Goals

 

We all have goals that we want to achieve and there are things that it’s easy to do and other things it can be a bit of a challenge. I know that I have a couple of goals that I need to work on getting better at.

One goal that I need to set is to spend at least two hours each day writing or sketching. If I can do this for even the next couple of weeks, I should start to feel better about things. 

My biggest obstacle about achieving goals is myself because I always find other things that need my attention or even distractions that keep me from achieving my goals. Yes, I am my worst enemy when it comes to setting and achieving goals. I am great at setting goals for myself, but it’s the actual achieving them is where I get in the way. One thing I do is not set aside time for myself and stick with it. Too often, I set aside the "me time" only to find an excuse as to why I shouldn’t take that time.

The "me time" is a way for me to recharge my own batteries and even regain some focus. Too often, I just plow ahead and do all the other things that need my attention, forgetting that taking some me time will make the other things go faster and be less stressful. Simple tasks sometimes seem so difficult, and that is probably because I have lost my focus.

If I want to be able to write more often and clearer, I need to write more. This sounds funny in a way, but practice makes perfect. My drawing isn’t something I am doing to make money, but I think my drawing is going to help me write better and be more creative in general.

Yes, I have these goals that I want to start working on because being able to see things moved forward and more of my own goals achieved would be great. So maybe what I need to do is make sure that my sketchbook is always handy with a couple of pencils so that when I have those few minutes even not the two hours, I can work on something, and then I will see how it goes.

Do What Makes You Happy

 

I think over the last couple of years, a lot of people have figured out things that they like doing and things that they just don’t like to do. It has meant that people have been changing jobs because they have now found a passion that they can earn money at. Yes, the time that a lot of us spent at home meant that people figured out things that they could do and wanted to do to give them joy.        

This is one thing I have learned in the last couple of years, and it is to do what makes me happy.  For so long I made sure everyone else was happy but didn’t make sure I was. I didn’t do that all the time, but I did make sure that I put other people’s feelings first. I am not saying to not think of others, but remember you need to be happy as well. We all have things that we enjoy doing and then things that we don’t, and we need to sit back and look at those things and make decisions. Sometimes the decisions are easy ones to make, and others might not be.

Doing things that make you happy can mean that you put a bit more effort into them and enjoy it a bit more.  For so long, I didn’t put my feelings into a lot of decisions, but ensured what was done made others happy first.  I still do things that make others happy, but now I consider my feelings as well.

Some of my decisions may not make some people happy, but I need to live with my choices and decisions.  Learning to accept that not everyone is going to be happy with me now doesn’t matter as much as it did before.  I have also realized that some people wouldn’t be happy no matter what I did. This is something that took a bit of time to realize, but once I did, I knew that making sure things that I was doing meant something to me helped a lot.

Ensuring that I do what makes me happy means I am happier in myself.  Remember it’s important to be happy yourself, and then it’s easier to help make others happy. What I have learned is very simple, you must make the person that you see in the mirror happy before you can make others around you happy. Your smile and laughter can make a big difference to those around you.

 

Working from a home office

Pros and cons of working from a home office.

Travel time – extremely low 

Is the office in the main part of your home or separate? Having a separate area is great because you can walk away from the area. There is basically no commute time to work which means that you don’t have traffic issue or such, but it is important to still prepare yourself as if you are going into some sort of office. Some people just spend their time in their office as if they are at home and run around in pyjamas and for men unshaven for days. This can result in lower productivity because of the relaxed feeling the person is achieving.

Chance of getting distracted – high

Some people don’t consider working from home working. Some friends or family don’t understand that even if you are at home during work hours, you are working. People figure your time is your time, and you can schedule anything during the day because you aren’t “working” because you don’t have an office to go to. Mondays in the IT world is a day when most don’t schedule meetings because it’s the day that issues can come up most often, basically issues that have not been seen over the weekend. In our business, we don’t normally schedule client work for Monday’s unless it is to support weekend work.

Interaction with others – low

There are no areas where co-workers meet and talk things over. The interaction with others can be extremely low and, in some cases, it can be hard to deal with because there are times when interaction is important. Depending on your job, sometimes having someone to bounce ideas off can be useful.

Distractions/interruptions can be limited

Without other workers around, there is less of a chance of distractions. The unnecessary chit-chat that happens in an office environment doesn’t happen with a home office because there are fewer, if any, co-workers.

Home and work life intermix

Without having a separate office, both work and home can interfere with each other. It is very important that sometimes you can walk away from the office part of life and enjoy the person time and vice versa. It is amazing how many times I have gone onto the computer to do some personal stuff and think of a work thing that will only take fives minutes. That five-minute job ends up being a lot more than that because I figure while I’m doing that one thing I might as well do this other thing and so on, and so on until hours have passed.

Flexibility

Having the opportunity to work when you need to but also being able to be flexible can come in handy. Not all work can be accomplished based on a structured work day, so having the ability to work when there is work and for any given length of time does help. Some days the hours are going to be longer than a normal way day, but then other days will be shorter. Another advantage is you can work when you are able and in most cases there is no one watching what time you show up, take lunch or leave.

Summary

There are both pros and cons of having a home office, and you can figure out if it works for you. I know that during Covid, a lot of people were working from a home office and some have found that they love it and others were happy to return to the office.