Money Online

Most self-employed people that I know complain that they are too busy and they never have enough time to achieve what they want. I was in the same boat when I started working on my own about 4-5 years ago (as a 3d artist, not as a blogger, but it is very similar). One by one, the days were passing by and I was realizing that I was doing very little comparing to what I had been aiming for. I was becoming more and more frustrated and I definitely need to do something about it.

Surprisingly, the way to fix this problem was simple and I was kicking myself for not doing it from the beginning.

First thing I did, was to keep some sort of a log or personal diary and write down what I had been doing every 60 minutes.
I decided to be very strict about it and wrote down each and every detail (like reading an email, answering a phone call, etc). I kept doing this for 3 days without reviewing it at all. Only after that I thought that it was time to analyze my activities. Believe me, I was very surprised to realize that I could have had a lot of spare time, but I was losing it piece by piece.

The “little” things:
A big share of my time was wasted on small things like watching the news, coffee brakes, cigarette brakes, surfing the net, unnecessary phone calls etc. I know that this may not seem too much but 5 minutes + 5 minutes + 5 minutes… and so on, equaled up to 2 and a half hours a day (besides the 30 mins- 1 hour lunch brake).

Furthermore, these “little things” were always interrupting me from working; from time to time to time… BAM! “You’ve got mail”, I couldn’t help reading it, and since I was there, why not check the stats to see if somebody has posted a comment on a forum where I had been promoting my renderings… and than back to work…. arghhh… where was I?

You need to stay focused on what you are doing and don’t stop until you finish it. Strictly referring to the blogging activity, it can take you an entire day to publish a post if you write a sentence, than stop to check the analytics software, than surf the net a little to see if John Chow has posted something during the last hour… than go back to write another 2-3 sentences, and so on. Just concentrate on finishing the damn article! (and forget about Darren Rose too until you are done with it )

Not setting priorities
This was another important issue that I was facing. I was either starting too many things at once, or starting with a specific activity that seemed more important, but was actually not as urgent as others. The results weren’t good for any of these situations. I wasn’t able to focus very well and not only I was always on the run, but the quality of the works that I was producing wasn’t as high as it could normally get.

Back to blogging again, if you have many ideas for your content, just note them down but don’t try to write more articles at once. It will take more time to finish them this way, and probably you won’t be able to dedicate 100% of your potential into each one.
Also, you need to concentrate on what needs to be done NOW! Finish this first, than start thinking about what you plan to do next, no matter if the second one would be so fantastic that it will hit the Digg frontpage. Probably it’s not the best example, but you get the idea.

Friends and family
Believe it or not your close friends and family members can actually “contribute” in a negative way to your success. No, I am not saying you should isolate yourself from them, but they must understand that what you are doing is actually a job, and you must treat it accordingly. I remember, when I first started working from home, that everybody was asking for small favors; and every phrase started with “Since you are staying at home, could you please…”.
You should learn to manage diplomatically these kind of situations; or in plain English, learn to say “no” politely, and eventually they will understand the importance of what you are doing and stop asking.

Schedule
Someone who tells you that he does not have time to do what they want to do is either a person who does not plan his activities or a person who fails to stick to his plans. Use a schedule and decide when you read your emails, when you are taking brakes, when you write your articles, when you promote your blog, etc.
Don’t waste your time on small things, don’t chat on messanger while you’re writing and don’t let others bother you.

It is nice to be your own boss… but if don’t ACT LIKE A BOSS you will fail!

Happy writing!