Finding the time to work
Being sick and still having work to do makes me pause to think about the similarities between owning your own business and being a full-time family caregiver.
In both instances you can not just shrug off your responsibilities just because you don't feel like doing something. There is often no one else that can step up and fill in for you when you catch a cold or the flu and are in no condition to be working yourself.
So what is the small work at home business owner to do?
The most common advice that I have heard given is to work ahead when time permits so that when you are feeling down you have enough work backlogged from having worked ahead that you can maintain a steady workflow, but that is not always possible. Perhaps your work does not lend itself to working ahead, or maybe you have no time to work ahead?
I'm not sure what the answer is. For me it seems to be the wonderful addition to my writing tools of the Alphasmart that allows me to keep working even when I have to step away from the computer. A handy little device that allows me to type away on my novels and articles while making coffee or waiting in lines at places like the doctor's office or the DMV.
Find a handy tool that would work for your own business, maybe a traveling sewing kit if you work making quilts? A purse sized plastic container that can hold some clay and a project you are working on if you make one of a kind polymer figures? Find the time to work when you can and don't worry about the curious looks you get when you pull a small tin with jewelry making supplies in it out and set it on the magazine table at the doctor's office. Those four hours waiting to be seen can be productive too.
In both instances you can not just shrug off your responsibilities just because you don't feel like doing something. There is often no one else that can step up and fill in for you when you catch a cold or the flu and are in no condition to be working yourself.
So what is the small work at home business owner to do?
The most common advice that I have heard given is to work ahead when time permits so that when you are feeling down you have enough work backlogged from having worked ahead that you can maintain a steady workflow, but that is not always possible. Perhaps your work does not lend itself to working ahead, or maybe you have no time to work ahead?
I'm not sure what the answer is. For me it seems to be the wonderful addition to my writing tools of the Alphasmart that allows me to keep working even when I have to step away from the computer. A handy little device that allows me to type away on my novels and articles while making coffee or waiting in lines at places like the doctor's office or the DMV.
Find a handy tool that would work for your own business, maybe a traveling sewing kit if you work making quilts? A purse sized plastic container that can hold some clay and a project you are working on if you make one of a kind polymer figures? Find the time to work when you can and don't worry about the curious looks you get when you pull a small tin with jewelry making supplies in it out and set it on the magazine table at the doctor's office. Those four hours waiting to be seen can be productive too.
posted by Sandra at 9:50 AM
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