Forum Moderators: phranque
How do you guys manage to keep the focus? I get distracted in reading news, stories that have nothing to do with my business etc. etc.
Any ideas? I can't be the only one ;)
If you can't motivate yourself, you're in big trouble. You are allowed some free time, it's the privilege of being self-employed, but if you're not thinking about your work 110% of the day, you won't make it.
Laziness is the number one reason self-employed people fail at their businesses.
I'm training myself to look at the news pages a little differently. Besides digesting the news, I'm observing the layout, placement of ads, navigation. In short, is there anything I can take from the news page besides the article? The answer is yes.
I work thru the night. It's much easier to stay focused without the distractions of:
1) telephone
2) customers
3) someone standing over my shoulder
4) someone standing over my shoulder saying, "Now whats this?"
Of course, the night hours also make it easier to 'slip away' for a little distraction. I might pop into WW 10-20 times a night.
The truth is, if I were to just write code for 8 hours a day without a break, I would be a grumpy old un-informed man. And nobody wants that!
So I rebel and drift off into whatever arouses my curiosity and offers me the promise of relieving the boredom. But when I focus on the "big picture," my overall goals, and put that predictable task into perspective as a necessary step toward getting where I want to end up, it's a lot easier to buckle down and do it.
It's kind of like driving to your favorite vacation spot. If you think only about how you'll have to drive a particularly boring stretch of road to get there, you'll avoid getting going until there's no longer enough time to take the trip. But if you focus on what you'll enjoy once you get to your destination, the drive is easier to start and less boring to endure.
Now, having reminded myself of that, I'd better get back "on the road."
the thing is that now it's not challenging at all, it's boring. Setting everything up, was fun and I loved it, updating it it's boring.
That's the thing for me. I can focus to a fault while I'm developing something. But afterwards, when it's working smoothly, I find myself wasting time and doing a lot of unimportant things. Like writing posts like this . . . I really need to be elsewhere right now . . . ;)
The other thing that inspires these sorts of bored behaviors is simply not having enough to do. You'll find if you have strict deadlines, and many clients wanting deliverables from you - the last thing you're thinking of is what's on the news sites. Perhaps seeking more clients that will add more work, diversify your work and add more pressure to you - will give you incentive to leave the infotainment, and focus on meeting deadlines and goals.
This is very similar to 'bench time' in consulting firms, where there is a very low trickle of work, and each day feels like a century and you start 'hitting the net more'. But when things are busy and 3 clients want enterprise class sites developed YESTERDAY, each day feels like about 15 minutes long.
The other thing, which is a phenominon that has really started to develop over the past few years is how we manage the excessive and ever changing information available to us.
Example, checking the same news site 5 times in a day to see whats new. Although the odds of new or meaningful changes to the site are low, we get into a rut of checking it over and over again because its sitting there in our browser's Links bar. The time would be much better managed by setting aside 30 minutes early in the morning as your still waking up, going once through your usual stuff (news, banking, exchange rates, whaterver) and then leaving it at that until the next day. Any additional visits to those resources throughout the day will add little to no value. Its very easy to go back to a site like WW especially, 4-5 times a day to see new posts, but ultimately those 4-5 times convert into alot of total time consumed.
the thing is that now it's not challenging at all, it's boring. Setting everything up, was fun and I loved it, updating it it's boring.
Time to do something else!
We've all been there. I've abandoned projects because they were "done" and I had no interest in them anymore.
yep, what was interesting yesterday isn't today. But clients still need it done, that's a tough one. Unfortunately txbaker's option isn't always an option, unless you are willing to fire the clients. And then of course if money isn't the main motivation, there's problems, that means the work itself has to be interesting enough to be worth doing, which it rarely is. I assume you've just gotten better, so what challenged you yesterday bores you today, welcome to the club.
Nothing can distract me from Nethack. :P
I get distracted easily when I know I should be doing something that I don't like to do. But I eventually realize that it has to get done - so better just get through it.
I like the idea of setting up a game plan for the day. Things you need to get done and in a priority order. Focus, get it done, check it off, then reward yourself. Then on to item #2... Set realistic goals for each day.
