by Maria Benner
Humans are creatures of habit, but we can use that to our advantage if we develop the right habits. Staying motivated and focused for self-employed people who work from home can be challenging. Scott and I not only live together, but we also work together and work where we live. Scott’s studio is downstairs, and my office is upstairs, so we both have plenty of space, so that’s not an issue. The issue is the temptation to just slack, relax and take a day off whenever we feel like it, like today, during a huge snowstorm. The house is cozy, the snow is beautiful, and we were very tempted to go play in the snow and ditch out on work. I’ll admit that we got a late start to work, because we took time to snow-blow the driveway, and take the snowmachine for a short spin around the snowy neighborhood streets. Then I made French toast for breakfast. After all that we both took a look at our calendar and narrowed our tasks down to just those that absolutely had to be done today, moving everything else to tomorrow, or another day. But what keeps us from doing this regularly? The reality that if we don’t work, we won’t be able to pay bills? Not that, although the thought is always in the back of our minds. The main habit that keeps us from slacking is having a work-day routine. We work Monday to Friday, during regular working hours, and take weekends off, like “normal” people. We keep a calendar of tasks and events that we have to accomplish each day, and if something doesn’t get done on the day it was scheduled to be done, it gets moved to the next day. We know several artists who fall into the bad habit of working late into the night, and sleeping in until late afternoon. Getting any real work done on that type of schedule is just not sustainable. Even worse, and more dangerous is the habit of drinking during the work day, which is a big no-no in our household, even-though Scott is the “beer artist”.
During the work week we stick to a routine that we’ve kept for years. We wake up at a reasonable hour, as if we had to go to work at a 9-5 job. Then we enjoy a cup of coffee while catching up on the news, social media posts, and extending our daily learning streaks on Duolingo, a language-learning app. “Coffee time” can sometimes drag on a bit too long, but the thing that switches my brain from coffee time to “let’s get going with the day” is when I start making the bed. Doing this every day is not only a sign of self-respect, it also triggers the brain to assume responsibility and begin working on daily tasks. Then we both do stretches/yoga and go out for a run. Scott does a 5-mile loop, and I choose one of my three favorite routes of various length. We have to get our workout done first-thing, otherwise we don’t find time for it during the work day, and we don’t like to run in the dark after work. We make smoothies for breakfast, because they are quick to make and pack a lot of nutrition, take showers, get dressed, and start tackling the tasks on the calendar. We take a break for lunch around 1:30pm, then work all afternoon until about 6:00pm.
After work I like to have “Happy Hour” which involves drinking a beer with some salty snacks. Then the evening activities begin such as making dinner, taking a sauna, or going out.
People often wonder how we stay motivated to work for ourselves at home, and in my mind, having this routine and following the calendar is the way we have been doing it for over ten years. This also works for finishing big projects over a long period of time. We just work on it a little bit each day, making the time for it on the calendar, thus fitting it into our work routine.
Real Art Is Better! 