“Is it really Friday?”: Fighting to Stay Focused Without a Schedule
“The days all start to blend together. I found myself wondering what day it was all the time. I was losing some of my sharpness. I took over the job of taking my son to school, and it gave me something to anchor to.” My former colleague confirmed that he had been suffering from the same malady as I, in my call with him yesterday.
The madness and unpredictability of the holiday season has thrown me off my schedule, and while it was acceptable at the time it was supposed to be temporary. Getting a cold on Christmas kept me down for more than a week, and mostly indoors. I haven’t had any client meetings, training deliveries or photoshoots in a few weeks. Visits from my daughters had been interrupted. Sickness has kept me from the gym. I’ve been staying up later. All recipes for drifting off-course.
Today is Friday. On Wednesday, I actually felt disoriented first thing in the morning. I wasn’t sure what day of the week it was, though strangely I knew the date. I felt sluggish, and actually a little dizzy for a moment. I’m still getting over a cold, and I had just woken up. But this felt somehow different. I suddenly realized that I was drifting. That moment of clarity pushed me to action.
After getting some important communication done in the morning I packed my laptop, loaded with the course I’m writing for my demo and headed over to the coffee shop at Borders. It was a nice day for a New England winter, and the drive was pleasant. The café inside was about half-full of a diverse community. Some were solo, like me, and were working on laptops. Others were reading. Some were listening to music. All were drinking coffee. I got a coffee and sat down. For the next two hours, I worked studiously and very creatively on my presentation. Before I left, I looked for a book that had been recommended to me by a LinkedIn colleague. They didn’t have it in the store, but the helpful young woman at the desk pointed me to another book that turned out to be extremely valuable for different reasons. (More on that in a future post.)
I liked the experience so much that I went back again yesterday. The place was crowded and noisy. The young woman sitting next to me was on the phone with a female friend. She was on a laptop, and using the free wireless. They were talking about a man they both knew. They were talking about what this guy, and also the two of them were posting on FaceBook and tweeting on Twitter. “Did you see what he just wrote?” More chat. “Look what I wrote back.” Chat. “Wait until he sees this!” Hmm. Realtime phone chat about realtime web chat…for about 45 minutes. I was distracted. This trip wasn’t as productive, and I left a little disappointed, but I felt as if I’d returned to the world of the living, and that was enough value all by itself.
TIWIKE: It’s easy to drift off course when you’re not tied to a schedule. In a conversation earlier this week, a veteran soloist friend of mine joked that her husband used to ask her, “what did you do all day?” She couldn’t explain the situation to him. Then he was out of work and off of a schedule for a few months. Suddenly it was clear. The day feels full of activity, and suddenly you look at the clock and the day is done. You may wonder what the heck filled all of those hours. It’s a challenge.
When working in an organization, you get tied to their schedule. There are office hours, meetings and deadlines to keep you in line. You might get tired of that structure over time. There is a benefit to it, though, especially if you tend to get easily distracted or you’re not naturally disciplined. Nobody is calling cadence for you when you’re solo. Rather than being part of the pack, you’re more of a scout. There is nobody looking over your shoulder, and possibly nobody to answer to.
Over my five layoffs, the lag time between ending employment and getting really engaged in a revenue search has decreased from six months to six hours. I’ve learned that as soon as I realize that I may be drifting off-course a little, I need to make a course correction immediately, not “next week.” I’ve eliminated the lag time. As a revenue seeker, you won’t have the luxury of lag time. There is already enough of that built into the situation, as you’re waiting for clients, HR reps, hiring managers and others to get back to you. They don’t share your sense of urgency. You are responsible for maintaining your own sense of urgency and order so you don’t add to the lag time.
If you find yourself dragging, lagging or drifting, find a way to regain your footing. Set a schedule using activities that you can use to punctuate your day. Use your alarm clock. Eat meals at generally the same times. Use the calendar on your computer to block time for predictable activities in addition to the conference calls and appointments that will occur as part of your solo work or job search. Get out of the home office for a change of scenery, a sense of belonging to the world and maybe a jolt to your creativity. It’s up to you to stay on track.
Reader Question (new): When you’re solo, how do you keep yourself focused?
Resources:
Char has a great list of tips here for staying on track.
http://casualkeystrokes.com/8-work-at-home-time-management-strategies/
Wondering where there is a cyber café near you? What if you’re trekking?
http://www.cybercafes.com/
Here is a link to the store locator on the Border’s site. I love books, coffee and free WiFi
http://www.borders.com/online/store/LocatorView
Quote of the Day:“Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future.“
Swami Vivekananda
It took me about 6 months to adapt to working out of my house and creating my own schedule. I’d love to see research on this since so many people are doing it these days either due to unemployment or transitioning to self employment. There’s definitely a learning curve associated with trying to keep all the days from running together. For me it’s about keeping my goals in front of my nose and setting up my own reward structure. I also schedule lunch or coffee with other solo workers a few times a week to make sure I get out of the house once in a while. It helps to have a dog to make you at least get out and walk too
Thanks for writing Katy. I’ll look for some research. I agree that there are more of us each year. And you reminded me to meet colleagues for lunch, so I met with two of them today.
One way of keeping a schedule to maintain focus is to do volunteer work. It gives structure to an otherwise unstructured week, gets you out of the house and meet other people, while contributing to a greater good through volunteering.
Thanks for your comment, Andy. What a great idea! As a former American Red Cross relief worker, I completely agree with you about the contribution. As a soloist, I like the idea of volunteering to add structure as well.