Working at home is slowly killing me (here is why)

Hi all,

I stumbled upon this forum by thinking it would be cool to find a group of people who work from home and see what some of their struggles and successes are.

I hate long forum posts but this will probably be one of those. I will provide a TL;DR at the bottom.

I am only 2 years out of college and my degree isn't one that usually works from home. But here I am.

My first job out of college was a typical 9-5, pushing papers, making sales calls, and general business related tasks.

I liked it, it paid the bills, and I was good at it. But I have this disease (startup disease)

For some reason I need to create my own business. The need stems from a couple reasons but the main one is to prove to myself I can do it and to develop a set of skills I can apply to any business to make myself valuable, therefore ensuring job security.

So, 6 months ago I was head hunted by a start up looking for someone with my skills. I jumped ship from my 9-5 and joined the start up with really little knowledge of the industry, what I would be doing, and little experience.

I got lucky.

The start up is awesome, the work style is laid back, my boss is super motivating and encouraging but yet I still struggle.

I have the tendency to fall into the category of a "shiny object" entrepreneur.

I am embarrassed with how many domains I own, and projects I have half assed.

My excuses are always, well if I was a better programmer I could... or if I had the money to do....or once I get FB ads running I will be able to....

But it never happens.

I will start to learn PHP, then try to make my own WordPress theme, then focus on conversion testing a landing page, then blog about all of these topics that I am inexperienced in and create weak blog posts.

What's worse is the guilt I feel after working on side projects. I get my work done but I could be more aggressive with checking things off my checklist.

Instead I spend hours researching, coding, designing, and implementing things only to drop the project when it gets too hard.

Then I feel bad about neglecting work so I stay up late to get things done and that affects my personal life and my health.

I have only been working for this start up for 6 months and am slowly growing more and more upset with myself. It's not the companies fault at all. I am my own worse enemy.

So here is what I plan to do to make my life better, achieve my goals, and be faithful to my company.

1) Wake up at 6:00am every day, shower, brush my teeth, and ACTUALLY get dressed like I would if I was going to an office.
2) No more TV on in the background.
3) Take my work offline....when I can I am going to use the old pencil and paper to think of ideas, draw out my plan of attack, and write down questions to research.
4) Log off every day at 5:00pm
5) Pick 1 side project, the one I am most passionate about and ONLY work on it 1 hour a day.
6) Every day at 11:00, leave my office (back room) and stand at the kitchen table to work
7) Once a week go to a coffee shop, bookstore, gym, or anywhere to get out of the house and clear my mind.

TLR I work too much because I feel guilty that I work on side projects, which I always half ass.
Gonna put a plan in place to clean up my lifestyle.

Thoughts? Experienced something similar? Would love some feedback to what I am thinking here.

 

It sounds like you've accomplished a lot, and some things you haven't. That's probably true for most of us, but it also seems you've accomplished a lot more than many others.

Working at home can be a challenge. The Internet is so big and there are so many potential ways to make money. Try identify the methods and skills that work best for you and focus on those. "Shiny object" syndrome is a huge distraction for many people I think.

 

Welcome to the forum,

Sound like you have learned what it will take to become successful in your own business, while not shorting your current employer. Not easy, but doable. I started with a fortune 100 company, got sick of the corporate BS and started my first business which I was able to secure contracts with many of my existing clients I was servicing. It was great to have a built in income, but like you, I felt I was short changing my employer working on the side, so I quit and went full time with my own business. Fortunately, I made it a success, and was able to build it and then sell it for a profit so I could start another business. I get bored too easily, so always have to be looking for that new and shiny product like you mentioned. lol

Long story short, you can easily get overwhelmed if you spread yourself too thin, and I see you have learned to focus on one project and lay out the structure so you won't get distracted and not finish project, and this is good, you have to have a plan and then work the plan, so you have learned a valuable lesson, one I wish I would have learned sooner and hadn't wasted so many years working for others. Noting better than doing your own thing, but it is not easy as you have learned, it takes decipline to stick to it and never quit. Best of luck with your own business venture.

Success to all,

 

Glad you stumbled upon this forum, and welcome!

I am sure the majority of people reading this will be familiar with the struggles you describe. Those who can look back and smile at the time they "walked in your shoes" will quietly recognize exactly where you are along the path and will be rooting for you.

What impresses me most about your post is this:

You have taken responsibility for your behavior so far and have laid out an action plan to put yourself on the right track. You are about to exit the maze.

All you need now is the discipline to stick with your plan and you could be on your way to making up for lost time... in virtually no time at all.

And I'm betting you can do it!

Hemas

 

Welcome to the forum! It seems to me that you are all over the place. If you are still at that startup job I would still keep it. While on the side work at something else like affiliate marketing. I don't know what you skills are but come up with a plan and stick to it. Most of us suffer from the "shiney object syndrome" me included. I would say stick to one thing master it until you see results. Once you see results then you will be able to scale.

 

Wow, it does seem as if you're all over the place which I can understand. I haven't necessarily been all over the place but I recently officially launched my business last month and I made the HORRIBLE mistake of answering my clients requests and completing their projects when they send them to me. The mistake in that is I now have a client who constantly sends me project at all hours. I've only recently updated my website to specify office hours and placed some reminders on my phone. I'm hoping this will keep me from running all over the places at all hours...truth be told though...I'm a sucker and find it hard to say no to my clients...!!!

StrugglineEnt, I hope you put a practice in place, preferably in writing, to keep you from jumping around all over the place. I would suggest taping it up where you can see it on a regular. Let me know how it goes and good luck!

 

The great thing is that you actually understand the root of your problem and you're willing to do something about it. You're half way to solving it, you just need to be persistent enough. I was in a similar situation and the thing that helped me was creating my personal routine that gets me in a working mindset.