Although many people crave to be in the position of working from home, it's much harder to than people think, especially creating a good working environment that promotes motivation. Yes, you don't have the boss breathing down your neck, you can work at times that suit you and you can often go at your own pace if deadlines aren't looming. Unfortunately, though, there are times that the aforementioned pace is often more suited to a snail’s world than your own.
The key to picking up the pace is to be able to recognize when motivation is no longer your friend and that good old chum procrastination has settled in for the day. If you identify with any of the following points, then you know your next business meeting has got to be an appointment with Mr Motivator.
1. You find yourself gazing out the window and thinking weeding the garden is a good idea. You would normally rather poke your own eyes out with cocktail sticks than do the gardening, but today… hmmm… not a bad idea at all.
2. Once you take your eyes off the garden, they focus on the windows, which haven't been cleaned for months. Suddenly the process of window cleaning is appealing and you find yourself recreating the 'wax on', 'wax off' scenario from The Karate Kid. You get half way through doing the windows when you realize working would actually be more fun!
3. Once you're back at your desk you think typing would be much easier if you trimmed your finger nails. Then discover filing your nails has never been so interesting. You know it's really bad when you start working on your cuticles and get the polish out, too. It's much worse if you find yourself in that position and you're male.
4. Sitting poised and ready to work, you glance up/over at the bookcase and realize how absurdly untidy it is. It keeps calling your attention until you just have to get up and rearrange each and every shelf. It may take longer if you decide that some of the books were a lot more interesting than you remember. However, you score brownie points if one of the books actually ends up generating ideas, thus spurning you back to work.
5. Even though your job would be impossible without the internet, you decide that you have to set the parental controls to stop yourself blindly browsing. You especially hate the stumble button and flashy ads for IQ tests.
6. You might normally avoid Facebook like the plague, but when motivation is no longer your friend you find solace in your other 463 'friends'. Or rather stalk them; you don't actually ever write anything on Facebook because then you’d have to admit to yourself that you’re seriously avoiding work.
7. You can't seem to shake a tune you heard this morning so look it up on You Tube, and get caught there for 45 minutes searching for obscure songs that you haven't heard for years, or get tempted by the list to the right that has absolutely nothing to do with your original search.
8. After checking out funny videos on You Tube you decide that the ‘Surprised Kitty’ video is one of the funniest things you've seen all year. This results in an endless search for other silly animal vids and leads to half a day on I Can Has Cheezburger and Cats that Look Like Hitler.
9. The cats make you think of your mum, so you call her, even though you only spoke to her last week. If she doesn't answer the phone you write an email, only to realize-once you've finished – that she doesn't really 'get' email yet, so the whole process was a complete waste of time.
10. This compels you to start working again, but as soon as your fingers are over the keyboard – even though you've just whipped out a 500-word email in 10 minutes-you get writer's block… and you're not even a writer.
NB: All links to above mentioned procrastination websites have been purposefully omitted-if you're reading this you're obviously avoiding work splendidly, but we wouldn't want to make it any harder for you to rediscover your motivational mojo. Now get back to work!
This article was written by John from Home Loan Finder. Visit Home Loan Finder to compare home loan interest rates.
The key to picking up the pace is to be able to recognize when motivation is no longer your friend and that good old chum procrastination has settled in for the day. If you identify with any of the following points, then you know your next business meeting has got to be an appointment with Mr Motivator.
1. You find yourself gazing out the window and thinking weeding the garden is a good idea. You would normally rather poke your own eyes out with cocktail sticks than do the gardening, but today… hmmm… not a bad idea at all.
2. Once you take your eyes off the garden, they focus on the windows, which haven't been cleaned for months. Suddenly the process of window cleaning is appealing and you find yourself recreating the 'wax on', 'wax off' scenario from The Karate Kid. You get half way through doing the windows when you realize working would actually be more fun!
3. Once you're back at your desk you think typing would be much easier if you trimmed your finger nails. Then discover filing your nails has never been so interesting. You know it's really bad when you start working on your cuticles and get the polish out, too. It's much worse if you find yourself in that position and you're male.
4. Sitting poised and ready to work, you glance up/over at the bookcase and realize how absurdly untidy it is. It keeps calling your attention until you just have to get up and rearrange each and every shelf. It may take longer if you decide that some of the books were a lot more interesting than you remember. However, you score brownie points if one of the books actually ends up generating ideas, thus spurning you back to work.
5. Even though your job would be impossible without the internet, you decide that you have to set the parental controls to stop yourself blindly browsing. You especially hate the stumble button and flashy ads for IQ tests.
6. You might normally avoid Facebook like the plague, but when motivation is no longer your friend you find solace in your other 463 'friends'. Or rather stalk them; you don't actually ever write anything on Facebook because then you’d have to admit to yourself that you’re seriously avoiding work.
7. You can't seem to shake a tune you heard this morning so look it up on You Tube, and get caught there for 45 minutes searching for obscure songs that you haven't heard for years, or get tempted by the list to the right that has absolutely nothing to do with your original search.
8. After checking out funny videos on You Tube you decide that the ‘Surprised Kitty’ video is one of the funniest things you've seen all year. This results in an endless search for other silly animal vids and leads to half a day on I Can Has Cheezburger and Cats that Look Like Hitler.
9. The cats make you think of your mum, so you call her, even though you only spoke to her last week. If she doesn't answer the phone you write an email, only to realize-once you've finished – that she doesn't really 'get' email yet, so the whole process was a complete waste of time.
10. This compels you to start working again, but as soon as your fingers are over the keyboard – even though you've just whipped out a 500-word email in 10 minutes-you get writer's block… and you're not even a writer.
NB: All links to above mentioned procrastination websites have been purposefully omitted-if you're reading this you're obviously avoiding work splendidly, but we wouldn't want to make it any harder for you to rediscover your motivational mojo. Now get back to work!
This article was written by John from Home Loan Finder. Visit Home Loan Finder to compare home loan interest rates.
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