It May Look Easy, But It's Not

I loved reading this post yesterday over at FreelanceSwitch. I can readily agree that while working from home is a great gig for a mother of two small children, managing the day to day distractions can be problematic. I've already blogged about how I've had to wean myself off my biggest social networking distraction, Facebook. But there are other distractions too, not related to work. Like the need to tidy up the kitchen or fold a few loads of laundry. Heck, I even get distracted some days trying to cue up the best choice of music on iTunes!

I've tried to implement a few new organizational strategies and so far they've been working pretty well. While my son is in preschool is when I am the most productive, given I have a large mug of coffee to accompany me. I try to spend that time checking e-mail, applying for jobs, setting up phone interviews for articles or simply working on assignments. I always take a lunch break away from my desk, even if it just eating a salad while catching up on a show I've recorded or flipping through a magazine.

In the afternoon when my kids get home, I take 20-30 minutes during their "downtime" and put away laundry and straighten up the kitchen for the dinner shift.

This week I actually made a meal plan based on meats and leftover sauces I had in my freezer and shopped for extra ingredients needed. Then I tried to be more efficient while prepping for those meals. For example, Sunday afternoon, while making pot roast, I cut up all the carrots and celery in the refrigerator and separated half of them for later use. Monday evening I saved some of the rotini I didn't use for my baked pasta. Tuesday I sauteed chicken, added it into chicken broth with the carrots and celery and leftover pasta and, voila, chicken noodle soup!

These little changes have led me to be more productive in my writing career as well as in my household.

How do you separate out everyday distractions when you're trying to work?

Productivity Pitfalls

Sometimes, you have to just give up and admit your weaknesses. I've realized this the past few weeks. I swear I would bring in so much more money with my writing if I could just get my act together. As the mother of two young children, I have precious daytime hours to work while they are in elementary school and preschool so I don't have to shell out additional money for child care. But lately I've been finding myself piddling around during their school hours and not being very productive at all. Sure, I may get to the gym, but what about all those perfectly crafted query letters in my head? I tell myself if I work out in the morning I'll focus on the writing business in the evening after the kids have gone to bed, but let's face it. By that time I've endured the afternoon carpool, run one or two errands with both kids, worked on school assignments, made dinner and generally ensured my brain has turned to mush. I end up in a daze on the couch watching whatever show is waiting for me on the DVR.
So here is my new method. For the next two weeks, I am not allowed to go to the gym during daytime hours until I have at least three writing-related tasks checked off my list. Next I have to work on creating a calendar so I can get specific tasks down on paper. We'll see how this goes.
Oh, and speaking of query letters, check out a great example of a query letter that rocked, courtesy of Linda Formichelli over at The Renegade Writer blog.