Chaos in the Bedroom!

Huuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy! "Baby’s been sick!"
Dinner’s ready, the kids are screaming.
The cat’s jumped on the table and is making its way to the birdcage … the door’s ajar.
The dog’s jumped on the chair to bite the cat that’s now got the budgie.
The dog’s slipped in the baby sick so misses the cat, which spits out the budgie because it stepped in the dinner that’s oh so hot.
The bird’s landed in the baby’s lap and is spotted by the cat which pounces …
The baby stops screaming and begins to giggle as the cat devours the budgie.

Huuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy! "Baby’s been sick again!"
The cat retreats to lick the dinner from its scalded paws and the vomit from its back.
The dog starts barking …
I remove my boot from the hound’s rectum and... CRASH!
The wounded budgie's limped onto the washed and not so neatly stacked dinner plates then rides them to the floor.
It chirps its last chirp.
There’s a knock on the door as the phone begins to ring.

Huuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy! "Baby’s been sick again!"
Dog’s stopped sulking and begins to chase the two-year-old who’s began resuscitation and heart massage on the budgie.
Two-year-old tosses the bird aside and turns to chase the howling dog, babies jaw clamped firmly to its tail.
Budgie lands in the dinner ...
And so does the cat.
Two-year-old’s bored with the dog already and joins the cat and the budgie in the dinner.
Washing machine starts to cycle as the tumble dryer seizes.

Huuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy! "Baby’s been sick again … and she’s filled her nappy."

"WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING?" screams my harassed and thoroughly stressed out wife.

"Because I’m trying to !@!&*ING work!"

There are only five things you need in order to work successfully without the constraints of conventional business:

Discipline, discipline, discipline and discipline ... and somewhere to work!

Most of the businesses I prefer require very few staff, and unless you particularly want to rent office space, you will probably be working from home or from a computer with an Internet connection somewhere in a beautiful part of the world. I do now and now that I am semi-retired I spend an awful lot of my time sailing offshore on racing yachts ... because I can!

The best part of sailing now as opposed to when I used to work on boats is that I'm doing it on MY terms. The dynamic is totally different. I no longer am a slave to the charterer's whims and whines.

I go sailing with interesting people and they treat me as an equal which I relish. I couldn't have this life with a conventional job or traditional business. It is what I've chosen to do and my choices have given me this freedom of time.

If you are going to have this in your new life you need to make decisions about your future today.

To break free from traditional business I feel it wise and cheaper to work from home in the early days.

This is what suited me and what gives me a life with loads of time ... Some people on the other hand will build huge businesses with management controls and balances and be able to take time out. This takes a very special kind of person which most of us are not!

My architect has just been round whilst writing this and coincidently he was moaning about work! it's a fabulous day, he's in a suit and slightly mithered. It's his own practice and he has offices. He just happened to mention how fed up he was and wished he was still working from home!

Working from home is expanding at an incredible rate.

The main and most logical reason is, that when you rent office space you have to cover two sets of overheads - the rent on the office etc and the rent/mortgage on your home - before you make a penny cent of profit.

Even large multinationals are letting their staff work from home these days because of the massive benefits it brings.

But on the other side of the coin there are just as many drawbacks.

The first major problem with doing business from home is that it is not a working environment.

It is extremely difficult to drag yourself out of bed and sit down at the desk to begin your day.

You lay longer in the pit because there’s no boss waiting for you in the office, and also there’s nowhere to commute to.

Second, is the problem of space. Most people starting out on their journey of betterment do not have a spare room to dedicate to an office so they try to work on the kitchen table. It is very, very difficult to do a full day’s work from home. There are simply too many distractions.

Having said that, I am writing this section right now in the comfort of my own home. We do have offices in strategic locations, as you know, but I have purpose built offices in some of my houses.

Regardless, when I wrote the first manuscript for Omniscience I managed to create a favorable work atmosphere in the back of the house. I was lucky enough to have a spare room to dedicate as an office.

I still have the odd distractions, the wife and kids, but they have learned that when daddy’s in his office, he’s working and to enter head bowed, cap in hand and wary that I might bite their heads off at any given second!

Seriously, they have learned that I am disciplined and between the hours of 9.00am and 6.00pm I really do need to be left alone if I have decided to work. And I now have that choice. i work when I want to, because I want to. I find work healthy. God forbid I stop and my mind turns to mush!

I have almost got the balance right and it’s great.

There’s no getting up at some ungodly hour, kicked out of my cozy, warm bed by an alarm clock to face a miserable journey in rush hour traffic.

I arrive in my office at around 9.00am, fresh and ready for a day’s work. I can watch the birds in the garden, even have a break and sit with them in the summer when I want. I can stop when I want and start when I want. The only boss I have is me, although I am a hard task master!

If I do need to drive to the office, I enjoy a leisurely jaunt through the forest at mid-morning when there’s only the wildlife about. There’s a relaxing cruise along a clear motorway and I arrive a happy man … most of the time!

To work successfully from home takes far more organisation and dedication than working from an office.

There’s no accountability for a start.

If you decide not to go in one morning who’s going to know, who’s going to kick your arse?… no one that;s who!

You are your own boss and there is no one in this world you can blame if things aren’t done.

If you haven’t a spare room in the house DEDICATE SOME SPACE.

Section off a working area and ensure it is precisely that. An area for work. It’s no good having all your papers and computer on the kitchen table if it has to be cleared every time you want a meal. There’s no way, in a month of Sundays, you’re going to stay organized.

Tidy Desk, Tidy Mind!

I have made a good living working out of home. I’ll tell you what worked for me whilst I was on the up, I still work hard but have as much time off as I want.

When working, I have very strict hours:
9.00am till generally 6.00pm, Monday to Friday.

I always start the day with a shower. If you haven’t got a power shower, and I mean a powerful one, I would highly recommend you get one at the first available opportunity.

I discovered the extraordinary benefit in a hotel in the States a few years ago, and no, I’m not about to go into some debauched and perverted story.

Everything in America is big, and that includes their showers. This particular one was amazing, the jet was especially powerful.

I stood with my back to it, and it was then that I discovered the ‘Power of the Shower!’

I’ve read about this phenomenon since and it’s well known to the medical profession, but it was a revelation to me at the time!

If you direct a powerful, hot jet of water around the base of the skull and neck, just where they join, the result is exhilarating. Massage this area by moving slightly from side to side so that the water hits the whole area.

Apparently, this stimulation causes the body to release chemicals called endorphins. I have no idea what actually happens, but I can promise, it really sets you up for the day.

You’ll be hard pushed to find a shower that matched the ferocity of the American one, but a reasonable power shower will do the job.

This is my working week. I will work longer if I have to, a lot longer, but I try to get everything done within my set timeframe. I fully understand that starting a business takes total commitment, dedication and anyone who believes it doesn’t is quite frankly, deluded.

I have a dedicated home telephone line and a business line. I will not answer the business line out of hours unless an appointment is made. I have found that the boundaries between the workplace and home life can blur. If they do, it’ll be your work that suffers AND your family life.

Some people tend to work 24-7 when starting up.

They roll out of bed, crawl into the dedicated work area, finish late, and drag themselves onto the sofa, bad tempered and grizzly, where they fall asleep.

Next morning the cycle begins again!

This is the grim and inevitable reality of working towards freedom. This is also a short-term price to pay ... eventually things will get easier, but you always need to have a clear picture of what you are toiling towards which is why we went through the goal setting exercises.

You are only truly productive for a few hours a day.

This can sometimes be stretched out to five or six hours, but peak performance cannot be sustained for long periods. I can assure you, if you try to work too hard, you’ll end going round in square circles.

Yes, we do have to put in many hard, extra hours in the early days and when a deadline has to be met, but as a rule, aim to stick to a productive, constructive, disciplined working schedule.

When you have got to finish time ... FINISH!

Close your books, shut down the computer and go and spend some quality down time.

Establish your working parameters.

They do not have to be 9 to 5. One of my friends loves working through the night. I get e-mail from him at 4.00am in the morning just to prove he’s working at some strange hour.

It works for him!

You should be dedicating one or two evenings a week to contacting people and introducing them to your new business. This doesn’t mean overtime. If you spend two hours on a Monday night phoning, take two hours out in the morning - don't start till 11.00am.

Decide what hours you are going to work and stick to them!

Discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline!

The Psychology of Survival