be away from people and FOCUS 🙂
Nice post Luis
Hi Jake,
Nice too see you here again.
I had a lot of problems at first since I could not organize my time and I were doing about the same work as use to do when I were working full time, so that seemed to me ridiculous, that´s why I made my agenda and try to work with a real schedule this can also help me to have more discipline.
I know what you mean. I work as a translator for Japanese -> English and I really don't feel like I'm doing much of anything at all.
That´s why I do not feel bad at all after my layoff, since I just hated my full time job, actually I felt “Relief” when they fire me, not even mad nor sad, just plain too happy even thought that I will not have that money guaranteed.
Congrats! You accomplished one of the hardest tasks that comes with working at home- making a schedule and sticking to it. There are so many distractions, it's no wonder a lot of marketers who work from home find it hard to be profitable. Even small details like setting a schedule can be difficult, but the details are almost always the most important.
By the way MLDina, I really want to join Market Leverage, but I don’t have a fax, can I send a pdf scan by email instead of a fax?
Benjamin Cips last blog post..Make Money With The Clickbank Affiliate Program
Hi Dina,
I know it was hard at the beginning, with the effort of doing the schedule now things seems to been easier everyday. Besides that shcedule I post it I have a more specific one for my task about my online business.
Let’s say that I spend a lot of time on the internet once I get back home from work. Of course, I also spend time with both my wife and my new born baby. I am upset with my day work. I feel like I spend more time at work than working on my own business blog. I want to stop my day work as soon as my blog make me earn enought money.
Benjamin Cips last blog post..Make Money With The Clickbank Affiliate Program
Hi Benjamin,
I feel so related to your comment, it happens the sam to me when I were at my full time job, I even hated every sinlge day I went there cuz I could not be online doing my biz. Now I am free, you can try it it feels very liberating, its easy they just fire me, lol. Now I am full time Online and Offline entrepreneur, it feels great. I have all the time to be with my son and wife, its an amazing feeling.
This is great advice. At first, I was struggling with working at home.
My girlfriend always knew I was available to come to anything going like family dinners and stuff.
I finally laid down some ground rules.
It is the only way to go. Without the rules you will not be as efficient as you can be.
yeah, the good thing about it is no one’s there to order you around, but then sometimes there are some stuff that you have to check and do aside from the online business since you are working at home.
Yep, you need to be more organized since all the responsibility lies upon you, there is no boss to point out your finger at.
so it means more things needs to be done for the day and not just only the online job.
I had my work schedule for Monday to Friday. Wake up early in the morning took some exercise and leave home for office after breakfast and in evening spent some time with friends and come home by 9 PM. In the weekend I spent my time with my family and friends mostly with family.
well thats different from working in the house.
It’s great that you have setup your own schedule, I think it is important whether you follow a strict schedule or not, to layout your schedule and map it out, and see just how many hours in a day you really have, for all your tasks. It’s amazing once you start figuring the hours for each activity, just how little time you actually have.
-Randy
I think separating work and family while working at home is the most difficult task.I m glad that you have managed to do that.
You have written good about the topic and really feel you should be praised for the good work.
I lost my job last march and have been working on my online business full-time since then. I have been overwhelmed with distractions and well my business has been going nowhere. I have taken your tips to heart and plan to make some immediate changes. Starting with a task list and organizing my office. I’ve been working on the kitchen table and it’s not working very well. I have an office but I don’t use it because it is sooooo disorganized. Now I’m off to do some office cleaning. Thanks for the great post.
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