It’s exciting and freeing to run your own business. You get to set your own rules and set your own work hours. You get to decide what you sell and when you sell it. You get to determine what your income is – and the sky’s the limit.
However, as anyone who owns their own business and works from home will tell you, the reality is that it’s easy to fall into the trap of working all the time. It’s not as if you just login for 15 minutes a day and then you’re done. It’s not as if you get to do whatever you want to do just because you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck.
Yes, you get to work from home. Yes, you get to work in your PJs if you want to. Yes, you can travel the world and work wherever you want to and earn an income doing it. It’s a fantastic lifestyle and it’s highly recommended by just about anyone who’s earning a full-time income this way.
At the same time, it’s not all easy-as-pie. When you’re working 16 hour days, it’s stressful. It doesn’t matter whether you’re working from home or not. That work and home life separation becomes nonexistent. This wreaks havoc on your mental and emotional state. This adds a ton of stress to your life.
This can add a lot of stress to your family life as well, because your family might not understand why you’re working all the time. It can feel like you don’t have time for them – and the fact is that you might not.
It’s hard to do a load of laundry when you know that you could spend another hour of the computer and earn another hundred dollars. It’s hard to turn that off—especially if you’re struggling to build up a large enough income at the moment.
It’s important to be honest with yourself, though, and realize that it’s incredibly easy to waste time on the Internet. There are many rabbit holes to fall down into. There are some new blog posts to read, social media posts to share, and so much to do. It’s easy to feel like you’re working… when, in reality, the true work you get done in a day could be dramatically condensed.
There comes a point when it’s very important that you set real work hours for your at-home business. Yes, you’ll be working less. No, this does not mean you will be earning less. Allow me to explain.
Let’s go back to the part where you feel you have to work another hour because you know that you earn more for every hour that you work.
But are you more productive if you work 16 hours a day? Not necessarily… and probably not. You’re probably less productive and less focused when you work so much. If you truly condensed your workload down to between 4 to 8 hours a day and stuck to it, you could probably get a lot more done.
You’d be fresher while you were working. You get more done while you were working. And, you’d be happier while you were working.
When you’re working 16 hours a day, or 12 hours a day, or 10 hours a day, day after day… it’s so draining. There’s no room for creativity. There’s no room for fun. There’s no room for inspiration.
To be truly creative and innovative in your work, you have to be separated from it sometimes.
In order to earn more and scale up, you need that creativity and inspiration. Otherwise, you’ll always be stuck where you are.
Can you promise yourself that you’ll work just eight hours (or less) a day? It will help. I promise.
As part of this, it’s time to assess what is actually important in your business. Think about the Pareto principle – just 20% of your efforts lead to 80% of your results. Think about this.
What of your daily activities actually earns money for you? What of your daily activities is sort of time wasting – or even mostly time wasting?
Eliminate the activities you don’t need to do. Track your daily activities and think about when you waste time and when you’re actually working. There are studies that show that the average worker who works eight hours a day actually only works two hours a day of focused work time. That’s eye-opening right there.
Post your work hours. Be a good boss to yourself. Tell yourself that you work from 10 to 4. Or whatever you want your work hours to be. Let your family know that this is when you’re working. And when it’s not those hours, you’re not working anymore. This will make them happier and it will make you happier. Your home life will be better.
And you will be focused on getting things done in between those hours, which will make you more productive. You’ll be focused on your most productive, highest earning activities. You’ll waste less time doing things that aren’t important. It’s really a winning solution.
You have to treat yourself well if you’re going to succeed with your at home business. You don’t get to leave your home and drive to an office and chat with coworkers. Lots of parts of working for yourself from home sound great, and they are, until it’s your reality for a while. It’s important to create that separation for yourself in a meaningful way so you can enjoy and prosper while working for yourself, for the long haul.
Start that for yourself today. Decide on your work hours and stick to them. Literally post them on your office door. Intentionally tell your family members and your friends what your office hours are and stick to them. You’ll get fewer interruptions and you’ll feel more like someone who is in business – it’s a mindset thing.
Give this a try. See how this works for you. It might be the case you start to get so much more done that you can contain your work hours even more. Yes, there are entrepreneurs out there who are living the four-hour workweek Tim Ferriss made so popular – that could be you.
Maybe even the four-hour workday is right for you. Maybe it’s the three hour or the two-hour workday. You work for yourself, so your income does not have to be tied hour per hour to how much you work. Think about that, set your work hours, and set yourself free.
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