As I work from home on writing projects (more on that later), blog, crochet, and run Etsy shops, I realize it’s important to find a daily rhythm and focus on larger goals for myself creatively + professionally. I want my blog to be a space where I write about that. I read wonderful tips from people in all careers. But those of us in some state of “in progress” could benefit from talking to each other and learning more about what works and doesn’t in regards to living creatively, doing what you dream of, and just makin’ it work. This post is the first in what isn’t as much a series as thoughts from my experience, but hopefully people can connect with it and share too 🙂
Do you consider yourself more deadline driven or self-motivated? When you work from home, it gets complicated.
While I’m pretty ambitious, I still consider myself very deadline driven. I didn’t know just how much so until earlier this year when I began these to-do lists each morning. Because I’m a writer and shop owner, to name a couple of my more concrete projects, these to-do lists were long and winding.
Each day there was something that didn’t get done.
There was a pattern: it was always the one without the hard deadline. That meant the essay I planned to write, the idea I wanted to pitch, my own blog’s redesign, etc.—always the things that no one counted on me for.
It seems like I know my priorities. But when I don’t have a deadline, I lose focus on a project, even when it’s as simple as flushing out a really cool idea I have.
I recently read The Difference Between Dreaming and Doing on The Everygirl, which I needed to hear but really didn’t want to. It’s uncanny how accurate this post was for me. So I created deadlines even for obscure plans I have, like “write a book,” “pitch x idea,” and “prepare Etsy for fall”. It’s helped put things in perspective a bit.
Everyone’s different, but if those big-picture ideas and plans are disproportionate to actual accomplishment (ah, I hate to admit it), these tips are for you:
Tips for Setting Your Own Deadlines
1. Be ambitious, but not too ambitious.
Set aspirational but attainable dates ranging from weeks to months in the future.
2. Create checkpoints for yourself.
One goal is to have everything ready to dive into the fall season for my shop by September. It’s so far away, so I created smaller checkpoints to lead up to that point.
3. Set aside actual time to complete them.
When you’re accountable for other things, the personal is pushed down the list. Carve out time to work on these. For me, it means either starting off with them in the morning or taking a break from my other work mid-day to focus on it. If I don’t do it early on, I’ll push it until there’s no time in the day left (I’m really sneaky like that!).
Or why not try…
4. Set up a reward system.
It’s a little embarrassing but rewarding myself motivates me further. When you work mostly by yourself, it takes more to keep going—you don’t have someone checking in and reassuring you you’re on the right track. One thing I’ve experimented with is creating a motivator that relates to my business. For example, if I pump out x inventory in x amount of time, I can begin designing my new craft space. It’s kind of silly, but it keeps me going because I know it’s not reasonable to pay for a new workspace when I don’t even have a plan in place to make the money (aka inventory).
If you work on your business fulltime, how do you keep yourself in check? For those of you with a day job, how do you manage to move forward with your business on the side?
