A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

I’ve got work piled up to do, as usual. I’ve got 10 articles and a report that must be done by next week. Not a lot really, but I also have about 30 other articles I need to get done as soon as I can. Even that’s not all that much, but my brain has been like mush lately.

It’s not that I’m writing about complicated stuff like rocket science or how DNA testing works. It’s fairly easy stuff that I have a pretty good handle on. But I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and am still having issues with concentration. I made very little last month because of it, and I can’t afford to have that happen this month. We’ve got to get caught back up on the bills.

If I can just get started maybe it will all fall into place. But if I keep sitting here spinning my wheels, it definitely won’t.

This is a guest post by Beth Pratt of It’s a WAHM Thing. Enjoy, and be sure to check out her site for more great information for work at home moms!

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say that working from home is emotionally harder than working in an office, separated from home and family. But there are pitfalls to working at home, and trying to separate work life from home life is one of them. Working in an office, you don’t have to worry about your kids or spouse interrupting you in the middle of a phone call.

How do you create a barrier between work and home when you are always at home? Just creating a separate work space is not enough when it comes to determining where work ends and home begins. Sometimes, no matter your persistence, family and friends will continue to demand your time and attention. It’s not enough to tell them that you’re busy and cannot be bothered. As long as you’re visible, you’re accessible in the eyes of loved ones and kids. But there are ways to differentiate work time from home time. Here are a few suggestions:

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My concentration is still virtually nonexistent. I’m struggling to get things done. But I’ve found a couple of things that I’m hoping will help, without requiring me to go on prescription medication.

A kind reader dropped me a line and mentioned that she had had similar problems, and that taking St. John’s Wort daily helped her. I’ve heard good things about it before, but my brain has been so muddled lately that I didn’t stand a chance of thinking about it myself. So as soon as I get the money, I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for mentioning it Julie!

I’ve also found a web application that I’m giving a whirl in hopes that it will help me use my time more wisely. It’s called 88 Miles, and it’s kind of like an online time clock for freelancers and small business people. I don’t get paid by the hour, but I thought it would be helpful to know just how many hours out of the 24 a day that it seems like I’m in front of this computer are actually spent working. There’s a free trial, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

I started with it yesterday, punching in when I started working, and out when I did something else online, talked to the family, or took a break. It was quite an eye opener. I found that when I did concentrate on what I was doing, it took a reasonable amount of time to get things done. It was just staying on task that was the problem.

Right now I’m working on short articles, which are coming easier than longer projects. I’m anxious to figure my time on a nice long report so that I can compare. I think this is really going to help.

If you are a freelancer who works by the hour, or you are having trouble getting things done on time like me, I highly recommend this program. It’s very easy to use, and the free trial works just fine for one person. You can stay with the free version as long as you like, but you can only record up to 40 hours of time per month with it. The paid version for one user is only $5 per month, so if you like it, springing for it certainly won’t break the bank. And there are also plans for businesses, with timekeeping for up to 20 staff members.

I’m staying with the free version for now due to budget concerns, but I plan to upgrade soon. When I do, I want to keep track of the time I spend doing other stuff online as well.

So there’s what I’ve come up with to help myself so far. I’m still quite open to suggestions, so feel free to drop me a comment or contact me through my contact page. This inability to concentrate stuff is frustrating as hell, but I’m beginning to think maybe I can beat it.

I’m still stuck on the same writing assignment that I was stuck on 3 or 4 days ago. That one needed to be done a week ago, and I’ve got another one I need to get done ASAP. I also have a project I need to get done by Monday, but I don’t know if I will make it or not.

I’ve definitely got to talk to the doctor about this when I go in next week. I don’t like the idea of going on meds, but if they will help, I guess I’m willing to try. I can’t go on not being able to concentrate. If I don’t start getting work done sooner, I’m afraid I will start losing clients. And all of the clients I’m working for now are really awesome, so it would upset me greatly to lose them. Never mind the fact that looking for new clients takes a lot of time, and I don’t get paid for that time.

The only thing I’m having any success with at all is very small assignments, like 150 words or less. And sometimes I can’t even get through those in one sitting. It’s like a bunch of screws have popped loose in my head or something. Is it showing in my writing? Feel free to comment and let me know.

Do you ever have days when you’re just not “with it?” I do. In fact, I’ve been having them for several weeks now.

I’ve had trouble concentrating since Hubby got sick and through our whole housing crisis, but things have gotten better on that front. But my lack of concentration has gotten worse. Sometimes I can’t even finish a short article without taking an extended break. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve even fallen off the NaBloPoMo wagon by not doing daily blog posts.

At times I’ve wondered if I’m getting tired of writing. I’ve pondered changing careers, perhaps going into TV repair or designing custom boxes. But after some thought, I realized that’s not the problem.

My lack of concentration has spread to other areas too. It seems that no matter what I’m doing, my mind wanders to something else. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment next week, so I’m going to talk to her about it then.

I hope we get it all straightened out. I was so looking forward to taking my writing to the next level, maybe publishing an ebook and getting some print credentials. But if I can’t even write a short web article, it’s not going to happen.

Today my DSL was down yet again. This is becoming way too common lately, and it’s really cutting into my work time.

This time it was down almost all day. I came home from a side job this morning to find it non-operational, called the phone company, and they said there were no reports of when it would be fixed. I kept checking to no avail until about an hour before I had to make a quick trip out of town.

I got cleaned up and had a few minutes to spare. I checked again, and was able to get my email and check a forum. The timing sucked, but at least I would be able to get some work done when I got back. Or so I thought.

I got back home, turned on my computer, and the DSL was down yet again. Lovely. I called the phone company back, and they told me the same thing. So I proceeded to try to do a thing or two around the house, checking intermittently. Nothing.

It finally came up sometime before 10:00 pm. And now I’m too tired and frustrated to work. Deadlines are creeping up on me, and I was supposed to go back to the side job tomorrow morning. I may just have to skip it and work on my writing. If the DSL is working, that is.

I have been holed up in my office all weekend. I’ve got to get caught up on my articles. I know I’m not going to get it done by blogging, but I just had to get away from them for a minute. If I don’t, I’ll drive myself crazy.

I spent way too much time on some articles about products I had to do yesterday, but it really couldn’t be helped. Some of them were easy, such as a couple of Amazon books with good descriptions and lots of reviews. But others were extremely hard to find information on, and besides that, were not things that I had much knowledge about in the first place. I did the best I could with them, and I hope that’s good enough.

Today I’ve got twenty-some-odd articles I need to get done. I’ve done that many in a day before, but I’m having a tough time with these. They’re not about subjects I can write about off the top of my head, so I’m having to do a lot of research. And for some of them, there’s just not much information to be found. So it looks like I’m going to have another rough day.

I finally got caught up on my writing work, and I’m even slightly ahead. My clients are happy- so happy, in fact, that they’ve taken it upon themselves to make sure I have enough work to keep me booked up for a couple of weeks. As us southern girls say, “Yee-haw!”

It doesn’t look as though I’m going to have the weekend off this week. In a way that sucks, because it’s supposed to be warm and pretty out. But money is tight right now, so it’s good that I’m going to be making some. As soon as we get ahead on the cash flow, I’m going to see about cutting back a little on my work for others so I can get started on one of the ebooks I’m planning. I’m making a little passive income with affiliate programs, but I think a good ebook could keep me from having to worry for at least several months to come. And that will translate into more weekends off in the long run.

I suppose I should quit blogging now and get back to work. Now that I’m ahead of the game, I’d like to stay there as long as possible.

I’ve developed a terrible habit of procrastinating. Actually I’ve had it all my life, but it’s really starting to irritate me right about now.

I was doing fairly well about not procrastinating with my writing work at first. That lasted up until my family life got turned upside down several months ago. Hubby’s health problems, Pumpkin staying sick a lot, financial woes. If you’ve been a loyal reader for a long time, you know what I’m talking about. Those things adversely affected my concentration, causing me to have horrible writer’s block. And that led to a dread of doing the job I love.

Then just when things started looking up, more crap got piled on. We had our home basically jerked out from under us, and that really took the wind out of my sails. I could barely write a page or two a day, and that was on a good day. I also had to take a break when we finally started getting things straightened out again, to get all the red tape taken care of and then get moved and settled in. It has been a long, grueling road.

Now that things are beginning to resemble normal again, I’m having a hard time getting back in the swing of things. I need a good swift kick in the pants, because now that we have a house payment to make, I need to have a steady amount of money coming in each month. I’m not looking to turn my small business into a large corporation with financial reporting responsibilities, I just want to make a good living.

So I’m not taking this lying down. I am going to be trying out a self-help technique that I found, and I really hope it works. I ordered a DVD about it (which has a free trial period and a money-back guarantee), and I’m going to give it all I’ve got. And if that doesn’t work, I’m going to get a refund and keep trying until I find something that works. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

For the past week, I have been alternately depressed and angry due to the whole facing-possible-homelessness-for-no-good-reason thing. I’ve barely gotten any work done, because I simply can’t concentrate on my writing when I’m so emotional. But today I was able to channel my energy and get more work done than I’ve been doing in several days.

I think the difference today has been that I’ve been more angry than anything. Our tax refund was deposited today, and I had planned on getting all the bills caught up and celebrating. Instead, I had to once again pay just enough to keep everything from getting cut off and hang on to the rest so we’ll have something to get moved on. It made me absolutely furious that I couldn’t enjoy the day I’ve been waiting for so long.

At any rate, the persistent anger has been easier to channel into something positive than the bouts of depression. So at least some good came of it. Since I’m on a roll, maybe I should work on promoting my services. I could have some marketing pens made and distribute them with business cards. But I guess I should get my work caught up first. I’m sure I can stay mad long enough to do that and still have plenty of anger left over to work with.