Comments on: The Lure of Mother Nature – Staying Focused When You Work From Home

By: Writing Roundup, May 22 « Jen’s Writing Journey

Writing Roundup, May 22 « Jen’s Writing Journey — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:13:42 +0000

[...] The Lure of Mother Nature A lot of us dream of the day we can quit our day job and write for a living. We imagine how gorgeous it will be to work from home, spending time with our families and taking daily visits from the muse. But, working from home can be hard to accomplish. Freelancer Jennifer Mattern talks about distractions and how she deals with them. [...]

By: Jennifer L

Jennifer L — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:54:04 +0000

Oh, the lure of a beautiful spring day! I tend to do one of two things. I either 1) work hard early in the day (like steph, above) so I can enjoy the rest of the day, or 2) I take breaks to head outside and get a little fresh air so I can come in and feel less deprived. I know that some people like Hazel take their laptops outside to work and have success, but I just can’t seem to get anything done like that.

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:45:21 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. Spring for me means flowers outside, sparrows building nests in my roof – lots of distractions. Since I have two dogs, I get my outdoors fix by walking them several times during the day. That gives me a long enough break and dose of the outdoors to then be able to focus for another hour or two.

By: Hazel

Hazel — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:09:23 +0000

I had one of those days yesterday – I just couldn’t stay focused, even with the shade down. Finally, about 3:30 p.m., I took my laptop outside. Then I got in two solid hours of good work. It might be counter-intuitive, but it worked. I might even try it again today!

By: Wendy Sullivan

Wendy Sullivan — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:38:05 +0000

Ugh, this has been plaguing me for about a week. I think Mother Nature and I have reached some sort of agreement, though. At about 2pm I will head outside to fetch the mail. This is a work obligation, and well within my rights to to do it. Right? I will sit on the front steps while I go through the mail, separating the bills from the checks from the rubbish. This gives me a few minutes of much-needed Vitamin D from the lovely warm sun, while still getting something accomplished.

Then it’s back to my dreary basement desk!

By: Clint

Clint — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:34:22 +0000

I’m still struggling with the schedule somewhat. I think I should start getting up earlier so that I can be done sooner in the day because I’m eating into my real creative time on projects that don’t demand as much of my creativity. It doesn’t help that my favorite spot in the house faces the sliding glass doors, and I’ve been taunted for the past month with day after day of beautiful blue skies. I might take a Friday off and just run around in it.

By: Denise

Denise — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:52:31 +0000

Like you, I’m more of a Fall person too… but it’s such a beautiful day today, and my dog is giving me those eyes that say “I want to go run around in the grass ALL DAY mom!”

So yeah… that makes it a little hard to focus!

Thankfully, I’ve been up since 6 am so my workload will be done about two hours earlier than it normally is. I’ll have the afternoon to enjoy the day, which is what I try to do daily. If I get all of my work done during the morning, I’ll have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever I’d like. :D

By: stephanerd

stephanerd — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:41:13 +0000

Hey there Jennifer – Like you, I make sure to work diligently through the morning, so that my afternoon can be more relaxed. I mean, there’s still work to be done, but it’s not nearly as pressing.

Besides, I feel that it’s important to schedule in a least one fresh air break anyways. When you know it’s coming, staying in the rest of the time to get your work done doesn’t seem so bad.