Comments on: Remote

By: » Combating the Vacuum, Part II

» Combating the Vacuum, Part II — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:35:30 +0000

[...] So, a bit more on combating the WorkFromHome Vaccuum. [...]

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:38:25 +0000

@Cecily: I definitely hear you on "work". I think Donna's approach—owning it as real work—is one way to feel better about it, and to really commit. I also think ditching the idea of "work" altogether can do wonders. We've all grown up surrounded by what it means to be "working" -- be it a 9-5 job, an office, a uniform of some sort (even creatives often feel they need to look the part, me included), income, networking, contacts, business cards, a title, a label... -- and I wonder if all of those definitions don't get in the way when the "work" we do is creative and doesn't fit into the molds we just assume must be filled. Who cares if you're "working"? If you're spending your time in a way you find fulfilling and satisfying and you're content and even excited about the contribution you might make to society, I think you're accomplishing more than many "working" folks. This might be a generational thing. We need our parents and parental figures to know we're "working" -- that we're earning a living and supporting our families and that we have health insurance. Of course those things are important, and even required. But it's also very, very important to *stop* working. It's important to value the creative pursuits we have when we're *not* working. And if we decide to take the scary plunge into making those creative pursuits the ones that sustain us full-time, then we should own it. Cecily, when you're ready, I can't wait to see what you've come up with. /jumping off soap box now.

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:18:02 +0000

The vicious circle of being overwhelmed and procrastinating used to plague me. For me, it would start small (a couple of unanswered e-mails, a few undone tasks) and grow into a many-tentacled, smothering beast (sometimes quite quickly). I think dealing with this (and learning how to avoid it as much as possible) is a major part of successfully working from home. I still experience it sometimes, but to a lesser extent. Now that I’m the mother of a small child, I have such limited time in which my physical and mental space are my own, I’m chomping at the bit to work, and so I can usually hit the ground running when I’m able to eek out some time for myself. Even so, I have to keep a well-updated to-do list so I can stay on track and do the most important things first. Otherwise it’s easy to plop down and work on whatever is on my my mind at the moment.

I also identify with what Cecily said. When I’m working on something that isn’t yet earning me pay, I have a difficult time justifying it as actual work. I finally started calling it work out loud, and it’s starting to fit better and feel better.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:24:34 +0000

The biggest challenge I face in my work life might have something to do with the air quotes I feel in my fingers as I say “work”. Why the air quotes? There are several reasons, the biggest reason is the projects I currently consider my “work”, the things I hope will eventually earn me pay currently earn no cash**. Indeed, whoever will pay me for these projects doesn’t even know I or these projects exist. Few of my friends even know what I’m working on. I’ve been holding my cards close to my chest while I convince myself it really is time to finally take the leap and develop these projects (notice I won’t even admit to what they are) that have rambled around in my mind for years.

**Actual monetary reward isn’t the issue, perhaps most important in this situation is that there is no audience, no one needing this “work”. It is a vacuum I feel daily and it is only relieved in the moments I am truly working on a project or right after. Thinking about them doesn’t count, after a certain point, I find the thinking sucks any air left in the room…

By: Yarn Thing

Yarn Thing — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:37:44 +0000

Go, have a great weekend! You totally deserve it!

xoxox
marly

By: Ellen Gormley

Ellen Gormley — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:48:46 +0000

I totally agree with Stacey’s “overwhelmitis” and it usually coincides with the the UPS man delivering a huge box of yarn. I get into a quandry, do I finish what I was doing? Do I drop everything and work on what just arrived? Do I hide the box and pretend it didn’t arrive? Do I finish what I was doing while THE BOX stares at me from the corner? Then, I eat a cookie, figure out what’s “due” first and jump in, hooks flashing.

By: vashti

vashti — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:00:44 +0000

And wouldn’t you think some great coffee would do the trick? Sometimes for me if anything it makes it worse GAH!

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:54:43 +0000

@vashti: Yes! That's exactly what I experience. It might look like depression, but it's not. It's the symptoms without the cause, if you will. I've been *thinking* lots about creative things I want to do, but the inertia is overwhelming. Here's to busting out of it!

By: vashti

vashti — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:19:18 +0000

I deal with a weird phenomenon, which might be like the Vacuum you’re talking about, esp. when you distinguish it from garden variety distractibility. I can slide into a very unproductive mode and once I do it’s hard to extricate myself. It’s like an invisible force. When I’m in It, I think, “What’s going on? I’m getting nowhere.” Ojectively it might look on the outside like depression but I don’t feel depressed on the inside. I actually have lots of drive and creative energy and/or frustration on the inside. So I’m thinking about whether the real issue is that there’s this huge gap between my inner and my outer, and to avoid the zombie zone, I need to bridge the two. I could see that being very dynamic. I’ve also wondered if with creative work there are artistically fertile vs rest/replenish rhythms that I’m ignoring and out of sync with.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:14:50 +0000

@stacey: Oh, the overwhelm + procrastination loop. It's no stranger to me! Maybe I'll use this as motivation to finally finish reading Getting Things Done.