by Joelle Steele

“If a task is once begun never leave it til it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”

That’s what my mother used to quote to me growing up. She’s been gone for more than 30 years, and I still live by those words. I’ve been a freelancer since 1975, and I’ve been a home-based business since 1983. I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a home-based business or if it’s just that I like working where I live, but either way, I love working at home. I’ve worked many different temp and part-time jobs, many from home, but for me, I’m most productive and most satisfied with the home work environment.

The things that have helped me most in business – home business in particular – are my basic personality traits. I’m self-motivated, self-disciplined, reliable, goal-directed, adaptable, flexible, persistent, and open to change, growth, and progress. I have read many books and attended various presentations on how to set goals, evaluate goals, revise goals, and achieve goals. I have always been very good at making plans and carrying them out, and every year I take some time to look at my plans and revise them as needed. I have a “master” plan or set of goals, and then a bunch of smaller goals and plans to keep myself focused on achieving the bigger goals.

When it comes to applying all of this, my persistence generally pays off because I don’t give up. If something isn’t working the way I want it to, I just try doing it another way. And I keep on trying until I get it right. And I always try to keep up with what’s going on in the world as it relates to my work. I love to work and I want to work in the best way that I can so that I get the most enjoyment out of what I do. If I fail at something, I just see it as a learning lesson and move on from there, looking at what went wrong, how to fix it and not repeat it, re-adjusting my goals, and tweaking my plans until I’m back on track.

Do I ever give up? Sure do. But not on a whim. If I give up on doing a particular thing, there’s got to be a really good reason. For example, I have had a couple of book projects I abandoned because they just weren’t developing quite the way I had envisioned, and after much careful and intense consideration and evaluation of each book, I determined that my original idea and plan were flawed or ill-conceived in some way and that nothing I could do would fix the problem, at least not to my satisfaction.

I also give up on some things if I’m no longer interested in them, or the world is not interested in them, or my better judgment says I simply should not do them. With the latter, I have done this with certain services I used to provide such as property management and landscape design. I love landscape design, but I have had a few accidents over the years that left me with some mobility issues that became major mobility issues whenever I was out tramping around on my clients’ rocky hillside properties here in Washington state. So, that was it for landscape design. As for property management, I didn’t specifically choose that kind of work, but rather sort of fell into it. So when I moved to Washington state, I gave it up.

I embrace change and progress, especially in technology. When I can find a new device or piece of software that helps me do things more efficiently, I get it and learn how to use it. I depend heavily on my computer, so I make sure I have the best system to run my software, and then I keep my essential software upgraded. I stay away from gadgets that do clever things but don’t help me in any way. I maintain my computer and my peripherals (scanner, printer, etc.), and I use the best virus control, keep my files very organized, back up some files daily and everything once a week, no exceptions. I also run a paperless office, scanning everything and then storing it in files on the computer. I also started paying my bills online in 1998, and that’s a real time-saver.

I’m also very reliable. I always deliver. I meet my own deadlines and those of my clients. I do what I say I’m going to do. This has allowed me to get repeat business and keep clients for many years. As for my own projects, I may experience occasional delays, but I always finish them. For example, as I write this article in January 2019, I’m a year behind with writing a book, but in my defense, I wrote three other books last year.

My friends and clients have described me as productive and industrious. My friend Patrick calls me “a one-woman factory,” because I do and create so many things. People often ask me how I find time to do all those things, and the answer is that I’m very organized and I don’t do anything that’s a waste of my time. I keep my office and desk very clean and neat, no cluttery distractions.

When I was self-employed in Venice Beach, I had a great assistant, a partner for one business, and as many as 35 employees. That is one way to get lots of things done. But on my own, I’m still very productive. I manage to be so productive because I’ve learned the most efficient ways to work. To begin with, I prioritize my personal and business activities. I do a lot of things, so I keep a detailed “to do” list, and I pick and choose from that list what I want and need to do, and I then put things in a detailed daily calendar which also includes my appointments, activities with family and friends, and the regular tasks I need to do each day or each week, such as laundry and checking the post office box. I also put reminders in my calendar about what projects I should be working on, whether it’s social media marketing or research for a book or writing a book or doing a cover design, etc. That way, I always know what to do.

I also don’t waste time, not even a half-hour here and there. The way I see things, every person has a limited amount of time to spend on this earth, and I want to make the best of whatever time I have, so I don’t want to spend it doing nothing, idling away my days or even my minutes. For example, if I have fifteen minutes to spare before I leave to have lunch with someone or to go to the dentist, I sit down at the computer and I work for those fifteen minutes or I clean the kitchen sink or the stove top or do some other thing that only takes fifteen minutes. This is not to say that I don’t do anything but work. I like to read, watch movies, garden, hike, etc. I have plenty of time to do those things because I don’t waste time doing my work.

I also set realistic goals for what I can achieve during a specific period of time. I don’t try to tackle every chore in one day or even in one weekend. At best, that leads to procrastination. If I need to do a lot of work in my yard, I don’t save it all up for one day. I do one little thing every day or one little part of the yard every day. That’s how I approach house cleaning too. I hate to clean house, but if I just do one little thing every day, it all gets done and I don’t feel overwhelmed by it. I also do the same when I’m dealing with upgrades or fixes to my websites, or working on a book. Do a little every day.

Lastly, I don’t waste time by running errands every day. Instead, I try to run them once a week, and on that day, I go to all the places I need to go and do all the things I need to do. I usually schedule any appointments for first thing in the morning so that when the appointment(s) is done, I can run all my other errands, the grocery store being the last one, and I always shop with a list since I don’t like shopping for anything. And I don’t procrastinate. Do it now is my motto. Don’t put off until tomorrow that which you can do today. You will always regret it if you let things pile up.