When Boredom Attacks!
May 10th 2010 16:15
I know my readers range in age from 18-65 but if you work at home, boredom is going to be something you have to deal with very frequently. It's difficult to approach something like article writing as a normal job because we have a TV across the room, might still be in our pajamas, and there is a kitchen very close that's just begging to be used.
I'm sure you're just as sick of hearing about "scheduling" as I am so I won't get into that this time (though it IS important).
Let's take a typical writer, age 33 (me), who makes all their income working at home. I know I'm a little luckier than some and high paying, low work items fall into my lap pretty frequently. Right now, I still get $500/month checking a few e-mails for a client and taking care of them but the bulk of my money has been coming from Demand Studios and one private client who only wants video game reviews in a very irritating format (but pays very well).
I wake up in the morning, get 2/4 kids off to school (if they haven't left yet) then begin my plans for work. My usual goal is $60/day. That's not bad and is only 4 DS articles. I can do that right? I also do a couple articles per day for others so that's a total of 6.
This is where many of us will hit the first problem. DS topics are sketchy at best and if you don't find anything you like, you'll be bored as hell after the first article if you even start immediately. You've just spent more than your typical writing time because you've just become the local authority on "how to attach a filter to a garden sprinkler" for god knows what reason. That's a terrible topic (I did it) and the entire time you can't help thinking, "why on Earth would anyone do such a thing? Do your hedges really care if they are drinking pure spring water??" Apparently they do.
This 1.5 hours of digging around the Internet because there isn't a lot of info and I don't want to "wing it", can be quite draining right? Now It's only 9AM, I'm wondering if I should watch some Who's The Boss reruns instead of sitting here getting leg cramps and preparing for "Helmet Laws in Nebraska" which seems pretty straightforward.
Not to get off topic but if you are a Demand Studios writer, you are probably giggling thinking of the ridiculous topics you've seen and/or claimed.
This is the KEY time when boredom first hits many of us. We have done 1/6th of our daily goal and BAM! Something happens. Now, the boredom has taken hold and it's very hard to motivate ourselves to continue. We might be able to push through the pain but then our work suffers and having a bunch of rewrites because the work sucks even worse.
This is when lots of you (I know) jump on Facebook and start tending your little farm or start watching goofy videos. I suffer from this myself.
What's the solution??
Limit that Facebook time to 15 minutes and get your lazy butt back to work. I don't like it either but it has to be done. This goes double for gamers like me. I play games that can easily suck 4 hours from your day before you realize it.
NEXT POST TOMORROW!! HOW TO DEAL WITH IT, GET IN A GOOD MOOD, AND GET THAT WORK DONE!!
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