The Key To Writing From Home Is Writing While Your Home

Some just can't do it. They can't put aside the household chores and/or the household entertainment to get any writing done. The home is just too distracting.

I can set aside domestic distractions and write from home but fortunately I have a few advantages.

I have no kids (just a cat who has an addiction to keyboards) and I live in a small apartment. Therefore, I have no little ones to take care of and no house to maintain (something breaks and I call the super).

Yet, even with those advantages I still had to work very hard at writing from home.

When I first began writing from home I had my fair share of trouble. I would often go to bed feeling like I haven't written enough. My apparent lack of production was a great source of anxiety.

I knew if I was going to be successful at writing from home I needed to get organized and focused. And to do that I needed to get control of my most valuable asset, my time.

First, I got on a schedule conducive for writing. With no kids to see off to school in the morning I had no reason to go to bed early. I began staying up late and soon that "late" became "really late." Before I knew it I was going to bed at 4am.

That was not conducive for writing.

After getting back on banker's hours, I made a rundown of how I wanted each day to unfold. More specially, how long I was going to spend writing for each one of my jobs/Web sites.

Using the calendar application in Yahoo! mail, I inputted a job/Web site and then gave it duration. I did this for all jobs/Web sites I wanted to write for during the coarse of each work day.

For example, every work day I want to spend 90-minutes writing for Clickit Ticket, 90-minutes writing for Best Show Tickets Las Vegas, one hour writing for Land of Punt, one hour writing for Bombastic Sports, a half-hour writing for What We Learned Today, a half-hour writing for Basketball Central, and so on...

To execute my schedule, I found an egg timer online (there are several). I set the timer to the appropriate duration and then got to writing.

Much to my surprise, my system worked. The first day I implemented it I got more done than I had in two or three days combined.

Using a timer keeps me motivat ed, keeps me focused, and maximizes my productivity. Meanwhile, the buzzer lets me know when it's time to move on to the next item on my calendar.

The key to my system is sticking to it. When the buzzer sounds I finish what I'm doing and then move to the next job/Web site. That is after my heart resumes beating--the buzzer always scares me.

Do I follow the timer religiously? Of course not, but even when I stray I try not to stray for too long. Getting away from timer, getting away from schedule, can cause a lack of focus and a lapse in production.

In fact, I usually have multiple timers going at the same time. One will count-down the time I'm dedicating to a particular job/Web site while another is counting the overall time I work in a day (eight hours).

And yes, sometimes I do forget to turn them on and off but I figure it all works out in the end.

Once I'm done writing for a job/Web Site I immediately delete the entry from the calendar. This gives me a sense of accomplishment and the feeling that I'm getting stuff written (which of course I am).

On days when I'm feeling sluggish or unmotivated the timer is godsend becau se I can tell myself, "I only have to write for this much longer." Generally, I find that after a few minutes of writing I become energized and my motivation returns. Funny how therapeutic hard work can be.

I also pause the timer when I step away from my computer or stop working. This is important. It means I'm only counting the time I actually work, not the time I'm at work. So the longer I work the sooner I'm done.

At a brick and mortar job you're basically killing time. You don't work for eight hours and then go home; you're at work for eight hours and then you go home.

With my write-from-home system I actually work for eight hours.

This system may not work for everyone but if you're finding yourself folding laundry or watching television more than writing you might want to give it a try.