A Day At The Office...

This is a view of what my office looks like... sometimes it looks like my kitchen, sometimes like my living room and sometimes even the bedroom.  It's been 2 whole months now of being a work from home/stay at home dad and let me tell you... it's not easy.  But who would change this beautiful face for a cubicle? Sometimes, it feels like it would be easier to go to an office and sit behind a desk in a cubicle, but then I see this smile and I wouldn't change this for anything.

I've always read and heard successful people talking about the value of time, but it wasn't until 2 months ago, when my wife went back to work that I truly understood the value of time.  Yes, we say and repeat, "time is more valuable than money because you never get time back and money is easy to make", "plan and organize your priorities", and all of that great valuable information we see posted on social media everyday... but I thought I knew the information until I added a title to my life. From being a work from home husband, to now I'm also a stay at home dad. Check out my Work With Me tab or click here.

My days usually start at 5:30AM, when my wife is also up getting ready to go to work.  Gianna (my daughter) is normally asleep at that time so that's when I take advantage of TIME and by 6:30AM I'm already working. Gianna will wake up between 7:30-8AM, ready for a diaper change and for her early morning snack (milk in a bottle). By this time, I've already gotten most of my admin stuff out of the way.  Depending on her night, she'll either go back to sleep around 9AM or stay awake and completely skip her morning nap.  Which she'll normally nap until 10:30AM. As you can see... I have a schedule pretty much set already.  It's in between changing her diapers, feeding her, taking her on walks 2-3 times a day on her stroller (which is when I make a lot of phone calls), playing with her (she loves being outside), carrying her, and putting her to sleep that I get to work.

I get to work small periods at a time and sometimes, she'll only nap for about 10-15 minutes... so that's a really short period to do much.  I have to take advantage of every minute I have to do what I have to do. That means every phone call, every meeting, conference call, post on social media has to be meaningful and profitable.  I've cut down on blogging, but then again it's not like I have a lot of followers, I've cut down on the time I make personal calls and I've cut down on my workouts.  I haven't stopped doing those things, but now I keep an eye at how long I do them.

There's times when I'm in the middle of a phone call with a client or potential client and Gianna begins to cry... at first I panicked... "what do I do? what do I say?"  but I quickly learned to leverage from this.  I call her my lucky charm.  I've been to appointments with her, she's a big part of my conversations on my phone calls and I let people know that I work from home.  By staying honest to myself and being so transparent and sharing such personal information with my clients -- it somehow creates trust and builds rapport so quickly, that my production has increased in these 2 months.

Has it been easy? No way! Do I feel overwhelmed? Sometimes I do.  Have I had to make changes? Absolutely! Is it worth it? Oh man... just look at her lovely smile... she looks just like her mom.  I wouldn't change this for anything in the world. I get to see and raise my child and not leave her in the hands of a baby sitter. Maybe all of that reading, leadership and working on myself to become better was a preparation for this.

It's funny how we say we need to manage time. Time keeps going... we can't manage time, but we can manage what we do with the time we have available.  I have my priorities and believe me, they change and have to be adjusted almost daily... but I take advantage of the time I have available and I do my best to stick to those priorities.  It's hard not to become disciplined when I have such a BIG WHY sitting right in front of me.

Working from home and being my own boss is not for everyone because it takes discipline and self-motivation. Adding a child to the equation makes it even harder... but to me it's certainly doable and more rewarding than sitting behind a desk in a cubicle working for someone else and only seeing my baby a couple of hours a day. Trust me, I'm not perfect, I have my off days... I just do my best, then push a little more and leave the rest in the hands of God. If you have the opportunity to work from home -- don't be afraid of the challenge. It's been a great adventure for me so far.

If you're interested in looking at a home-based business just click here: Work From Home