New Member
Hi New Member Dan From the UK
Self Employed working from home and for a number of years have been suffering from procrastination and maybe depression.
I feel good when I get things done but too often I will sit idly surfing rather than dealing with things hoping for the end of the day when emails/calls will stop and then the weekend when i can stop worrying about pretenting to work. Some weeks I am productive...others terrible. The annoying thing is some things I ignore dealing with would put money in my pocket.
My days normally start the same with me either surfing for a while before commencing work or taking hours before I deal with only the most important. I am currently trying a few things just now
- list of tasks to do and ticking them off when I have done them with some easy/some hard with the latter usually left to last
- daily walk which seems to help
Thanks
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Wow, Dan, I thought I was
Wow, Dan, I thought I was reading about my own life. I take about 2 hrs to really work and then I spend the rest of the time pretending to organize things. I also think I am suffering from depresision but I don't want to deal with that. And also, I have the opportunity to take classes on line for my work that will put cash in my pocket. A friend of mine said, If you know you are doing the wrong thing why don't you stop?. Why don't we stop? It makes me feel lazy...which I am not. Has walking helped? They say exercising create endorphines and endorphines make you happy (that line came from the movie Legally Blond). I have a good sense of humor and that helps sometimes. Hope your changes will help you.....Patricia in the USA
Mole to Glotard
Hello Glotard.
It's such a trap this working from home! I am lucky I have a cafe nearby. I make sure I am there as soon as it opens (7.30). Often it is quite sociable - a good thing when you spend most of your time alone - on other days it is quiet and I always have a couple of things with me I can review. The most important thing about it, though, is that I come home at a specific time and it is like 'going to work' as opposed to rolling out of bed and onto the desk chair.
The other thing is that I don't have access to the Internet from the computer I work from. My work is not Internet dependent which makes it easier, but there is also a very nifty bit of software (only 10$ or whatever the equivalent)called freedom. You can specify a period of time you want to be prevented from accessing the Internet and it is used by loads of writers. It does help with surfing and focuses you on offline work. The virtual world is so big out there it is easy to get lost in it!
Good luck,
Mole
freedom
I am also a new member - one of the new influx as a result of the radio 4 program - I have a similar situation to Goltard and mole in that I work for my self. I recently rented an office so that i could separate work and home but once I have sent the lads who work for me out on their jobs for the day I sit alone in the office and surf and dont get stuff done - quotes and invoices - currently 2 - 3 weeks behind - i am also distracted by my phone - I am the main point of contact for customers - I have tried putting my phone on Airplane mode and setting the timer for 1 hour ( I can check for messages after the hour - Ireckon people will wait an hour for a reply) so I am not disturbed and try to get through my very long list of things to be done - but e mails come in on my lap top and distract me and I know the net is there so just check something and before I know it the hour is up and I have not done much at all
The freedom software you mention sounds like just what I need.
Even if I only do 4 quality hours work in a day to start with it is much better that what I am managing at the moment
Where can I find out more about this
Freedom and others
Hi act,
http://macfreedom.com/ - works for Macs and Windows
Here is another software for Macs which is free - http://selfcontrolapp.com/
http://anti-social.cc/ - Mac only.
I use another one which works with chrome - stayfocusd. You can google for it.
Welcome Dan!
I agree that taking a walk is a great way to break the inertia.
Welcome to P.A.!