Finding Productivity

So it's been a couple months without any new posts and there is a big reason for that: I struggle with being productive in my free time. Obviously that is a big problem for someone that is hoping for eventually be self-employed. I've never been a particularly productive person in my free time but now that I have a family, it's so much harder than ever to be productive at all with my free time so I've been striving to find a solution. I've tried devising a couple of systems but they've all kind of failed before they got off the ground because they all revolved around doing things at a specific time which is impossible when you have a family.

I've begun working on something I call a "Productivity Point System". It's basically to help me get things accomplished better. I've been doing it for 2 weeks and what I'm finding so far is that I'm still not doing anymore music than I was. Mainly I'm just getting the normal things done that I always do like chores and stuff but there has been some improvement in other areas. Like reading my Bible is one of the things on the list and I've been doing that some and I hadn't been doing that at all for a long time. I also put playing piano on the list and I've been putting some good effort into that. Really the things that I still don't get done are the things that are hard to do while the baby is sleeping because of noise.

I suppose I should explain to you what this point system is, if only so you can understand what I've been talking about. Essentially I made a list of 11 different categories of things that I want to try and do every week. And then I made an estimate of how often I should or would like to get each of those things done in a given week, regardless of when in the week any of those things take place. For example Chores has 10 possible points while Piano only has 2. There's a total of 33 points available in the system, though I keep tweaking it. The ultimate goal is obviously to get all 33 points. Another part of the idea is that I won't do something more often than the system says I should, except maybe chores. So I won't practice Piano 5 times a week because that is then taking too much possible time away from other categories. In the first two weeks I've been doing this I've only gotten 11 points each week. That's not very good but it definitely leaves room for improvement. Right now it's just sort of fun to see how much I can build on that.

I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing with this.

Musically Inclined

I firmly believe that if you are setting out to make a living at something then it should be something that you are passionate about, and not just passionate about making money with whatever it is. I'd love nothing more than to be able to make a living with my music but I know how tough that can be. I should I've been trying to do it for a long time now...with some minor laziness issues along the way (see previous post).

I'm hoping that very soon I will at least be able to show a trickle of income from my music. Sometime in the next couple months I hope to release my much delayed first full length solo album titled Run For Your Lives. I don't have much of a fan base to speak of as of yet so I really can't say I'll be surprised if the money generated from this first release is a bit meager.

But hey I have to start somewhere.

Work at Home Scams

Many people in the American workforce are feeling frustrated and angry about having to work harder and harder for less money (less buying power as time goes by) while rich in the country only get richer while doing less to obtain that wealth.

Lowlifes have taken this situation as an opportunity to scam people out of money over the internet with Work at Home scams. They promise huge money for almost no work while you sit in front of your computer. When someone falls into these traps the scammers then either deliver nothing to the victim or something completely different than what was being advertised.

I too am someone who has felt the temptation to look into these "opportunities" that seem too good to be true but I know that they are all lies and people just looking to steal my money. I've searched deep into the internet looking for a legitimate work at home opportunity that actually pays something and so far I've come up empty handed.

Stay clear of these things at all cost. The newest trick is to make multiple websites that are supposedly reviewing a work at home opportunity and saying how great it was compared to all the other ones.

Someday I would like to work from home, but these crooks aren't the path to that goal.

Using Time Unwisely

I have a brother inlaw that rides a bike to work 13 miles each way. After working all day and 26 total miles of biking he comes home occupies his time around the house doing whatever work he can. He is affectionately referred to as the Energizer Bunny because he never stops working.

Admittedly, I am nothing like my brother inlaw. I drive to work and I work hard at work but when I get home I typically don't want to do anything but rest and relax. There are always a big pile of things around the home that I know I should be doing but things always seem to take forever to get done because I just don't do them.

This sort of approach to life is fine if you have no intention of ever doing anything beyond what you are currently doing. But I do have other hopes and dreams beyond working at a meaningless job. I love spending time at home with my family when I get home from work but at the same time, if I'm not doing anything to improve our living conditions at home then I'm not doing my job as a husband and father.

One of the first steps toward self-employment: Using your time wisely ALL the time!

Weapons of Choice

I've never had any luck making money off of schemes that I've specifically come up with for the sake of making money. Maybe some people can do that but I can't for some reason. I think for myself and many other people you have to really be passionate about what you are pursuing and for me, making money is just not enough passion I guess. But I do have weapons as my disposal in my pursuit of self-employment:

Music - I've been making music for many years now by myself and as a member of various bands. I'm passionate about this area of my life and it's time I started to see a return on all that investment of time.

Writing - I've always been told that I'm a good writer, ever since grade school but I can't say that I've ever put the amount of effort into it as I should. In the last couple years I've had more and more of a desire to write fiction and I've not done well at doing anything about that desire. I'm hoping that I make the effort to change that soon. Blogs are also an outlet for writing though as you can see here but I also have a couple other blogs.

My own two hands - This is the most basic and readily available thing I've got at my disposal. Sometimes to reach your goal of self-employment you've got to be willing to do some dirty work with your hands.

4 Years To Freedom

I'm very tired of working for some big faceless corporation. The CEO of the company I work for is going to make more than $13,000,000 this year and I won't even clear $30,000. I work hard, I do my job (and other people's) exceptionionally, and consistently get passed up for promotions. I have no college degree and all of my experience is in retail. I hate retail and I don't have the money to get an education. So where does that leave me? Well starting now I am going to try and work towards self-employment and I'm not interested in any get rich quick schemes. Nope, I'm gonna work hard and find ways of generating extra income that will hopefully within 4 years replace my working for the man income.

This blog will be used to post my ideas and progress reports as well as to get feedback from my readers on ways I can improve. The adventure begins now.