Simplify

Years ago, when I had way more kids in the house and obviously too much time on my hands, this was my home office set up. I had a big beautiful desk in the corner, but I liked the open space better.

As I writer, I had to research a lot. My website program was only available through Windows (gag). I felt three computers (and a television) was just what the publisher ordered!

No more! I have since simplified - I now use mostly hand-coding for the website, and only my Mac laptop and iPhone - it's all I need. Not only that, but once I downsized everything, I feel better and am more productive.

Take a look around. Is there anything you really don't need? Is there anything creating MORE work for you? Get rid of what you don't need and work the you-know-what out of those few invaluable pieces.

ChaCha Tip

Are you a ChaCha guide?  (Do you wanna be?  Go to ChaCha and let them know Teraisa@gmail.com referred you so we can be on the same team!).  There are two ways to get started as a ChaCha guide, provided you're in and signed as a freelance - you either put one toe in at a time or you jump in, just like a pool. I'm typically the person who jumps, but in this instance, I'm barely at my calves, right now.

It's important to me to be a good ChaCha Guide, not just someone who works a job and that's that.  I want my answers to matter, because they matter to me.  I like to do things right; I like to be accurate.

My ChaCha tip for the day:  After you log in, check out at least one tip sheet (re-read if you've read  them all) and go to the forum for a post or two.  ChaCha can't exist if it doesn't work, which is why the particular rules are in place and need to be followed. You don't always have to learn by trial and error - that's what the tip sheets are for! 

As you read more and more tip sheets and answer/research more and more questions, you'll feel more comfortable and perhaps, along with me, we can get go above the knees and beyond. For now, though, I'm taking it slow and watching my quality. 

Here's My Secret To Using Writing Skills To Earn Extra Money

Writing may be my passion, but it's not my favorite paycheck.  It can be great money, but you never know if or when you'll be paid (unless your name is Ann Rule or Stephan King, for example). I've had one huge magazine holding my article (and money) for YEARS.  I've even tried resubmitting it several times, thinking maybe they just forgot, only to get a call or email back saying thank you, they have an article just like that one in cue.

For us character writers (think: character actors), we have plenty of jobs, but we're not well known and we'll never get the best tables at a restaurant.  If you write for money as little as I do (I tithe 90% of my writing), you need to supplement your income. 

For me, it was natural to turn to a place where I can combine writing with my other love, information. I am an information freak.  There are a couple of options if you want to freelance with ChaCha (I'm hereby referring you-use email Teraisa@gmail.com).

I can work as much or as little as I like; it's up to me how much money I make.  One thing I love about being a generalist/specialist is that you already know you'll earn a dime or so for each question, but there are times all month long where bonuses are given away, depending upon several things, maybe how many questions you answer, and maybe you simply are given a surprise bonus.

You won't get rich answering questions (unless you're the owner), but you'll be keeping your researching skills sharp and honing your writing craft (cutting words down to only what's necessary) and still get paid.  If you're looking for a few extra dollars each month, want to work your own hours, have a computer and Internet (or have access to both), and are willing to try, ChaCha may be the place you've been looking for.  Earn money freelancing while you write that next big novel.  Use me as a referral, be on my team:

http://becomeaguide.chacha.com  - referred by Teraisa@gmail.com

 

Perfectionism

It could be from my life as a competitive gymnast, and it could be that my mother was so smart, I had too much to live up to, but I am a serious perfectionist.  It's horrendous because it leads to procrastination, which leads to depression and feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness.

This DOES affect my home businesses.

I spend HOURS writing a thank you letter, for instance, making sure it's just right and second guessing what each word may mean to the receiver, regardless of what and why I wrote in the first place.

Even here, on this blog, I never ever re-read and edit it because to do so is death.  I would never get anything published. I have to close my eyes and push "publish post."

Great ideas are easy to come by in the wonderful world of writing-I write on the wall ideas all day AND night long. I have ideas for books, articles, screenplays, essays, poems... you name it. And they really are great ideas (I know because after a while, someone else thinks of it and makes a ton of money), but that first word gets me each and every time. It must be perfect. It has to be right or I cannot go on.


I self edit as I write, yet I'm a one-draft-deadline writer, and here's why:  the first chapter of The U-Haul Murders is the Littlest Angel/The Last Day; it's been rewritten more than one hundred times and I'm not joking.  No matter how good it is, by my standards for fellow readers, it can always be improved. Knowing Shakespeare and the Bible can be rearranged and changed for improvement - two perfect works of art (Shakespeare=all his work) - doesn't make me feel any better or edit any less.

I've been trying to earn the ChaCha bonuses (tell 'em ChaStriss sent you so we can be on the same team!), but I'm slow because I want the answers to be perfect. I want to earn 100% on the quality scores.  As a former ChaCha user, I know for a fact I'm too hard on myself compared to others, but still, I sweat it each and every time.  It's a hindrance, I tell you.

When I decide to make cold calls for my AtHome America (which, yes, I am re-instated and working until June to see what happens and how the customers deal with the new direct shipping) business, it's the same thing. I take hours to prepare and make sure I know the specials of the month and the next month. I make sure I have everything at hand, either the hard copy or the reproducibles on the computer... and I'm scared to death that I'll either be asked something I do not know, or worse, I'll know the answer and will not be able to recall it, even with everything in front of me.

Now, I know that no one is perfect and I also know that I probably won't lose a penny by a stutter or two, yet, there I am, striving to get it right before I start.

By the time I've gathered my wits about me and am ready for ChaCha or the cold calls, I've pretty much gone into the next time crunch for me, where the kids are home and I need to work on homework, or dinner's supposed to be ready, or the time zone where the customer lives is wickedly late... always something.

This perfectionism not only does not work, but it works against me.  By wanting to be perfect, I am earning less money by researching less on ChaCha and earning less money by having less home/online parties/sales with AtHome America.  0% of 0 is $0, no matter how perfect it is.

Taking the five minute idea and the knowledge my way isn't working, what if I spend just five minutes a day on ChaCha and five minutes a day making cold calls with NO PREPARATION and let whatever comes my way... come my way?

As for the writing?  I'm going to have to change it up a bit more.  No more "freewriting" because I know it's just a bunch of rambling with no intentions ever of going anywhere.  Instead, I'll have five minutes of completely unedited REAL WORK that has a preplanned purpose.  Every other day I'll write, and the next day, I'll take five minutes (and only five minutes) to edit the piece and improve as needed.


Practice makes perfect; nobody's perfect.

Decisions...

Working from home works for me and for our family. I LOVE it.  Even though everyone here drives me nuts, and they don't take my "job" as seriously as ANY OTHER PERSON who works in our home, I'd do it again if I had to do it over.


The main struggle is self-motivation when it comes to effort.  I'm motivated, however without a "for sure at the end of the week" paycheck, I tend to feel as my family does:  it takes the back seat to pretty much everything.

It's true.  Evaluate your decisions, your time, and how you run your business.  Be honest.  Do you take hours (or days) to do something that could be done in mere moments?  Do you often set something down, knowing you'll get to it soon or later? 

Even my begging for recognition from my family can be seen as procrastinating when I'm honest (of course, it's possible--I've owned my own business since February 15, 1997--the lack of acknowledgment I never got/get that someone who leaves the house gets/got, could have come first, but I digress...).

Here's the chuckle, I realized this while working out, after having added a new extension to True Crime Fanatic (because I have so much time, I need MORE to do). I've always loved exercise and sports, therefore it really hit hard when I got COPD and couldn't do much physical because even making a bed wears me out.  It's HARD for me (but very important to us all to exercise).  That means, to workout 2 hours a day is tough.  Sometimes I want to throw in the towel because no one expects me to try hard, so why bother?  Then it hit me... as I'm running on the machine, I'm telling myself, why are you in such a hurry? What else do you have to do?

It never occurred to me that it wasn't even the pain from moving that made me antsy, call off a workout, or leave early; it's my impatience. I'm in such a hurry, to take the TIME is what was negative. I never feel like I have enough time.

Asking myself what else I had to do saved me.  Because here's my life in a nutshell:  my husband, our kids, writing, business.

And that's it!  That's all there is. Why am I in such a hurry? And that led me to wondering where all the time is going. Why am I always behind?  It's like I'm running to stand still (thanks Bono) and I've been doing it all these years. Just running and doing and never satisfied.

That moment gave me permission to finish what I started and at one "sitting" AND it allowed me to ask the same question when I need to make a cold call or I get online to research.  Call, because there is nothing else you need to be doing at this moment.  Grab the daily research list and do it because there's nothing else you need to be doing.

You see the beauty of it all, right?  Once I realized I CAN finish and nothing's going to fall apart or go missing by my doing so, I not only did "it," but I became more organized because I could finish and put it away (physically or mentally). By default, I also came up with a great new and natural attitude, which in turn, made me more productive, which is the second biggest need in running a successful business.

Five MORE Minutes - and Then Some

As you know, I'm a fan of five minutes.  I'm NOT a fan of looming deadlines, and that's what I'm facing now.  

In writing. In At Home America. In advocating for victims.

Let me add, thanks to the military, I have no contact whatsoever (for the first time ever, not even when he was in Iraq did I have a day without some sort of communication) with my husband and spent the first lonely day feeling sorry for myself.  That's depressing enough, but when I looked at my calendar, I realized the month spent trying to get our kids on airplanes back to school (and losing precious work, including At Home America parties and meetings) was destroying all I worked for (that's another story in itself, just trust me).

Suddenly, I'm paralyzed. I'm doing nearly nothing.  And then it comes to me... five minutes.  Get back into life.  So I meditated and prayed for five minutes.  Ah. Smart move.

Five minutes of freeing my mind put me on the path to success. First of all, the no contact thing does stink, but I can use it to our advantage.  I imagined four less interruptions each day, then, handing him a check for the money I earned because I used my time wisely.  Also, for us, there's one more thing, he's been waiting for me to send the children's book to the publisher and to type 43:10 (screenplay) into the computer so we can get a new agent...  I CAN do this.  Even if only five minutes at a time.

The next five minutes, about an hour later, I rationally listed my most important deadlines and what I needed to do to meet them.

For instance, as a homestyle specialist, I worked hard the past two months to get to the second of two levels, in order to earn an important all expense paid trip to Chicago to learn more about my company and how to succeed.  When the flight fiasco with the boys happened (and the lovely holidays), I set it all aside. Now, in order to gain the last level and the trip (not to mention a decent check and some free homewares for myself), I have seven days to get $800 in sales. YIKES! I typically only earn about $1000 in sales in an entire month!

Therefore:

Goal - Earn $800 in sales before 4PM Hawaii time on January 24

How - Advertise, beg, motivate three people to host a quick online party

With this information in hand:

In five minutes I rewrote my iPhone email signature and my email signature. Since I need sales right now more than a recruit, I focused on whatever might encourage someone to order ASAP - the fact the Sale-a-bration sale is only through January and only until each item runs out, creates urgency; the fact the items are as low as $2.99 creates a more urgent desire.

In five more minutes, I wrote from my iPhone five letters to friends or family who I truly care about and would normally write.  Hours later, I'd take five minutes and do the same on the computer.  Each day, I'll do it again, but with other friends.  

Results:  I ended up with two online orders.  Both were small, but they are orders I normally would not have. Besides, all orders add up and the magic number is $1000.  I'm now short only $712.

And you can see how the five minutes add up, too. And they're painless!  I'm going to post on Facebook each day a new item under $3 for sale. They have to go through the higher priced items to get to the sale items. Works for me.  I'll take five minutes to go through my address book and call a potential hostess. Five minutes will allow me to check an online party. Five minutes does so much.

With writing... five minutes will give me a minute of screenplay action (I can type a page in five minutes).  I can query three publishers, a literary agent, and print out a proposal. Five more minutes gives me another page. My deadline for the screenplay is a bit longer, I have until February 2. Still, I can take five minutes to figure out how many five minute spurts a day I need to meet the deadline.  Easy.

The most difficult of my home "business" is being a victim's advocate. The reason it's difficult is that it earns nothing and depends on the earnings from the other jobs.  Constantly, I have to stop working on what I truly feel called to do, to do the others.  It's a catch-22, isn't it?

The biggest way I help is through a website.  I've been struggling for the last several years (after years of success) because I don't understand how to create the website in my mind now that I use Mac and Dreamweaver, and therefore, rarely do I get to actually write, research, or help. It's another bit of disappointment.

Yet, again, this is how five minutes works.  Five minutes can allow me to choose a subject in Dreamweaver that I really do not understand, and read.  It's ONLY five minutes, I can deal with the dry and often confusing information in such a small amount.  I can use five minutes more to create a pretty web page as best I can. Another five minutes will be spent sharing information author Sue Russell has shared in her Missing Mondays.  And if I have another five minutes to spare, I can write. I can write about cold cases, real cases, domestic violence, a plea for help.

Yes, in five minutes, I can do it.

Incidentally, it took longer than five minutes to write this and I do wish I had an extra five to decide if it makes sense, but since I really write it for me, to keep me on track, I'd rather take my five minutes and earn another $5.

God bless you and pray for our soldiers.