We've all had those days right? You sit down to get some work done and the world and it's mother decide that they just have to have your attention right then and there. Next thing you know the day is shot, it's 6 pm, time to cook dinner, tidy up the house and flop in to bed. As you lay there trying to fall asleep you realise tomorrows to do list is exactly the same as todays because nothing quite got accomplished.
It's not that we've all got ADD, or too much to do, not enough hours in the day or too many demands on our time it's the darn electronics!
Now I have to say that I'm not exactly in the realms of ancientness yet, but even I remember the good old days when things didn't make noise or demand instant attention. If a letter arrived in the mail box the door didn't DING! at me, If I didn't answer a phone call because I was too far away from the phone I didn't get an instant PING! announcing a new message that must be listened too immediately or the Ting! Ting! Ting! of friend or family member then texting me whatever vital message needed to be communicated. There were no walls in my house where everyone I knew could see if I was in the room or not and immediately transmit a message that popped up on the wall right in front of my eyes regardless of what else I was attempting to do at that particular moment, assuming that I was there and could and WOULD answer them immediately, and customers waited until a shop was open before attempting to ask the sales associates a question.
It's a different world alright and it's a world that makes it increasingly hard to focus and really get things done.
I don't know about you but I run a home based business. This means that I don't have structured hours that I work. Some days I work from the moment I get up until one or two in the morning, other days I might spend the day with friends and then work all evening long. While this has a fantastic sense of freedom it also comes with a price, it's really easy to lose focus and accomplish nothing.
So I put this out there to everyone with the same kind of problems, whether you have a home based antiques business or any other business where the demands on your time from friends and family consistantly invade your focus. I have one thing to say.
It's okay.
It's okay not to look at that email the instant your computer pings. It's fine to let your phone go to voice mail, you can read a text message in an hour it's highly unlikely that the content of any of these things requires absolute immediate attention.
While it's very conscientious and a great business practice to answer emails from customers as swiftly as possible it's also important to get your photographs taken, your listings written and submitted to your shops, your packing and shipping done and for it not to take all day to get it done. You need to have time for yourself at the end (or beginning) of the day. Time for you to put down your business and enjoy the home you work so hard for.
In conclusion and the point I've been leading up to is this. I recently challenged myself to upload listings for an hour. For just one hour I was not going to look at facebook when it pinged at me, I wasn't going to read an email or answer a phone call. In that time I managed to upload 20 prepared listings to two of my shops online. 20! Usually that would take me half of the day. Four or five hours. Here I was and I'd done it in an hour! That left me 3 or 4 hours to get something else done or just sit back with my knitting and do something for me. Wow! I thought, I need to do that more often. So here I am being distracted writing a blog, but when I'm not I set myself goals; Small chunks of work that I can complete in an insignificant amount of time, and for that time I set the rest of the world aside. I can read the emails and texts later, respond to them all at once and again save time. My business is improving but my personal life is too.
You should try it sometime :)
Helen Gilbert
Owner: Catisfaction's Glass Gallery.
Looking for Vintage Glassware or Jewelry?
Visit my online store for Antique and Vintage Glass or Jewelry. Catisfaction
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Source: http://blog.rubylane.com/Word-of-the-day-focus
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