Working Discipline

I work out of a home office, as many of you do. For many people, this makes for a more relaxed and unstructured attitude about work–unfortunately, this can be dangerous for your business. Although creative people generally say they don’t like structure and discipline, the reality is that they do in some areas and, more importantly, that structure and discipline can actually improve their creativity. Getting sloppy about work can hurt more than you might expect. Adding some structure can actually liberate your creativity, if for no other reason than you won’t have to think so much about doing the non-creative stuff.

I’m not saying you need to get up and put on a suit and be a jerk. I don’t do any of that and I’m now a lawyer too, remember (where “jerk” is often included in the job description!). I am saying that there are certain things that are good to “ritualize” about your work and that by doing so, you’ll free up your creative mind to be more creative.

So, here’s my list of “rules” for working for yourself, especially if you work out of your home:

1. Have a specific space that is your office. This is best when it is its own room, with a door, but at the very least have a desk and chair (and shelves, etc.) in one place and use that space for your office work. I have a separate room–it’s actually the larger room of my 2 bedroom home because I only need to sleep in my bedroom but spend so much conscious time in my office that it is best for it to be a good, comfortable space.
2. Set working hours and stick to them. Okay, you are going to have to work late/early some days, but it’s a lot rarer than you think, especially on non-shoot days. Generally, set your working time and try not to work more than that. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll get done when you know you have to be done by (say) 5:30pm and how the world won’t end if you don’t get everything done and leave it for the next day.
3. Every day you work from home (that is, you’re not out shooting), go to work like you are going to a “real” job. It is a real job and you should respect that. No working in your jammies. Get up, get dressed, and go to work, on time. And go home (that is stop working) on time too.
4. If you have others in your home (kids, partner), ban them from your office during business hours. No, I’m not kidding. You can take breaks and go grab a cuppa with your love or play with the kids (briefly–like a coffee break), but they must respect that you are working a real job during your business hours and need to be distraction-free.
   4(a). Animals are generally good to have in the office, though, according to studies.
5. Do not work during your non-business time. If you set your business hours to be 9am – 6pm, then don’t check your phone, return calls, work on your biz blog, whatever before or after that. When you are not “on the clock” you can improve your work brain by not working (this is particularly true for your creative brain). Also, your love/kids deserve your full attention when you are with them–be present. Besides, you deserve (and physically need) the break of not working when you are off the clock.
6. When you are at work, work. Pick a task and do it, then pick another task and do it, etc. I find I’m most productive if I make a list of tasks at the end of the day that I need to take care of the next day–I do this on an index card, by hand. In the morning, I look at that list and add items (occasionally delete one or two) to work on that day. As I do each task, I cross it off. At the end of the day, I have the satisfaction of a bunch of crossed-off items. Anything I didn’t get done goes on the next day’s card and this day’s goes in the recycling as I head out of the office.
7. Ritualize certain tasks that are part of your office work. For example, make Monday morning your bookkeeping time and do all your financial stuff during that time, every week. As always, if you get a booking for that day, move the bookkeeping to the next day, but generally do it at the same time every week. This goes for things like making “cold” calls, too–same bat-time, same bat-day, every week.
8. Ritualize something creative-related too. For example, make Thursday afternoons “brainstorm for self-assignments” time. I like what this entrepreneur does–you could do something similar.
9. If you use your laptop (iPad, whatever) “after hours” for Facebooking or the like, take it out of your office for that. 
   8(a). Blogging for your biz blog is part of your job. Tweeting, Facebooking, etc., might be, depending on how you are using the tool. For example, my FB biz page is work, my personal FB is just me, although I will admit that my general @LeslieBAP twitter is a mélange (@BurnsTheLawyer is definitely work-only, though). There is some grey in the social media world, but you can tell what is work when you think about it–do that during your work time.
10. Let go. You always have work to do. Always. There is always research on new clients or bills to pay or filing to do or something. You will never have it all done. So, stop working at the end of your work day and leave the work until your next work day–the world will not end and you will not magically go out of business overnight.

The more you ritualize your work, the non-creative part of your work, I mean, the more you free your creative mind to work at its peak creative efficiency. You owe yourself that.