Every year, COTN does a local Food Packaging event which generates 285,000 meals in 10 hours. This year, they’re doing two. I’ve spent the last few days putting the finishing touches on the design and UI stuff and just launched the new registration pages yesterday. If you’re in the Seattle area, you should check it out!
285K Meal Marathon Website
In this series I’m going to share a few tips of mine for being productive at home, plus my observations as a brand new freelancer and how I’m learning to be my own boss.
Tomorrow will be the start of my second week of full-time freelancing from home. I’m a web developer and previously worked at home from 2005 to 2007, but this is my first foray into working for myself. I’m now 100% responsible for how much I earn in a given month. As I’m discovering, that’s what makes freelancing so appealing and exciting, but also a little scary.
If you’ve done it, you know that working from home presents its own sort of challenges. Gone are the office distractions, the politics, and the commute. In their place, however, comes a new sort of freedom that can be severely debilitating if you’re not careful. I’m definitely still learning what it means to be a successful freelancer, but I already know what it takes to successfully work from home.
First and foremost, you need to start with the basics and create a daily life schedule that works well for you. When working from home, you’ll either be tempted to work too much or to work too little. A simple schedule can get you into a routine that allows for balance in all areas of your life.
I’m not a morning person, but I find that I can accomplish more when I don’t sleep in. For me, that means getting up at 8am, having a good breakfast, and starting my work day by 9. The battle for getting up in the morning is often fought the night before, so I have a consistent bedtime on weeknights - midnight. This allows for 8 hours of sleep and has me feeling refreshed and alert when I start the day.
I’ve gone so far as to create a daily checklist that includes some of my basic activities:
This may seem a bit extreme, but I find that it keeps me focused and allows me to look back on how I’ve done. If I see that I’ve missed lunch for the past 3 days, then I probably need to make some changes.
Perhaps the most important item on my daily schedule/checklist is to “get out of the house”. I need to remind myself that I’m living in the real world and not only in the one that exists in my apartment. Often, this is accomplished through evening outings with friends, but working at the local coffee shop for a few hours is also a great way to get out and interact with people.
When working from home (especially as a freelancer), you have insane amounts of flexibility. You can essentially do the work you want to do, whenever you want to do it. This can make procrastination very attractive. It’s easy to put work off in favor of TV, playing the guitar, going to the gym, etc., but as with most forms of procrastination, it only hurts you in the long run. I set these things aside for after hours.
I also reserve cleaning, laundry, and other chores for evenings or weekends. I break this rule every once in a while, but I find that things like this can too easily blur the line between work and home. When that line becomes too blurry, it becomes impossible to be healthy in either area.
To maintain a healthy balance, it’s important to schedule clear work times and clear play times. Even though I can work whatever hours I want, I try to work as if I’m in a regular office.
Monday through Friday, 9am - 5:30pm with 30 minutes for lunch.
I take advantage of the flexibility from time to time, but overall, I find that a good routine provides the necessary boundaries that lead to a productive and healthy life.
See Think Simple Now’s How to Design Your Ideal Life for some exercises to help you figure out if things in your life are out of balance.
My Daily Checklist ( DOC | DOCX | PDF ), split into daily and weekly tasks. This obviously doesn’t include everything I do on a given day, but it’s a good set of milestones to keep me focused and productive. I print a new one each week and leave it on my desk as I work. Use this as a template or make your own.
I’m not really an MS guy, but I do like their Calibri font for making crisp looking documents - Calibri font for Mac
PART TWO: Creating A Work-Friendly Space
Building an environment that exudes productivity
PART THREE: Creating A Work Schedule
Getting the most out of your time behind the desk
PART FOUR: Tracking Your Time
Using your time wisely and holding yourself accountable
PART FIVE: Landing Clients
Learning from those who’ve gone before you