Working at home on your computer during December may bring some challenges. This is the holiday season, and you will have children home from school, people visiting from out of town, and other family members taking time off from work. You must be ready to deal with this so that you can still accomplish what you need to do while not becoming stressed out.
This will require some thinking and planning on your part, but it will be worth it. In fact, I have found that I am able to get even more work done during December because of the guidelines I have established at my house during the past three years.
First, take out a calendar and look at everyone’s schedules for the month. I like to use different color markers to indicate when someone will be home from school, when people will be visiting, when I am invited to holiday celebrations, and so on. This gives me an overview of what I must consider before scheduling any webinars, coaching calls, or other activities that must be done at a specific time.
I then work around everyone else’s schedule for these things, because I am the one who is most flexible. The schedule is also subject to change, because of a variety of things that are out of my control, such as a weather delay for someone’s flight.
The end result is that I am more focused while I am working. I am also able to look forward to the time each day that I will be spending with friends and family, some of whom only visit during December.
Give yourself a break during the holiday season as well. The reason we came online to work in the first place was to have the time and money to do what we love, so give yourself some well deserved time off this year.
This is great advice, Connie. An overview is a great stress-reducer … as is building some flex time into your schedule to accommodate those small glitches like delayed flights. Thanks for your always-sound tips and advice!
On top of everything else I admire that’s wonderful about you, Connie, I can now add expert “organizer” to your portfolio! Maybe you missed your calling. 🙂
Excellent post and wonderful advice!
Good stuff Connie. I think that these distractions, what I would call the “good” distractions are what keep us from accomplishing any of our goals. The thing is, the holiday celebrations and spending time with people we care about is all really great stuff! So we don’t want to scrap it…your idea of organizing and scheduling is fantastic!
Thanks!
MS