Tag Archives: productivity

Tips for Getting Work Done When you are Tired

Just like their peers who work outside of the home, home based professionals sometimes feel tired during the times that they are supposed to work. If you are feeling tired, rest assured (no pun intended) that you can in fact get some good quality work done if you just take your time. When you aren’t tired, it may be easy to zip through your work efficiently and effectively without making many mistakes. When you’re tired, mistakes can pile up quickly if you try to rush things. Working at a slow and steady pace is just one way that you can … Continue reading →

One Thing at a Time

One of the reasons that I love working from home is that I am able to choose when I work, and under what circumstances. I choose to work at night, after my boys go to bed. The house is quiet, and I have time to think and to concentrate on my work. You see, I only like working when I can focus on my work and nothing but my work. I am not a multitasker. Many people sing the praises of multitasking, shouting loudly from the rooftops (okay, maybe just on Facebook) about how productive they are being while doing … Continue reading →

My Own Schedule

There is a terrifying thing happening recently concerning my schedule: I’m in charge of it. While this has to some extent been a dream for a long time it comes with its own magnificent set of problems. The biggest problem is keeping whatever schedule I set for myself. In some ways this has always been a problem (even before I was taking care of my son during the day) but in other ways having a great deal of time on my hands with so many things to do I get a little bit lost in the middle of it all. … Continue reading →

Abandon All Distractions!

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I’ve got a problem. I’ve got a big problem. I’ve got lots of reading to do and lots of writing to do and it has to happen now. I’m feeling super-stressed and minus-time. I need an extra day a week and then some. I need a (completely safe and non-addicting) way to work twenty-four hours every day and I need it fast. Alas, this will not do. I cannot sleep less and expect to stay awake while reading. I cannot create an extra day or even a few more hours. What can I do? I’m quite seriously looking for suggestions … Continue reading →

The Paper Jungle 1

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Allow me to tell you about the paper jungle. It is a dangerous place. It exists in the immediate area of my office and I can’t possibly tell you how any of it really got there. I do know one thing though: it is messy. I’ve had to take out my big knife and cut some of it down to size though because I need to identify certain items of re-reading during my summer of words. I’d like to remind you of two things going forward: systems and technology. I’ve written about the importance of syllabi in the past and … Continue reading →

Two Books Down

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This may be a recurring theme this summer: reading. I’m currently in the middle of reading my third book (a bit behind schedule) and I’m looking forward to catching up. I actually am looking forward to it. If you’ve been reading this blog (or my fatherhood blog) for very long you’ve probably encountered a good deal of talk about technology. I use computers a lot, I value the internet, and I’m quite interested in any new technology because despite the problems (and there are often many) new technologies are the future way of doing things… and I want to be … Continue reading →

The Calendar Work

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I recently obtained a dry erase calendar and I’ve re-found the joy of planning things out in a non-digital fashion. While the digital is ideal for a number of things it doesn’t seem that the digital captures doodling very well (at least on non-touch screen) and I need to doodle to plan things out. I had forgotten that fact. While digital alarms, loud pop-up reminders, and a nice everywhere-you-need-it calendar are certainly good things I really need to plot things out in analogue once in a while. This free piece of plastic has really changed the way I think about … Continue reading →

End of Semester Woes

We are nearing the end of the semester and as a student I feel your pain, fellow students. I’m drowning in books, research papers loom overhead like dark clouds, and final exams threaten on the horizon. This is the time when all students decide to either do the difficult and large amount of remaining work or give up. (I’m going to do the work and I hope you will too). But despite the difficulties of this time for the students there is an equally (yet bizarre) mood for instructors. In the interest of honesty I’d like to explain the other … Continue reading →

The Magic of “No” Part IV: Honesty

If you haven’t caught up with Parts one, two, and/or three you should do that now. Today is the conclusion to our little story. Onto the telling… The WOMAN woke up that morning and peered into the room housing her cans. She saw the gleaming little eyes of the rats who had taken up permanent residence in her waterlogged little room. She clutched her robe closer to her body; now there was a draft. She thought about going to get one of those cans. She thought about defending herself from the rats with a pushbroom. She thought about carefully avoiding … Continue reading →

The Magic of “No” Part III: The Woman Who Couldn’t

If you missed the beginning of this story you should visit this link to catch yourself up. Today we’ll be looking at the Woman’s perspective in a little story called “The Woman Who Couldn’t.” The WOMAN kept calling the VOLUNTEER but she couldn’t ever actually get the VOLUNTEER into her house to help her move the cans out of the leaky room. While the VOLUNTEER would keep making promises he never kept them. He always had good reasons though… and she could understand. But time went on… and on… and on. Every day the VOLUNTEER had “something come up” and … Continue reading →