People who work from home, have no supervision, or are their own boss can have a difficult time staying focused and motivated. With no one to answer to but yourself, it may become easy to let projects slide, postpone certain tasks that aren’t your favorite to perform, and put off until tomorrow the things you should be doing today. These are habits that will eventually destroy your chances of success and even lead to total failure. Here are some tips to keep you on the right track when you may be tempted to slack off:
- Visualize Your Goals Every Day – It can be easy to forget your long-term goals when you’re immersed in daily mundane tasks that don’t seem to be creating results fast enough. When you have deadlines to meet, a mile-long to-do list, and are frustrated with the day to day workings of your business, you may find yourself losing the enthusiasm you had when you began your business. Take a few moments every day to remind yourself what you are working so hard for. Cut off all distractions and think about your ‘why’ and how it will feel when you accomplish your goal. This will be a great help in keeping your motivation to work hard in full force.
- Keep Your Work Area Clean – A messy workspace is a huge distraction and makes it very hard to work effectively. Make sure you keep the area you do the most work in de-cluttered and comfortable to be in. At the end of every day, simply clean up after yourself by throwing away any trash you may have lying around, organizing your paperwork and even your computer files. This will make the mornings run much more smoothly and will alleviate the stress that comes from not being able to find important information when you need it most.
- Reward Yourself For Reaching Short-Term Goals – Waiting to be rewarded for a huge project can be discouraging. Create some short-term goals and make it a point to celebrate their completion. Have a sale funnel that you need to create, but you’re dreading all the work? Been craving a hot fudge sundae? Great! Determine to take yourself to Dairy Queen as soon as your funnel is published! You get the idea.
- Take Frequent Breaks – Entrepreneurs often find themselves getting burned out. They get a great idea and start working like mad men (and women) to make it happen. The bigger the idea, the more work involved, and soon they may find themselves struggling to get the will to work. If you find yourself in this kind of situation, take a quick break. Pace yourself. Avoid working around the clock, even at the beginning when you are excited and full of energy. Work for a few hours at a time and then step away for a breather.
- Stop Working In Your Pajamas – Yes, we all brag about how great it is to work in our P.J.s, but it isn’t always conducive to getting a ton of work done when we feel as if we could go back to bed at a moment’s notice. Get up, get dressed, and get to work just as if you were going to have to leave to head to the office. And, if at all possible, do not work where you sleep!
Being an entrepreneur is one of the most rewarding, exciting, fulfilling ways to make a living, but it does have its challenges. Instead of company politics and downsizing, we are actually our own worst enemies. The potential to be too easy on ourselves and slack off when we should be working is one of our biggest obstacles to success. Put some of these tips to work in your own life and reduce the likelihood of self-sabotage through distraction and lack of focus.
