About two and a half weeks ago, I made a casual comment in the ClickTrackProfit Telegram group chat that my schedule for the next two weeks was clear, so I was going to spend more time on Steem related tasks. I went to bed in the wee hours that night excited. I woke up a few hours later to find that the universe had other plans.
One of the greatest joys of having a hobby business run from home is that you can dedicate spare time and effort into making some extra money. Of course, since you are at home a lot of the time, your family and friends love dropping by to chat. They see this "service" as part of their familial or friendshiply duty.
“Oh look, there’s Ian, playing on his PC, let’s just pop in and say hi, he must be so bored!”, you can just imagine them saying to themselves! Three hours later, and totally distracted from whatever you were so engrossed in doing, you find yourself at the stove-top cooking them some food.
“Yep, this lot’ll be here for a-whiles yet. Darn, got more visitors later, just as well I’m not busy”, musing to oneself!
Our social hive instinct means that we spend a lot of the valuable time we'd dedicated to our online activities engaging with real life persons. That in turn leads to invitations to attend a variety of events, where we can make more friends; our cycle of distractions seemingly grows every day.
So what can we do to keep our offline family and friends close to us, and continue with our online passion?
Well, what I do is simply to accept that the best laid plans will not cover every situation. I spent almost five years employed as a legal clerk in the New Zealand Public Service, working as part of a team that included the legal secretary and six solicitors. A common law principle we came across almost daily was force majeure.
You’ll see that principle headlined in insurance policies and commercial contracts. Force majeure is an important clause as that relieves or suspends a party from an obligation often owing to a chance event or unavoidable incident. As laypersons, we just say “Act of God”, accepting that sometimes we luck out.
So, adopting the principle of force majeure, these days I just go with the flow. Yes, you may be exceedingly desperate to post an article on the Steem platform, or gamify your earnings, or PTC your time away, and a multitude of other ways to monetize your time and effort. For me, I enjoy the company of people, those known and unknown.
I love travelling, especially to new places, making new friends, experiencing different lifestyles, having a good - perhaps not-so-good on occasion! - time, and living life my way.
Perhaps that’s just a Kiwi aspect on life. Here in New Zealand, we have access to a myriad of external adventures. The sea is always close, no more than about 200 miles away at our farthest location, lots of rivers and lakes, mountains galore, beautiful beaches, rugged forests, bridges to bungy, and so much more.
I suppose the way we react to distractions and other unforeseen events helps define our character, making us more determined than ever to succeed in all our endeavours.
Here’s a simple truth: no matter how bad your own life seems to be, there’s always someone in a worse way than you.
Distractions are a normal function of our life. If we switch off distractions and other annoying intrusions, we switch off our very lives! Best to just accept that no matter how hard you try, or how close the finish line seems to be...what will be, will be.
Que sera sera...
Ian Ballantine
Wellington, New Zealand
November 11, 2019.
Playlist:
You don't have to accept the status quo: a boring dark green box. Painted electricity sub-station outside our apartment, October 30, 2019.
I will say just one thing... You are not alone with that problem... I'm working from home last 7-8 years, in a small apartment, just with wife and one child it can be complicated to focus and work... But, I have to adapt... work early in the morning and late at night... and whenever I catch an empty home... :)
Thanks for sharing your story with us!
Thanks for sharing, Zoltan. As long as we make no excuses, and just accept distractions and intrusions and such like are normal events; otherwise, frustration leads to anger. Perhaps that's why so many people quit affiliate marketing, and end up gaming. Much easier to save a game to return to later on, than trying to pick up where you left off in your online business.
Yeah distractions is everywhere Ian, it takes discipline and planning to get things done, stay awesome.
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Thanks Erik, I agree discipline and planning is really important; however, distractions are often caused by outside influences such as our loved ones demanding attention, their health and welfare, and so on. How we handle these interferences will determine how productive we will be and still have a social life. Comes down to life / work balance, and that differs for everyone.
Agreed on that.
I think a lot of us online can relate to this Ian. People that don't work online think we are just amusing ourselves; that it's nothing serious. They just don't understand and no amount of explaining seems to help....lol. So yes, I too tend to go with the flow when there's a knock at my door. You're in good company.
Hi Caroline, thanks for your comments. Yes, we all need to make offline time available to our loved ones and other distractors.
If you have something really important to be done, then perhaps schedule time for that task when you have historically fewer distractions. The best time is often first thing in the morning, preferably before anyone else gets up if you have live-ins. That's why CTP has "get up 30 minutes earlier" as one of the random 3 steps to success.
Yeah distractions and distracting people can really kill our productivity if we let them @ianballantine, and no plan has ever stood up to reality, keep up your great work and stay awesome.
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Thanks Erik, your @thisisawesome is, by it's very name, inspirational. Pondering about lost opportunity through events often beyond our control may cause feelings of inadequacy and those bad feelings could lead to depression. Maybe we all need to follow @flaxz lead and take our office outdoors! Sun and nature, what a wonderful combination!
Thanks @ianballantine, yeah it's more a combination of outdoors and indoors, but it's nice to be out, stay awesome.
@ianballantine. Great post. Meant specifically for me, especially when others call and ask, "are you busy. can't be. you're retired." Then they start talking even when I say, "Yes".
I just let the go ahead and talk, then spend the better half of an hour trying to type on the sly and listen at the same time. Then give up completely when they say "are you there?" or "what do you think?" or after more than 1 1/2 hours and you can't remember what their problem was.
Sometimes I've just had to close up shop and step away from online.
You and me both Chris, that's how we handle these distractors and still stay on track to hit target. Be careful though, much harder to build trust when you get older so do your best to retain friendships! Maybe we need to simply say this: "if you love me, then please let me finish this bit off and then we can talk"?
I tend to be online most in the evening hours, when we get less distractions, even though the most creative time for me is in the morning.
That's a great way to approach it. Will try that. thanks.
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... especially with STEEM I love how they can be involved. And I don't meen blogging as the only option.