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How to Be Self Employed & Uber Productive – Sort of…

posted 24th February 2010    Written by: Heather Rae    CATEGORY: All Posts, Heather Rae, Job/Career/Work, Season 2

Being self employed is seriously hard.

Not that I really consider myself self employed.  One would assume that if you’re self employed, you’re making money.  I’m not.  Let’s be honest about that.  I’m working my ass off from the comfort of my home, for nothing more than the satisfaction of doing exactly what I want.

Seriously.  That’s it.

Hopefully, one day, someone will pay me for my hard work.  For now, I’ll have to settle for satisfaction.

So back to why it’s hard to work for myself. Actually – let me first tell you the perks.  For starters, my boss rocks!  She let’s me come in when I want, take breaks when I want, take long lunches, waste hours on the internet and leave when I want.

How’s that for freedom?

What’s the downside to having the best boss in the world?  Well, it’s all this damn freedom.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it.  But it does take a bit of an adjustment and some serious self-discipline not to blow the whole day Facebook stalking old flames and watching Gilmore Girls reruns.

Seriously, I thought I would leave my job and immediately move into being uber productive and massively efficient. I would redesign my website on Monday, write a novel by Wednesday and be a bestselling author by Friday.  Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit.  But I really did think that switching from being a micro-managed employee to someone who works for herself would be simple.

I’m not finding it so easy.

I’ve always been great with time management.  I’m a ninja multi-tasker, and I kick ass when it comes to productivity. Being productive, no sweat!

But I find that I excel most when I have a deadline.  In this new venture, I have no deadlines (no real ones anyway).

I need to give myself structure – to schedule my days in ways that keep me working and productive, to stop getting sidetracked by every little thing that crosses my path.

A few “self-employed” things have helped so far:

  1. Although the thought of it made me want to vomit a little, I decided to go back to getting up early and using my alarm clock. As much as I resisted, the fact is, I have to actually be awake in order to benefit from the extra hours I get from not having a day job.
  2. For some of my work, writing in particular, I have to be alone. This is a tough one.  My fiancé and I live together in a tiny one bedroom apartment.  He also happens to be in between projects at the moment (leaving the military and waiting for his residency to start), so he’s home all the time too.  I thought this fact would be the most fun ever – and it kind of is.  Except that it’s totally distracting.  To solve this, I’ve started assigning myself dedicated hours for writing – in which I shut myself in the bedroom and don’t come out until I’m done.  On a side note, I’ve also found that a laptop, a bed and a boatload of pillows make for an uber comfy work space.
  3. I discovered a super simple program for writing called Dark Room (Write Room on Mac). When viewed in full screen mode, you see nothing on your computer but a black background and the text that you’re typing.  This is seriously good for those of us prone to distractions (like shiny buttons, formatting options and that ever-calling internet browser).   I didn’t believe it would help until I tried it for myself.  Now I’m hooked.

So that’s where I’m at so far.  I’d love to hear some of your ideas.  Have you found ways to stay on track and keep productive when working on your own projects or being self employed?

[Editor's Note:  Just in case you lovely people haven't checked out Heather Rae's personal blog- do it!   You can follow more of her adventures and reflections as she writes a novel, travels the world and pursues her passions. And bonus of all bonuses- today she wrote about her experiences thus far with the Joy Plan!  Personal values, anyone?]

photo credit: blustar_tam

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