Post Your Weekly Schedule

Remember back in the day when the job you worked had a wall calendar with everyone’s hours on it? By recreating that calendar on your refrigerator door, you can let everyone in the household - including you - know your weekly work schedule.

Schedules have a nasty name because we are used to having to adhere to other people’s schedules. Putting our noses to someone else’s grindstone feels like slavery to us work-at-home types. But putting our noses to our own grindstone, while it may look the same, is actually completely different: it’s freedom. We’ve all heard that freedom isn’t free. The price of being a work-at-home mom is self-discipline. When you lack it, the earnings won’t happen and you’ll find yourself tethered again to someone’s else grindstone in no time.

Writing your schedule in your planner isn’t good enough. Post it where the whole family can see it. First, it’ll hold you accountable to the hours. Not only do I work my hours more consistently when they are posted on the fridge, I am more apt to stop working at the designated time. It’s my way of showing my family that the time I spend with them is important. When the kids see my times clearly posted, they are more likely to wait until quitting time to ask me some question. Fewer interruptions mean that I can get more work done.

I found that just saying I am going to work the same hours every day didn’t work. First, unless it’s written down, it isn’t real to the kids. Second, my brain fought it because working at home should come with the added benefit of flexibility. Third, unless it’s written down, it isn’t real to me either. Now, I think twice before heading to the grocery store or agreeing to help someone out during working hours.

The calendar you use doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive. I use a dollar-store monthly planner. I removed the heavy plastic cover so that it would hang with a couple of magnets on the fridge door. I like that I don’t have to fill in the calendar dates as I would with a dry erase board. I fill in my schedule weekly, usually on Sundays.

A posted, written schedule is just one tool to help you reap the benefits - and earnings - of working from home. When it comes down to it, the only freedom that comes with working from home is being your own boss. But with it, you can choose how many hours you work and how much money you earn. From there, you pay the appropriate price with self-discipline and hard work.

Map Yourself

I love organizing myself. It’s my favorite time-waster. Though my closets are cluttered and my work desk lacks rhyme or reason, my personal information - calendar, contacts, tasks - is impeccably maintained. I couldn’t care less about physical clutter. But, when I unload all that mental clutter into a planner system, I feel like I just laid the bricks to my very own yellow brick road.

In a recent re-organizing project with stellar time-wasting potential, I discovered Joerg Mueller’s FreeMind software. It makes those great mind-mapping drawings of circles and lines only without the confines of paper edges. I immediately had a vision of a giant web-like matrix detailing my growth as a writer. I could survey all my goals, learning strategies and revenue streams in right-brain language. Naturally, paid writing could wait while I created this virtual map detailing the roads and mountains on my journey of being a writer.

Creating a Monster

I downloaded the free software and placed the Mother circle in the center of the great white space. I titled it “Develop the Writer.” It quickly grew legs and tumors. I gave the tumors action names that began with “I” like “I am a focused writer” and “I know my craft.” Each of those had legs and smaller tumors that detailed the actions needed to live the statements.

It wasn’t long before I had created an impressive, monstrous spider. For some reason, I felt about as repulsed as I would if it were actually a mutant spider. The mind map had accomplished everything that I needed from it. What had before been a stale list of tasks had become a breathing big picture. I could see how everything I was doing fit with my goals of being a freelance writer. Yet, it turned my stomach and I didn’t know why.

It Lives

I stepped away and thought about it for a day or so. It occurred to me that the spider was only an outgrowth of a larger life. If it were a spider plant, writing would only be the little plantlet hanging on the ends of the much larger parent plant. Writing isn’t rooted in its own soil. It gets its nourishment from a larger specimen without which the writing is airless and dead. I craved a mind map that would value balance.

I renamed the Mother circle “Be Whole.” It grew a tumor titled “Develop the Writer.” I attached all the work I had done to this child tumor. Then I created other circles that branched from “Be Whole.” These include “I want to keep my family strong” and “I invite God into my Life.”

Monster Morals

When I feel I have accomplished a task or developed a habit, I put a check in its circle. Mind mapping the most important areas of my life illustrated an important mental block that I’ve been harboring. I’ve had trouble achieving my career goals because I felt that doing so would sacrifice the balance in my life. The mind map reveals that writing does not wipe out those areas I value most. It’s simply another outgrowth of who I am.

Amp Up Your Research Skills with Search Tags

Maybe it should be called “freelance researching” because sometimes that's what freelance writing feels like, especially when we are scoping the Internet for our information. A lot of useless sites find their way on page one of our search results. The Internet isn't necessarily powered by info-junkies. Much of what comes up is designed to sell. So, I've been collecting tips and learning how to research like a pro.

Learning how to use search tags is perhaps the easiest tips out there and, at the same time, the most productive. Search tags are basically the keywords in addition to any modifiers - and there are surprisingly quite a few – that make a combination designed to bring up reputable and useful sites. Add any of these modifiers to the end of your keyword to fine tune your search.

Filetype:pdf

This modifier attached to the end of your keyword will only bring up pdf files, those wonderfully detailed gems that are favored communications of university professors. Adjust the modifier for other file types, as well.

-.uk

Okay, maybe you don't have anything against the British, but their sites keep coming up when you are searching a certain legal term. If foreign sites are coming up in your results, yet you cannot use the information for the article you writing, filter international website out. Canadian sites are .ca, and Australian site are .au. Simply prefix the country's suffix with a minus sign.

Site:.edu

Universities, government websites, and nonprofits are wellsprings of information. Bring up their sites with this modifier. Government and nonprofit sites would be filtered in using site:.gov and site:.org, respectively.

Allintitle:

This modifier searches the titles of webpages and documents to only bring those which contain the words included in the modifier. For example, allintitle:mortgage securities would return results whose titles contain both mortgage and securities.

Intitle:

This modifier is similar to allintitle: except that only one word may search within the results. For example, intitle:mortgage.

Allinurl:

Yep, you guessed it. This one searches for multiple words within the url. But, note, that is won't search for punctuation, such as backslashes.

Inurl:

You're getting the hang of this. Search for one word within a url with this modifier.

Effectively researching the Internet for information rather than sales copy is increasingly difficult. The beauty of the Internet is that anyone's voice can be heard on it. Yet, you don't want just anyone's voice to mar your article with misinformation. The above modifiers will help you find what you are looking for more quickly. Writing those DS and Textbroker articles with greater speed is a surefire way to give yourself an instant hourly raise.

The McDonald's Office

Sometimes, the house is an accumulation of voices vying for my time. I just can't ignore the dishes in the sink, the dust on the entertainment center, or the toothpaste splattered in the bathroom sink. We all have days during which the house is in disarray. No matter how hard we work to keep it clean, an unexpectedly busy day sets the stage for a few messes. For me, yesterday was fraught with an unusual number of errands and activities. My eyes paid the price this morning when I scanned the eyesore and felt a pull to clean it up that I would liken to the Death Star's tractor beam.

But, wait, I'm a writer now, and I have committed myself to working five hours a day. No matter what.

The fact is, if I worked an office job, I wouldn't call my boss and tell her I'm going to be a few hours late because I need to get my cleaning done. Being my own boss, I need to practice same respect and discipline.

Freeing my mind of the guilt of leaving my home messy requires some mental acrobatics. Here, a little bit of playful pretending can be helpful. I pretend that my, ahem, “Art,” is a higher calling than grime. I call up as much hubris as my passive demeanor can muster without making my eyeballs blow out from the strain.

For the days when the homemaker in me simply will not stand down, I head to my local McDonald's or library to take advantage of their WI-fi connection. This morning, my caffeine addiction led me to McDonald's. I'm free of the distractions of home while basically glued to my seat because it's just not wise to leave a laptop computer unattended in public.

Leaving home to write is an education in work habits. It can help you learn techniques that can keep you on track even when you come home. Here's what I learned.

• I can, actually, realign my concentration without a ritualistic (and time-wasting) walk to my coffee pot.

• Music is not distracting when I am freed of the control to turn it up, down, or off altogether.

• Mornings, especially, require due diligence and care to prevent wastefulness. They are my warm up time and, traditionally, the time when I get frustrated with my lack of productivity.

• Yet, if I just stay put, the engine will warm up and my perseverance will pay off come afternoon.

I left McDonald's when the lunch crowd was coming in. At home, I was eager to get back to work. I spent a quick ten minutes tidying up the kitchen simply because I don't want to stare at it from my seat at the kitchen table. The rest can be done during designated cleaning times.

I used to think that writing in public was just a pompous display. Well, turns out I was being harshly critical. Taking my laptop to a public place so that I can work is actually helpful. I learn how to tolerate distractions, stay seated, and focus my attention. There is nothing around me while I am working in public that could benefit from my attention. I learn that, as a woman, I don't need perfection around me to focus on my writing. I simply need to set aside my feeling of responsibility for every aspect of my environment.

In Your Face, Supermom

This week, I have made the most that I ever have with Textbroker. I implemented a new strategy that I hope will pay dividends in the projected growth of my write at home business. I just sat down and did it. Yep, that's it. And, although I enjoy writing - yes, even about the Uniform Commercial Code - it isn't always that easy get all Nike about it and just do it.

It makes me a rather poor feminist to admit that my biggest albatross has been self-inflicted mom guilt. You know the kind. The kiddos wrap their precious little arms around you when you tell them you are quitting your job to be at home with them all day long. Then, a few years later, necessity and impending insanity compels you start doing something to make a little money and alleviate the failure complex the laundry has instilled in you.

The Super Mom demigoddess, the image of which we torture ourselves to live up to, tells us that we should be able to entertain limitless interruptions and still make the writing quota that will pay for that pricey summer camp. And if we can't tolerate interruptions, then we should get up at the crack of dawn to churn out words, an ode to our great-grandmothers who not only churned butter, but also fed the chickens and made biscuits all in the time it takes us to perk up with half a pot of coffee.

Well, it wasn't happening for me. I felt frazzled and perplexed. Finally, I realized that my insistence to multitask was only spreading the failure around. Everything was getting done, but poorly and sporadically.

I wish I could say that my determination alone was all I needed to turn things around. Truthfully, we were getting down to the last inning, or the last quarter, or whatever it is they do in golf. Hubby and I are setting goals and my income is essential to their completion. It was either make this work at home thing work or get a real (boring) job. Thanks, a lot, Dave Ramsey.

I've known from the get-go that I don't want to re-enter the office grind. For various reasons, it's a dead end for me, a road guaranteed to be paved with frustration, not to mention the uncomfortable shoes. But, I am also realizing the value of working from home. I may be a big ol' meanie when I tell my kids that they must save their questions for when I am not working. But, if I get to doing this thing right, I'll have income and no boss to ration my presence at school functions. If I get my act together, then I'll have a job and still be here when they get home from school. And we won't have to churn our own butter to make it work. Camp money will be had and I might even submit to shopping for a few school clothes at the mall.

In other words, giving this thing my all and doing it right may make me feel good and that good feeling isn't anything to feel guilty about (you got that, miss hotshot-demigoddes?) I'm also doing a heck of a thing for my family when I focus on our future and not the current crisis that makes it imperative that the kids ask Mom for that sugary treat now, not ten minutes from now, I mean, now.