I used a time tracker (Yast, but there are many) to keep myself honest and find a schedule that worked for me. If you prefer a 9-5, set alarms and schedule morning activities. But if you work better at a 16 hour stretch with the next day as a break, that is okay! Be patient with yourself and thankful you have such flexibility. Communicate regularly with coworkers and clients; this may help you find a more regular schedule. Remind yourself every day who is depending on you. The most important person depending on you is yourself, so make your own health and happiness a priority.
Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
101–110 of 126 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#102Been working from home from the end of 1999 on and off up until the middle of 2012. 1) This http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg1567fzTY (almost posted anonymously). Deal with it :) 2) If you have a family or a partner. Just because you are at home does not mean "can you just put on a wash". Build rules into engaging with the family. You are working. You are not to be disturbed. If you choose to 'come out' of your offi…
Having a work room that you can lock isn't just good productivity advice, but also good financial advice. You can deduct it as a business expense.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#103Great tips already! I have been working from home for the past year or so. In between got into the habit of spending time on HN, reddit, techmeme and was kind of addicted to random browsing. Went on like this for 3 months. The lack of any real output hit me after that and ended up taking the following steps. Not perfect but have helped me come a long way.
What works for me:
1) Create a separate work profile on my mac.
2) Block sites you think are not helping you in your work but eating into your time.
3) Write down just one big action item for the day (has to be done today)
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#104Been working from home from the end of 1999 on and off up until the middle of 2012. 1) This http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg1567fzTY (almost posted anonymously). Deal with it :) 2) If you have a family or a partner. Just because you are at home does not mean "can you just put on a wash". Build rules into engaging with the family. You are working. You are not to be disturbed. If you choose to 'come out' of your offi…
"This video is not available." :(
To awjr: Your comment is dead, probably beacuse it uses an auto-banned word.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#105I actually don't believe in a rigid system office like. In fact you are self employed because you don't want to be part of a process machine called the office. You figure out what is right for you. If you feel you are reading a lot of web, then go back do some work. If you feel you have cracked a problem after lot of hours of work, go and chill out doing some thing else. If you feel you are doing a hybrid of browsing the web which is not work related and coding then turn off the internet.
I do a mix of all of these. I feel it is ok to be a bit fluidic but only with the end goal what you are working on in the mind. I mean mostly to creative work - something that you are creating on your own from home rather than a customer paid work which I feel the first comment is good enough to follow.
If you are creative, be relaxed and keep thinking on the space you work on, keep diverting your attention from any disturbance and keep going at it...that's the formula
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have a separate work space dedicated solely towards working. You don't play there, you don't eat there, you work there. It's important to have boundaries when working from home.
The benefit of this, in addition to the obvious (you don't have to put on pants to "go to work") is that any space in your home used solely for business purposes is tax deductible under the US tax scheme. My company pays 100% of my personal apartment rent, and I receive an additional W2 for the percentage of non-office space as personally taxable income. This means that 100% of the money paid is a corporate tax deduc…
Home office deductions are heavily scrutinized by the IRS, precisely because it's so tempting for people to fudge the lines. You need to have really good documentation. As of this tax year, there's now a "simplified option" that requires less calculation on your part. See http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employ....
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great advice, all of it! If you have a family or a partner. Just because you are at home does not mean "can you just put on a wash". Build rules into engaging with the family. You are working. You are not to be disturbed. If you choose to 'come out' of your office and engage with the family then that is your choice. Emergencies are acceptable interruptions ;) This was one of the toughest parts for me. It was really,…
If these are the core issues for you try working at a coffee shop or university library. Usually these tend to be interruption free zones. You might also try out one of the shared office spaces in your area They most likely understand your "transition" situation very well and can give you a desk for a day just to try it out.
> or university library. Usually these tend to be interruption free zones.
My university's library was quite loud, and had a university-owned Taco Bell inside of it, complete with cashiers yelling out names of people to pick up their orders.
Top-100 ranked by US News...
Re: Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?
#108Been working from home from the end of 1999 on and off up until the middle of 2012. 1) This http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg1567fzTY (almost posted anonymously). Deal with it :) 2) If you have a family or a partner. Just because you are at home does not mean "can you just put on a wash". Build rules into engaging with the family. You are working. You are not to be disturbed. If you choose to 'come out' of your offi…
Used to use FlowDock and HipChat before that.
Asana is pretty awesome for most uses. For software dev, sometimes go with JIRA on-prem because of its customizability with plugins.
I try to trial a decent app before running with it for a while and not jump ship too often.