Working for Yourself? Pretend Like You Aren’t…
Working for yourself, or on a remote basis isn’t easy.
Actually it’s really difficult. When you work in an office, you know you have a set time you have to show up. If you aren’t on time, there are consequences. If you don’t work for a day, people will notice. There is a basic structure to your life, and that is one reason why so many people would never consider anything other than a 9-5. It can make it much easier and less stressful to manage your life.
One of the things that I’ve learned from working remotely/for myself is that there is no one here to hold my hand. Results and success (or lack thereof) fall back directly on me. Sometimes this works extraordinarily well – other times it can be extremely difficult.
For instance, one of my biggest difficulties is waking up when I want to wake up in the morning. You know you’ve been there. Upon going to sleep you are totally pumped to wake up early, perhaps exercise, and just be productive all around. Then the alarm goes off. Talk about a shift in mindset! I don’t know what changes between bed time and the time when that alarm goes off, but it’s profound. The evidence is in the fact that often I don’t actually get up until 10 or 11. This is due to the fact I usually don’t have to be anywhere in the morning that makes this possible. It’s too easy to hit the snooze and go back to bed.
The same can be true for deadlines. Often times there are no hard and fast deadlines, so you have to set them for yourself. If you don’t create create a system for following through and getting things done, productivity can spiral downward really quickly. Just like waking up, it’s too easy to hit the snooze and put it off. Doing this repeatedly can take a serious toll on your mindset. If you find yourself in a trap where you aren’t being as productive as you know you could/should be, it can drain you mentally, a problem which can then be difficult to overcome.
So how do you ensure this doesn’t happen? Or what do you do if you are already finding yourself in this situation?
Pretend you are working for someone else.
But don’t just do this in your head. Establish a way to really make yourself feel as though there are consequences if you don’t follow through. Try and set appointments as early in the morning as possible with friends or other colleagues. Just setting an alarm won’t generally do it. I really feel this is the number one detriment to productivity when working for yourself.
The more hours you can create for yourself by waking up earlier, the more successful you will be.
I’ve got some interesting ideas for how to combat this problem that will be discussed more in the coming weeks.
If you are working remotely, keep in as constant real time contact with the rest of your team as possible. I’ve found it can be really easy to disappear for a week with nothing but emails for contact – that is an extremely quick way to become disconnected. Set up specific times throughout the week to meet via telephone, Skype, or whatever it is in order to ensure you remain focused on the highest value activities.
One more thing that is helpful is giving yourself a monthly review. Sure if you were really working for someone else, you would be getting one of these annually, or semi-annually at best, but you should shoot for once a month. Honestly ask yourself what you’ve done well, and what could use some work? I’ve been doing this ever since I got to Thailand, and it has got me to the point where I am being more productive than I’ve ever been.
If you are able to work for yourself yet still ensure you instigate the structure of working for someone else, you will be way ahead of the game.
Have any of you run into this problem? When I first started working remotely I ran into these issues all the time, now the only one that usually gets the best of me is the whole waking up early thing. However to be fair, I’ve been much more productive at night.
Funny how things change.
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I never really thought of it this way, but you are definitely right on. Whenever I think I have to get something done for someone else I do it ASAP. Whereas I give myself so much leeway that I never get shit done.
Great point made Sean for all of the other lifestyle designers out there.
David
The Minimalist Path
“Pretend you are working for someone else.” This is a great mindset to have when you are working for yourself. But really in any business we are working for someone else…our customers. And what makes them happy is hard work to solve their problems.
I know that I have fallen victim to becoming complacent when it comes to working on my own business. In my 9-5 gig it’s easy to stay on task but I waver quite a bit when it comes to doing things for myself.
Recently I started making lists of the things I need to get done for myself and assigned deadlines to them but what I have discovered is that because the work to be done is for myself, the deadlines slip by because there is never a sense of accountability from myself. When I do things for others there is always this sense of accountability and responsibility. You get things done because you don’t want to dissapoint other people, but for some reason it’s ok to disappoint yourself.
I like the idea of a weekly/monthly review of yourself.
Personally I have found that having been working for myself for a number of years now, I actually find it pretty easy to stay motivated, get the job done and so on. I’m normally up by 8am naturally and just get on with the day. This all works well when I’m at home.
But trying to get anything productive done when I’m travelling is another matter! There are just so many exciting things to do that knuckling down when you could be down at the beach sipping a cocktail is rather more of a challenge for me.
Because of this I try to go for marathon work bouts for a few months, then take off and switch off work completely apart from the ocassional checkin for stats, emails etc.
For me, this works best. But then again, we’re all different
I came to the Philippines to try to see what I could do as far as working for myself and trying to start my own ‘business’. I didn’t get very far because the cost of living is so much cheaper that I can survive with $200/mo which isn’t really a very successful job in Western terms. Now it looks like I’m more on a career break/sabbatical than anything else. Still looking at solopreneurship on the backburner but my #1 priority now is to explore and have fun! Thanks for the tip. Could definitely use it as I was waking up at 10 or 11 myself
Sean-
I have the same conflict. I can get SO much done in the morning when I wake up early and get a head start on the day, but at the same time, I’m super productive in the late-night hours – 11-1. Trying to find a schedule where I’m able to do both while avoiding becoming a walking zombie is hard
This is an interesting reframing. It is definitely important to have the discipline that you might have at a job to hit your deadlines. Imagining that you actually have all of the consequences of a real job might help.
However, I disagree with some of your points. I don’t think waking up early is always a good thing. Some people are night people and work better at night. Why does the hour matter?
Be careful not to fall into the job rut: at a job, you typically get paid to be there for a certain number of hours, whether you accomplish anything or not. That’s one of the reasons I never want a job again. it kills your productivity. Much better to work less and do more.
Eric
Sean,
I would have to disagree with you for a change.
You ARE getting up when you want to, which is 10 or 11. The reason you can get up early when the alarm goes off is because you are not rested enough to get up, and the reason you are not rested enough is because you are “Pumped up” when going to sleep. Your mind is still going and is not paying attention to the job of relaxing and rejuvenating the body. Next time try to relax before going to bed, and see yourself getting up early in your mind’s eye. And oh, that alarm clock, toss it out the window.
For goodness sake, you are working for yourself, act like it. You’ll get more done in less time, I promise.
Rasheed
I’m with Rasheed. Discipline is needed, but at the same time, one of the main benefits of working for yourself is some freedom regarding your schedule. If you are most motivated and hungry in the evenings, then by all means, plan the most involved work for that time period.
Part of my job is that I will have some days with very little going on, followed by days that require 14-16 hours of work. I know those days will come, and when they do, I have to buckle down and do what I got to. On the days where I have less to do, you bet I’ll sleep in a bit later and focus more on social, athletic or personal activities.
Quotes that help me stay focused on my business:
1) Stop making plans and rules – telling yourself that you have to follow a regimented structure is what has lead me to failing in the past. I have to get up at this time, I have to stop smoking cigs, and I won’t drink anymore. As soon as I decided to stop being a boy and start being a man my life got easier. New simple motto is I can do anything I want but I strive to empower myself by simply making good decisions on a day to day basis. Instead of waking up at 7 cause I have to, I wake up at 7, almost fall back asleep, than remember that I don’t have to do this but I’m going to because it will create the desired results that I want.
2) The dollar you earn is the dollar you spend – you hit of this with you post of a beer or your business. Currently the number one site ranking for my main keyword has 533 domains linking to it. I have 211. I can by either buy 100 blog comments from new domains for have 100 bookmarks placed across social bookmarking sites to build my link profile for $40 outsourced to India. 4 $10 beers = 6-8 of work.
3) If you dominate link acquisition within your niche you will dominate the SERPS – my business is niche ecommerce and providing free traffic to my site and products from the search engines. You can apply this to whatever online money making avenue you choose. This also relates to tropicalmbas post that “my passion is kicking ass”
4) (Learned this one from you) Ask yourself if this is a “revenue focused” activity. Sometimes it is easy for me to tell my friends how to make money online than I find myself straying from my own advice.
5) What can I do today that will get me closer to where I want to be
6) Finally, my favorite line from any song I’ve ever heard. It comes from Madchild of Swollen Members on the song therapy. 54 seconds in, but I recommend the whole song.
“No one is secretly behind or under this, its independent bitch I funded it – this is independent.
Final thoughts: I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and this is my first comment. Me and you are following similar paths in different ways. I can not fail at my business, I 27 and use to sell real estate and I don’t want to go back. So instead for traveling the world building my business I stayed home and work 70 hours between 2 jobs and leverage my income to outsource projects to others using geo-arbitrage. If your business doesn’t get popping the way you want it, go back home live with your folks and work you ass off and use the cash to outsource your tasks. I’m up to 1K per month profit and should be fully retired on 4K by years end.
Best of luck to you.
Marc
@Marc thanks for those awesome quotes
Sean I feel you what you are saying…I been slacking on some of these things like waking up at 6 like I wanted. But I hit the snooze for 15 min which turn into 30 min…and so forth.
I really find that if I don’t have anything ready to do the next day…I just get online and surf with no direction. But when I do I just start crossing those tasks off easily.
So I have to say that having a game plan prepared the day before helps out a ton. Try it!
No matter how hard i try, or when i go to bed, unless it’s after 3am, i wake up by 6:30am every day. It’s a blessing, and maybe a curse.
I feel VERY productive, if not for the fact I have a 1-2 heads start over others.
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