

The Hardest Adjustment To Self Employment - pwim
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/08/25/the-hardest-adjustment-to-self-employment/

======
jasonkester
The hardest thing for me about working at home is convincing everybody around
me (and myself) that I'm "at the office" during the day and am therefore
unavailable to do things you'd normally do if you were sitting around the
house all day.

So, no, I can't take the car down to the DMV to get the emissions tested at
11. I can't run a bunch of little errands because it's not my day off. I need
all 8 of these hours in an unbroken stretch, and if I do it right I won't even
find time to stop for lunch. It's tough to communicate that to your partner,
especially when she comes home at six to find you in your bathrobe playing
Fantastic Contraption (, relaxing after a long productive day, but it probably
doesn't look like it.)

Like most things, a lot of it comes down to self-discipline. I tend to start
the day at 8am with a cup of coffee and a walk up the stairs to the office. As
the author says, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of schedule, so long
as you remember to take advantage of the upside of running your own business.
If the sun is shining at noon, chances are you'll find me out in the hills
with a pair of rock boots and a bouldering mat.

~~~
andrewljohnson
I can do all of those things during the day, because I am self-employed. I do
what I want, when I want, because I'm self-employed. I go hiking mid-week, run
errands when no one else is, etc.

That's like the whole point!

~~~
davidw
> run errands when no one else is

That one can be a fantastic time saver. I like to go food shopping at about 2
in the afternoon - the stores are virtually empty, so it's very quick - so
much better than going on a saturday afternoon with a zillion other people.

~~~
revorad
It's also really funny to get weird looks from the few octogenarians and young
mums in the supermarket at that time.

------
jakevoytko
_"That’s the the thing about schedules: once you have one everyone else needs
to, too, preferably as close to yours as possible."_

Quick schedule hack: run your schedule a half hour earlier than everyone
else's. Show up for lunch at 11:30 instead of 12. Get to the restaurant at
5:30 instead of 6. View an earlier movie. Get to work a little early.

You'll always get preferred seating, preferred parking, and you'll never wait
for a meal again :). You may beat traffic in some locales, but I've yet to
benefit just from a 30 minute shift.

~~~
GFischer
Sounds like a good hack (as long as you like to wake up early)

A bit off-topic, but... you dine at 5:30 or 6 p.m.? Over here (Uruguay) the
earliest people dine is 7:30 p.m., and sometime between 8 and 10 p.m. is the
usual.

You probably won't find many restaurants open for dinner at that time!

I've seen that in other countries, Austria for example, people have dinner
much earlier, but it also gets dark earlier in winter. Sounds healthier as
well. Do you keep coding after dinner?

~~~
jakevoytko
It's hard to pinpoint an average eating time for Americans, but restaurants
start to get crowded around 6:00. If I'm not eating out, my dinner is
typically much later, since I run after work and before dinner.

 _"Do you keep coding after dinner?"_

Yes; I work on personal projects at night. But I take a long dinner break for
cooking, cleanup, watching some TV with my girlfriend, and any other needed
relaxation. I usually "work" for another 2 hours in the PM.

------
tptacek
Speaking of "leveling up" (and EpicWin, from what I can see, is clearly
mankind's greatest invention):

The new AppointmentReminder site is extremely solid.

Can I invest?

 _By the way:_ Get the office.

I'm working from home this week too, because it's the first week of middle
school for the boy and so the first time he takes the bus.

Since the beginning of the year, on a typical week, I actually full-time on
product for Matasano, which _always_ feels less productive than being billable
--- nothing is more "productive-feeling" than being billable. But this week is
different. I'm doing a web pentest for a friend's company, because, well, I
like the company. So I'm actually unusually productive this week.

But because I'm home, it does not feel that way at all. I feel totally
unproductive and lost, despite clear daily evidence to the contrary. It's
because I'm not going to the office to boot up my work day.

------
nhebb
At 2 in the afternoon yesterday, I hopped in my car and drove 2 hours to the
beach. I sat in the sun and gazed out at the ocean while the kids played in
the sand. We took a long walk along the beach, did a little window shopping in
the local town, then went out to dinner. We watched the sun set behind the
perma-cloud spanning the horizon, then drove back home.

The worst thing about being self-employed is that I don't do that sort of
thing more often. I feel much more pressure to constantly work - even if I'm
not being productive. I used to think the hardest thing would be self-
motivation, but really I've found the hardest thing is forcing yourself to
stop working and take a needed break. _(Oh, that and taxes. I hate doing
taxes)_

------
michael_dorfman
_Like most people, I have lived an entire lifetime conforming to schedules.
They exist like the Greek gods: you didn’t ask for them but they are there,
there is no negotiating with them, and prolonged association means you are
likely to get your dignity violated by a bovine._

Once again Patrick nails it, with his usual flair.

~~~
po
I think he may have had one too many cokes from the refreshment cart on that
trip.

------
paraschopra
I have stopped taking the issue of 'working from home' so seriously. In fact,
I find it liberating to have an infinitely flexible schedule. In fact, not
having to commute and not having a strict schedule was one of the primary
motivations of doing a startup. As long as you are making more sales than what
you were originally earning and the sales keep growing, why bother about fixed
schedules? I'd love to see some hard research on productivity effects of fixed
v/s flexible schedules.

~~~
garyrichardson
Agreed. Closing this issue with "Works for me."

------
lionhearted
Yeah, it's great setting your own schedule, but it can be brutal too. No one
yells at you if you're screwing off, you've got to be your own taskmaster and
slavedriver, which isn't always a healthy relationship with yourself.

Me, in order to stay productive, I needed to start tracking my time and having
daily objectives in order to get anything done. I wrote up something about
this if anyone is interested - "The Evolution of My Time/Habit/Life Tracking"
- <http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=127>

------
jonknee
"But you set your own hours" is one of my least favorite things to hear. That
doesn't mean there's less work to do.

~~~
chc
It isn't supposed to. It's merely more flexibility. I agree that more flexible
hours and the ability to get things done with fewer of them would be a fine
thing, but complaining that you only get one is like griping that "Here's a
new car" doesn't mean "Here's a new car _and_ a private jet."

------
xiaoma
Since giving up my previous work as a small business manager/co-owner, I've
struggled greatly with this. I go through periods of great productivity, but
especially while traveling, it's easy to do nothing for days.

I hate schedules, but the structure is valuable.

------
jacquesm
The greatest thing about being self employed is that it gives you lots of
freedom. That's also the worst thing about being self employed.

My personal enemy #1 is distractions. I used to be much better at that but the
last half year has been pretty horrible.

------
Estragon
So, what is your immigration status? I'm pretty sure I couldn't stay in the
US, pursuing the kind of business you have, without obtaining a green card by
some other means first.

~~~
patio11
Engineering status of residence at present, gained with support of old day
job. Japan is fairly understanding about renewals for this: still engineer,
pays taxes, demonstrable means of support = auto renewal on application.

------
staunch
I made the switch after ~10 years of unbroken employment. The biggest feeling
I had is explained in <http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html>

There's absolutely no way I could do this without getting an office though.
Well, an office isn't essential, but somewhere other than my home office is.
There's just no way I can get myself into the right mindset to work at home on
a consistent basis.

~~~
robryan
At least some of the week I find needs to be spent working from somewhere
other than a home office, or bedroom in my case at the moment. I find to if
you can go somewhere where people are working hard around you it is a
motivator to stay on track.

