I have to admit that January has been really hard for me so far. Between happy and sad life events that have occurred this month I am really having trouble keeping motivated and on track. Balancing life and my legitimate work from home jobs as well as the rest of the goals I've set for myself is starting to wear me down.
I honestly think that this happens to all of us at one point or another, and we all think that we're the only one who has ever gone through it... Almost as if we're failing by being the only person ever to burn out while working at home. The truth though, is that it happens to everyone, even those who absolutely love their work or those who make incredible amounts of money.
Everyone has problems getting going at one point or another.
Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to deal with it all. Ideally I'd like to take a weekend or so and do absolutely nothing so I could recuperate, but I really don't have the time to do that if I want to keep reaching my goals. I could purposely slack off on my goals, but I think I'd be upset later on and feel like I let myself down if I did that. Instead, I'm working in small and focused chunks on my writing, then I'm physically getting up and moving around.
Twenty minutes working then do the dishes, twenty minutes working then wipe down the kitchen counters etc. The idea is that I keep working so I don't get comfortable and relaxed, but I work on two completely different things to fight off boredom and keep my blood flowing so I won't fall into snooze mode.
Hopefully, this will get the bugs out of my system and the house cleaned at the same time.
9 comments:
I can definitely relate. Part of why I need to earn $1000-1200 is to get out of bad situation that is causing a lot of stress. We have to try and minimize the bad events and feelings while focusing on the good. I'm a prayer warrior too so that helps. Maybe you earn less this month-no big deal. Sometimes stress in life causes people to lose their "real life" jobs or to take a lot of time off. There's an advantage to working from home. Hang in there. Take some time off. You've inspired us enough as it is. You are still only human. I'll stop rambling now.:)
I totally understand. I get the same way. Occasionally I have to take a day and say "Screw it." Of course, then I make sure I set aside some time on another day to play catch up. Usually a day when I'm REALLY motivated. I took a Saturday off a couple weeks ago and it really helped. It motivated me so much that I more than caught up later because I felt so much better. Try to take that into account. If you're like me and you get a break, you might feel so much better that you make more later on. Everything suffers when you're burned out. The longer you're burned out, the more your work will suffer.
So take your weekend off!! :)
Oh, I also wanted to mention... Since you're goal-oriented like me you might benefit from how I keep track of things to clean in my house.
I have a spreadsheet that lists every cleaning job in the house that has to be done on a regular basis and I put when I last did it and when it needs to be done next. I break it down into small tasks... clean the upstairs bathroom mirror... wipe down the counters... etc. So when I complete a task, I update when I last did it and when it needs to be done next then I sort the list by date that items need to be completed.
It keeps my mind from getting bogged down with all these things that need to be done! It's right there! Of course, I'm behind on half my list, but when I get a few of the things on it knocked out in a day, I feel like I accomplished something.
@LHQ I'm sorry to hear that you're in a tough spot. I have faith that you can pull through it though :)
I do agree that I am only human hehe, but I thought it'd be a good thing to show everyone that I'm human as well.
I honestly think a huge part of my problem is that I have so many things I want to do for myself, and no time to do them... Like setting up a Residual Income blog and working on residual income and niche blogs but I just can't find the time to do it between everything else that's going on and it's giving me the blues lol
@Melissa I had honestly never thought of putting chores in a spreadsheet like that which is silly since I have at least 3 open spreadsheets on my task bar at all times... That is excellent!
Generally my cleaning goes something like, clean the kitchen until it's spotless, clean the dining room, clean the living room some (spread over however long). Then by the time the living room looks decent I end up back in the kitchen again and forget the rest of the house.
That would definitely help me stop neglecting the bathrooms and bedrooms lol
Thanks to both of you for the inspiring words and ideas :)
Yeah, I totally get that. I would get so focused on picking up clutter and doing dishes that I'd neglect a lot of other stuff. So in mine, I broke down every little task in every room. I mean, wiping down the counters and picking up clutter is on there as "as needed" but it really helps me budget my time because I can see the big picture. I mean cleaning the bathroom seems kind of daunting in itself, but if I have the one task "clean bathroom mirror".. that takes less than 5 minutes and I only do it maybe once every two weeks.
Glad I could help! If you'd like to see my spreadsheet, drop me an e-mail and I'll send it to you as it is.
I'm with Melissa on this - take a weekend off! You've been working increadibly hard and been very inspirational. As a matter of fact, when I found your blog, it was an eye opener and an example of not giving up.
So you know what I did after reading through your archives? I took not 1 weekend, but 1 whole week off - no business, no bidding on projects, no blogging, nothing.
For the first couple of days I just spent time with family and friends (and, of course, reading). And then things started happening - things started to come together, finally.
I came up with so many gread ideas in the final couple of days of my no-work week that I was busy making all the changes for another week. Then I felt I was ready to get back to work.
And this far, things have been going well. No overnight success story, but definitely seeing steady progress :)
If you are working weekends too, then do not be too hard on yourself. You do NEED some me time too.
I take weekends off to spend time with my husband and by the time Monday comes I am usually looking forward to getting back to work. Wednesdays are usually my bad days and I have to really push and motivate myself.
Maybe try doing something relaxing to get rid of the stress, like a yoga video, workout video, reading, going for a walk, anything that lets you get rid of the stress. I find it harder to work when I feel the stress build up. And right now my husband and I have a lot of stress with bills and goals. So during the day I do one or two 30 minute exercise videos to get rid of that bad stressful energy.
I completely agree with everyone, take some time off.If anyone has earned it,it's you.
Sometimes, I take a day off and I don't even turn my computer on. No writing articles,no emails....nada! I also turn my work phone off. By the next day, I feel very much in control and focused.
Take care of you.
@Yelena I'm glad that you've gotten some help here :) Taking a week to get things in order definitely sounds great haha I'm just such a workaholic that I don't think I could do it but I'm strongly considering it.
I'm also glad you're seeing progress. Success definitely doesn't come overnight but I think we're all ok with waiting so long as we know we're making the climb to where we want to be.
@Jamie Yeah I usually decrease my workload on the weekends but January has thrown me for a loop. I'm hoping to get caught up and where I need to be before or during this weekend, so that I start relaxing again next weekend lol
@Theody That might be something for me to try on a weekend to make sure I totally ignore everything. Just shut it all down and focus on other things... of course then I'd probably get bored and sleep myself into a coma haha
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