Finding time to be self-employed
I’ve always thought that the biggest problem with working from home is getting the butt into the office chair and actually executing on a plan instead of checking email, stats, Facebook, Twitter and then the clock. Whoops! Out of time. I have all kinds of motivation and a million ideas, but the discipline to sit down and do real work often eludes me when I’m home.
The reason is pretty simple to figure out. When I was a high-powered corporate exec, the days were long, the commute was torture and home was where I rested as fast as I could so I could do it again tomorrow. Before that, when the kids were little and I was limited to creating marketable crafts or sales copy after bedtime, my home was a way station between activities.
When we semi-retired (meaning that we only do this work-from-home marketing) I had a million things to do with our new home, our new community, our new life. Home was where we rearranged furniture, ignored the chores, tried our hand at yard work and unpacked shopping bags. Sitting down to do “real work” was a chore in itself because there was always something more interesting to do. Just dinking around with Dave was a new full-time pleasure that I indulged in at the expense of business.
Today, as I start getting myself re-organized after a major life event, I see that the Tuesday Topic this week is “When one door closes, another opens“. At first I thought “Well, maybe next week. After all, I have a good excuse”. Then I realized that the new structure of my life is exactly why working at home is so valuable to me and such a great potential gift to others in my situation.
When Dave tipped over this time, it was worse than ever before and his recovery is slower and more unpredictable than we’ve experienced in previous episodes. His health was always the underlying reason for our precious retirement plans and my creating an online business; we thought that we would be in exactly these circumstances “someday”. On March 22nd I saw more clearly than ever what a precious gift our life together is and how wonderful it is to ignore work for a day or two without worrying about getting fired or demoted or laid off the next time a RIF comes along.
Seems like I should get to the point here soon: I have always thought that this particular domain could be a place for information about the things I get asked every time I spend time with people in the community. “How? How Much? Who? What? Where?” The problem with that is finding time to run my business is already difficult and adding some tutorial stuff seemed like a daunting task.
But now I suddenly have a door firmly closed. “Dinking around with Dave” is limited to caregiving and my time spent running around and shopping and exploring new places is temporarily on hold. Two days ago I thought I would never get a grasp on the routine we have now. Today I see potential for blocks of time I can use for work. (Door open) A friend of mine here in my new community is a prolific watercolor artist. She routinely produces stacks of paintings for any exhibit, sale, or show. I know she has a full schedule and works like a horse on her home and garden and helps anyone who needs it, so I asked her “When do you find time to paint?”
She said “Last year, when XXXXX (her husband) was going through chemo, we had days on end sitting at home watching TV. I started painting every day instead of watching endless war documentaries on the History Channel. I got everything set up so I could grab a minute here and a minute there and I still do it, even though he’s better and we can get out and about again.”
I realized yesterday that I can put lots and lots of minutes to use here on my online marketing work. My “door open” is forced time at home, a chance to rediscover what home and work-from-home can mean. I have a chance to recreate what I want from this part of my life. So far I’m discovering that I still want all the same things, that almost all of them require some major “butt in the chair effort” and now I have a reason to embrace that instead of chasing butterflies all day.
Who knows? Maybe I can even get some of the structured advice posted here for others who are ready to try making a second income while they recuperate or take care of someone else or even just enjoy retirement!