We’ve got a big project going on…. started yesterday… still at it today… can’t wait to share the secret and of course, lots of photos!
Off to Lowes and Ikea!!!
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I’m reading a most fascinating book by a blogger that I love reading his blog… Chris Gillibeau and the Art of Non Comformity. It’s very fascinating, and gives me hope and fuel to living my own life, how I wish to live it.
One of the chapters mentions how we so often do things that we hate, find annoying, do out of guilt, do out of comformity, do because we don’t know to not do it, and so on. And these things ROB us of very important time to do what we WANT to do or even NEED to do.
Some of his examples are meetings at work that really don’t accomplish anything, dealing with junkmail and email spam, watching too much tv without a schedule or desire to watch a specific show and so on. Sometimes it can just be some sort of procedure or task that you do which is really just busy work and non productive.
It’s got me thinking and he suggests starting with three to five things on your Don’t Do List and start to eliminate them!
Hmmm…..
Well, one thing for sure, I need to stop doing errands all week long. I find myself having to go out nearly every day for something. And it’s driving me nuts. And wastes time. And give me more opportunity to be bad and get fastfood and pop and just basically disrupts my work focus and day.
I also need to stop doing graphic work for free. Or at the very least letting it get priority in my life over work, my own pursuits and that of my daughters and friends. I just find it so hard to say no and then I get wrangled into it. I need to start saying, well yes, in a few weeks I might be able to do that. I think that will help.
This is harder than it looks. I know there are things that I need to stop doing, that are a huge waste of time, money, energy, emotional energy and the likes.
Okay, I think my last Don’t Do has to revolve around Facebook. It’s rather like a bad car accident to me. You just can’t help but look at it. Being on the computer a good deal, it’s so easy to pop in, check it out and all that. But I find myself deathly bored with it, and all the sort of tame, polite, sweet little postings of everyone. It’s rather like a room filled with lonely people, with their fingers in their ears, telling the WORLD what they are doing or thinking at this moment and then not really listening much to whatever everyone else is doing. Sure, I know, oh my, I can keep in touch with ___________ fill in the blank (kids, parents, friends, relatives, fans, etc., etc.,) I suppose. But I find it rather irronic that I have like 200+ friends and really only about 10 or 15 of them ever post anything and usually it’s like just so blah and tame. Or it’s umpteen hundred game requests or updates about their mafia or their farm or sending hugs and all that junk.
Yeah, I think I need to NOT check Facebook every hour. (haha) Let’s shoot for check in once in the morning and once in the evening. Yeah.
Okay, so I have my Don’t Dos… everyday errand rambles, free, top priority work and way too much Facebook check ins. Now how do I stop DOING these things?
Well, errands. I think I need to get a little better handle on what is a NOW errand and what is a wait until tomorrow or the next day errand. And I need to start looking for more and more things that I can order online and have sent to me. (If it’s a good deal and all.) I do like local shopping and I am a big fan of it. But I think I need to start really watching for things that I can get easily on say Ebay or Amazon, and stock up and get free shipping, etc., specials.
I do know that I’m trying harder to buy in bulk. I have to make sure that I have GFS Food Service on my monthly shopping list. I am finding some fantastic deals there. Good stock up stuff and the prices are SO much better than conventional stores. Flour, sugar, frozen veggies, noodles, rice, etc. Great prices.
Graphics… well, I just need to remember… “Sure, I can help out in a few weeks…” haha… I think that will help to get me off the hook for things that are in a panic and aren’t going to reward me for putting my life on hold to take care of someone else’s oversight and lack of understanding that my time is money. You wouldn’t expect your dentist friend to drop everything and give you a root canal for free, or your local mechanic to just stop all his paying work and do your car for free… I have to start reminding myself that this is my work and that charity work just has to have a place that makes sense. It has to fit into MY schedule, not alter MY schedule to fit it. After all, my children and myself need to have heat and food on the table, too. And if I don’t take care of my household, then ain’t no one going to be getting graphics when I have to go and work at Kinkos to pay the lot rent.
Well, the Facebook thing? Yeah, I just need to STOP it. Get like a rubberband and snap myself hard every time I start to check it. It will be there in the evening… it’s just a disruption that seems to mess me up way too much every day. And it’s really got no good payoff other than knowing what some barely known “friend” is thinking today about mothers, sisters, veterans or Jesus or some witty quote that is going to make me go “Hmmmmm”. I have enough interruptions in my day as it is. Hundreds of emails a day, and junk mail in the mailbox and all that bombards us on websites and all that. Time to tone that down a bit.
I really like the idea of having a day or weekend long break from technology… a sort of technology Sabbath. Not a bad idea… Hmmmm…..
Well, what might be on your Don’t Do list? Any ideas? Want to share? Leave me a comment!
And spend a little time reading some of Chris Gillebeau’s Blog… Great Stuff!
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The nice thing about working from home is that you can take time off when you need it and come right back to your tasks at hand!
The bad thing about working from home is that you can take time off when you just feel like not working and pretty much ignore things you need to do until the Procrastination Police come to your house to take you back to 9 to 5 land because you can’t pay your rent.
Haha… but that’s where Working Weekends comes in! Ta-Da! Working Weekends can save a perfectly dismal week by providing you a reason to stay in your comfy sweats and cruddy old t-shirt, hole up in your office with a steady stream of cookies and Pepsi and just crank out the hits, one after another for a good oh, 14 or 15 hours and man, you’re back on track!
It always helps with said Working Weekend is a little dark and overcast, cold and clammy. Not good for nothing else. Of course, that being said, you don’t want it tooooo dark and overcast or the WAHNR* will kick in and cause you to loose precious time.
(*WAHNR = Work at Home Nap Reflex… a terrible affliction that causes you to just stop what you’re doing and crash on the couch or bed for at least 2 hours snoozing, usually set off by some random statement such as “I’m just going to read this boring report here on the bed, just for a few minutes….”)
All those things considered, yesterday was a PERFECT Working Weekend start for me! I managed to get this massive bluegrass cruise flyer front side finished up… and then a hillbilly cartoon logo for a friend, a business card design for another friend’s daughters, our new guitar blog up and running, some DVD’s burned for a client, a new website for the Ol’ Hippy Bluegrass Show installed and their blog set up, did some edits to client websites, got my email caught up, revised a article for a website about rocks and kids, cleaned out a pantry with Maggie, sorted out stuff for a big product CD burning today, oh, got the Opry newsletter formated and ready to go and did a couple edits to my bluegrass national sites as well as prepare art for TWO band trading card orders that came in!!! 
Let me tell you, that is a HUGE amount of stuff done! When it was all said and done, around 2 PM last night, I sat back and sighed this HUGE sigh of relief! Got another busy day today, but when it’s all said and done, I’ll be back to under 15 to do cards and have a bunch of happy clients and a week of quiet and relaxation ahead of me! Time to work on my own empire projects and fun stuff! Yah!
Well today’s adventures include printing and folding the Opry newsletter, getting some proofs printed for big print jobs, helping Jessy with her first big deal client photography shoot (a cute pair of 2 year old twin boys!) and then some more web work and helping to assemble some hot licks products.
Thank goodness there is a big old beef roast in the crock pot and the stuff to put together an apple pie. That sounds so good already!
And I think if a case of WAHNR breaks out late afternoon… it will be okay.
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