I sit in front of my computer all day – literally. Sometimes I'm researching, sometimes I'm drawing, sometimes I'm building websites and sometimes I have no idea what I'm doing. My kids think I'm playing all day and don't understand why I won't let them veg out in front of the other computer for hours on end. Some of my friends assume my schedule is wide open and I can easily drop what I'm doing to go play – I suppose I could, if I didn't mind the end result of a day under-worked.
I don't mind the hours although I am trying really hard to contain myself and do more than work all the time. I used to work an average of 16-18 hours a day, now I think I'm down to more around 10-12.
I love what I do!
Kirsty McCubbin, a long time Affiliate Marketer currently based in Australia describes the misconceptions of working as an affiliate perfectly in her article 8 Reasons Why Your “Hard Work” Isn’t Paying Off in Affiliate Marketing. I've never met Kirsty but I already like her.
To me the article applies affiliate related or not. It's all about working online and from home. There seems to be a wide spread misconception that because we work from home for ourselves we can do whatever we want and money will flow in. Those of us putting in the hours and the effort know what it takes and it sure ain't easy. If it were that easy to start or maintain, heck! I would be making 8 figures by now, at least… oh how I wish.
Sometimes I wonder why I work so much. I can easily be here for 12 hours and not notice the time. Really what it comes down to, I do so many different things, and I love most all of them so much, I don't want to stop. I really do enjoy what I do. I love the challenge and knowing I have the ability to find a solution – and sometimes a really good solution.Even more satisfying are the days I create something that I can share with others – makes me happy to know I've encouraged someone else to do something.
There are days where I look back at the end of the day and wonder what the heck I did all day. Nothing to show for my efforts except maybe a cramp in my leg because I didn't move my butt from the chair for 5 hours straight. These days I am not able to show any numbers or stats directly related to anything in particular. Yet if I really logged what I did, I probably learned something significant that I am using down the road. I just can't pinpoint the exact progress of the day.
That's ok. Part of what we should be doing as entrepreneurs is learning so we can continually improve and grow our businesses. We don't just set something up and spend out time maintaining the same hum drum every day until we retire in bliss. We adapt and adjust and move forward. We're trend setters and we're forward thinkers here on the internet.
I like it.
Note: Yes, the photo is my son around age 3, passed out with a jar of peanut butter. This is a result of his mother mindlessly handing him an opened jar and not paying attention because she was working.
Lesson Learned: Working too much is not always a good thing!
I love you Jen 🙂
Ha ha ha, ahhh.. so true! I am trying to improve my focus at the moment and cut down my work hours (again). I reduced to 6 hours a day 4 days per week a while back and think it could be shaved again, or restructured to allow me a good block of leisure time daily.
Glad you liked my post. I was feeling a teeny bit frustrated that day!
The time flies because we don’t consider what we do “work”. It’s a passion. I have friends who wonder how I make money when I don’t have a “job”
As for your q of what we’re doing today: My son wants to go to Zion Nat’l Park… yet he’s still asleep. If he wakes up within an hour, I’ll go to Valley of Fire, as it’s closer. If he pulls a 16-year-old sleep-until-noon thing, then my backup plan is to give him $100 and let HIM decide how we blow it (on us). So it could be just the Midway at Circus Circus. I’ll let him decide.
Great post. We love what we do so much that the hours just race by and next thing you know, something ( or a lot of things 🙂 ) you *planned* to do didn’t get done because new exciting things came your way that day.