Dividing Personal & Business

I had to make a choice this week. I've been running my online business on my personal computer for the last 2+ years, and it's a huge distraction. HUGE distraction. Right now as I type this, I'm on my personal computer and I can look down and see the shortcut for Warcraft starting back at me, daring me to click it and log in for "a few minutes." (Hours later....)

I can also look up at my Chrome bookmark bar and see the Facebook and G+ shortcut buttons, also begging me to call them.

Needless to say, my personal computer is full of things that cause me great distraction.

I took action Monday morning to fix it. I was awakened by a promo email from TigerDirect.com advertising a $99 desktop. I had a great week in sales last week, so that was very much in my price range. I clicked over and the stats weren't that good, but for $10 more I found one that was perfect. I picked up a box with WinXP, 2GB of RAM, and just enough bells and whistles to run what I needed for my business, but no games at all. I plan to also install blocking software so that I can't get to any games or "time waster" sites this weekend, meaning that it'll be a solely-for-work computer.

Has anyone else out there gone to an extreme like this in order to get more focused?

-- j

I can't stop laughing...
I have 2 desktops and 3 laptops to try to keep things separate, doesn't work for long as they like to mingle.
Even though I come from the pre-pong generation I have a FreeCell shortcut on the desktop of all 5.
At lest that game only take me a few minutes instead of spending hours in a virtual world.
Some distraction can be a good thing if it helps clear your mind of preconceived notions.
It's when the distractions become the main attractions that you have to worry.

Hi J.R. Cunning, I think the actions you took suggest that you are serious about barricading yourself from the distractions and I commend your practical efforts. They represent an important first step. But I fear that you may also have locked yourself in with the culprit.

As Vishal points out, "distractions lie within one's mind and not outside" and I believe that's where the critical second step comes into play.

Until you recognize that you also possess the mental capacity to reorder your behaviorial response when those distracting urges intrude, and not submit to them... deliberately, you are likely to fall victim more often than not.

Old habits are 'broken' only by putting new habits in their place. That often involves embracing a fresh perspective and then implementing a different strategy. I'm sure that you will conquer it eventually and I wish you all the best!

Hermas

This was the source of the problem, true Hermas. This online business is actually my second business - I had a retail store that I owned and ran for five years from 2004-2009. It was a bit more difficult to become distracted there as I had real people in front of me to catch my attention. Online...there are too many shiny buttons.

I'm also working on this. Believe it or not, I normally keep my entire work queue in my head, even when I use my writing staff to get things done. I've been doing it long enough so that I know when articles are due, who is doing them, and even how much profit I'm going to make without ever writing it down.

I changed that the other night as well. I set up a detailed P&L in Excel that tracks everything for me. (I'm also an Excel programmer.) It's fully automated and highlights all of the jobs that are due today each time I open it.

My favorite part of it is that I can look at the top right corner and see how much money I've made this month. That's a huge motivating factor at this point in my life.

-- jason

I apologize for posting twice in a row here Vishal...I couldn't find a "multiquote" button though.

Your addiction sounds like mine. I'm addicted to the Warrior Forum. It's very difficult for me to go into that place and find the one piece of information I need without posting 10-20 times. That waste 1-2 hours at least, which is never good. I'm starting to wean myself away from that habit, though. Like Hermas said, it's mental discipline that will get me over it, and I've just let my brain go lately.

-- j

I also admire your deidcation J.R. Cunning. For me, working from home can be full of distractions. Some I can control. Some I cannot.

I've found the best way to avoid distractions though is to close my door.

Well, In my case I made it perfectly clear to myself when I bought a new personal computer it would be for business first and then slight pleasure.

Every now and again I need a little break I'll log into Facebook a moment to say hi but the breaks are scheduled so it works out just fine as of now.

I think it's all about scheduling time for everything you don't have to through away the things you love just make time here and there for it and stick to the schedule. Remember time is money.