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Maybe You Need a Break, PT. 2
By | April 14, 2010
After analyzing your weekly tracking of distractions, you’ll find the patterns in what’s happening. Here’s some action steps to help keep your working day more productive
A. Review your daily working schedule and schedule in sufficient rest times.
Do you even have a daily working schedule? If you work at home each day, you probably never think about creating your work schedule, similar to what you’d have if you worked in an office. That means you just do what you do without knowing what’s coming.
That means you never know when you’re going to get a break. You haven’t set goals to achieve over a certain period of time. You might just keep working until you wear out. Some people actually find they sit down in the morning and work until late afternoon or early evening without ever getting away from the computer.
That’s the worse thing you can do. When you start to track your day, you’ll find that a lot of that time is wasted time because you can’t stay focused that long. So create a work schedule that a business person needs to follow.
B. Schedule sufficient breaks.
On your daily planner, put in the breaks you’ll have during your work day.
- For each two hours of work, schedule a minimum 15 minute rest break. Use this time to freshen up, get some coffee or tea,
- For each four hours of work, schedule a 30 to 60 minute lunch break. Use this time for exercising, eating, napping, whatever, but take it.
These are just guidelines for taking breaks during your work day. You have to do what works for you to keep you productive.
Keeping Track
To be sure you take your breaks, use some type of method to alert you to break time.
- Purchase a basic alarm clock for the office and set it to alarm for the break time.
- Use a basic kitchen time and set it for as long as needed. Some of these only go for 60 or 90 minutes so set it accordingly.
You could always take a five minute break every 60 minutes too instead of trying to go through two hours before taking a break. You have to work with your personal rhythm to do what’s right for you .
If you’re not accustomed to taking a break, you might need more or fewer ones during the hours than you think. But don’t take breaks that you don’t need. Stay focused on your work day and keep moving.
How to Keep Track of Tasks
You might worry that taking a break will get you off track in your tasks. That’s a real concern so here’s how to leave what you’re doing and then get back on track.
- Write down on your daily timer exactly what you are doing just before you get up to take a break. Then you’ll remember what you need to go back to do.
- Highlight in RED on your document online (Using the color tool) where you stopped in your process. If you can’t use a color, BOLD the point so you can identify it immediately.
- Have an anchor tool such as a favorite rock, pen, paper or other symbol that triggers where you where physically or marks your place.
Now, what if you’re writing and in the “flow”? As a writer this is extremely important as flow is when the ideas are pouring out. Instead of losing the thoughts use these ideas:
- Write the keys words into an outline for the rest of the ideas flowing to you. If you know this will let you get back on track do this technique.
- If you need to, talk into a digital recorder and speak your thoughts instead of writing them. Then you can go back, listen to the ideas and either transcribe them or write the ideas as they come to you.
- Take a note pad with you in case ideas come so you can jot them down. Even if you don’t “get” anything, having this gives you a peace of mind that you won’t forget a fleeting idea that’s just great.
If these don’t work find your own system for keeping your ideas.
Overall, start make a case study out of yourself and find out why you’re not reaching your goal or why you get distracted during the day. This will help you develop a daily operations system that works for you and lets you start making money in your business by sticking to your goals.
Topics: Build Your Business, Entrepreneurs, Personal Care | No Comments »