Anybody else struggle with working from home?

[staranise]

As in, I'm meant to be working right now and am paying a fortune in childcare to enable me to do so but just can't get motivated, especially when I work sitting on my bed plus keep jumping up and down to put another load of washing on, tidy up some toys etc etc.

I normaly ban MN on work days but feeling weak today...

Wouldlove some colleagues to keep me focussed...

how does maternity allowance work for freelancers? do you get a set amount or is it based on your earnings? do you still have to work 32 hours?

not pg again yet but sort of thinking about it...

If you are earning more than £30 a week you qualify for MA:
www.goniec.com/upload/Niezbednik/form5.pdf

I had DS2 while a freelancer so got some dosh to tide me over for a bit. We're also TTCing for number three at the moment...so will need to get MA again if we get lucky. I had an MC in May but on the TTC bandwaggon again!

Today my DSs are definitely suffering from school holiday madness. They are antagonizing each other - just like me and my brother and sister used to do - it used to drive my mum nuts!

Managed to get to the gym yesterday - but soon as I came out for my shower - I had 4 missed calls - had gotten someone's hol pay mixed up and had to spend a sweaty half hour sorting it out! So stressful!
Not much chance of work this weekend - unless I can enough energy to do it in the eve. dh playing golf all today and I'll have to take ds to party tomorrow.

Morning everyone, I'm going to have to work this morning as got sidetracked yesterday afternoon by the DS's wanting to go for a bike ride etc. They've promised me they are going to sit quietly in front of the TV and watch a film while mummy works this morning but I'm not holding my breath. Summer holidays are so difficult with trying to fit work around the DS's being home. It's raining too, so I can't turf them outside they're going to be under my feet all day and are going to need entertaining aah.

Thanks Becky. Does this mean I should be doing my accounts in weeks then, rather than months? I am new to this whole freelancing thing, so my 'accounts' currently consists of one Excel file and a file of invoices. Don't even know if I should have more than this...

Laugs - my accounting system is 3 excel spreadsheet pages and a diary; plus invoice letters for rent paid. If you are not earnign a huge sum I don't think you need much more than that; I earn less than £15K a year in my self-employed role so tax return is fairly simple - it gets more complex if you earn more than £15K - hope Becky can help you!

Oh good. I don't think I will even earn enough to pay tax this year, but I want to be on the safe side.

I forgot to say - my spreadsheets are divvied up by week, not month, just so you know.

Do they include the number of hours you've worked as well?
I get paid per job, not by the hour, and by monthly invoice. So should I artificially divide the work into hours/ weeks?

well, the reason I do it in weeks is because I worked in a clinic for a number of hours per week (9 basic plus any extra).
It sounds as though you would be better leaving yours as monthly or you will be creating extra unnecessary work for yourself.
In the end, the taxman is only intersted in the annual figure anyway - the rest is for you to keep tabs on how you are doing. Becky or someone will be able to tell you if there is any other reason for doing it monthly vs. weekly.

Thanks thumbwitch.

I have one spreadsheet and I have a worksheet for each job each month so ongoing ones are 'bla bla job June', 'bla bla job July' etc. Each month worksheet has a column for each day and I put in minutes / hours worked and the sum of hours per day at the bottom. I invoice for each job (or each month if the job is ongoing) but know roughly my monthly earnings, which are always above £30 per week.

I've just got back from five days in Wales by the sea staying in my dad's caravan in Borth. I decided to go on Sunday and we set off on Monday, the DSs and I and got back today. I emailed all my clients / work people on Sunday and felt terribly guilty all week but they were all very understanding since I never do that normally and am going to slog my guts out this weekend to make up. I even had to have a tele-meeting on the beach on Tuesday, which was, errr, different!

I should add that even if the job is a fixed sum I total up the hours out of interest anyway so I can then divide the sum by the hours to see what I earned per hour anyway.

So do you record the actual hours worked, or artificially spread these hours across the month to make working weeks?

Maybe this only applies to certain jobs, but I might get paid, say, £200 for a job that took 2 days, but then nothing for the rest of the month.

Does this make me more vulnerable from a tax/ maternity allowance point of view, or doesn't it matter?

Hope you had a lovely time in Wales by the way. MY DP is off this week, but (un)fortunately I was offered work I didn't want to tunr down, so we're staying at home. A few more lie-ins for me though!

I use a timer for motivation. 20 mins work earns me 5 min break. This can be a sit down and drink coffee and do nothing break or a hang up washing or hoover a floor break. (Only time housework feels like a welcome break! - Also childcare for 2 cheaper than a cleaner here so not really wasting money). Also find working on a computer with no internet connection really helps. Laptop in the kitchen online for breaks. Having fixed breaks helps reduced face stuffing since I don?t have to pretend to myself I?m hungry to allow myself time off.

I record actual hours worked (2.53 so far today!). But that is for the same job.

I think the maternity thing asks for an average per week but I'm not sure.

We did have a lovely time, despite it raining most of the time. My DSs really enjoyed digging in the sand.

I need motivation. I find housework and the lure of the biscuit tin so distracting.

DH downloaded the Thorn Birds a couple of weeks ago and I have been watching it off and on in installments when I get the chance. I last saw it when I was about ten I think and ooooh did I so want to marry Richard Chamberlain! He used to make my stomach flip. Now I watch it and think how smarmy he is!

heh heh - I know what you mean about being disappointed when re-watching things that made you swoon when you were young - I had a real thing for Anthony Andrews in Brideshead Revisited (was too naive to realise at first what was going on there! ) and then when I saw it again some years later I was even more that I had thought he was lovely!!

I now officially have my list of jobs to do as freelance person - so will need motivating from this week onwards to actually achieve 10 hours per week!

What are your main motivators, ladies? and any gents?

Motivations: money. During term time when the DSs are at preschool / childminder I know that the time they are away is so precious that I just get down to work as best I can and make the most of the uninterrupted time I have. At the moment motivation is hard (ie school hols) but I have to get the work done somehow.

money and deadlines = motivation here. Holidays are actually easier for me as the DDs will amuse each other. Termtime only DD3 is here, and needs a lot more attention, as her sisters aren't there to play Barbies with her.

Money is a motivator for me - so soon as the Visa bills arrive - I'm motivated for work. 1 hour = £20 so I break it into 1 or 2 hour chunks in the hols.

But I do leave things till a boss is screaming for figures - I'd like to be more organised and have no backlog and have stuff ready well before deadlines loom.

Am off to South Coast tomorrow for a couple of days to catch up with friends - hope the weather is better than up here!

Packing glasses up today in prep for house move in two weeks. I wish I were getting paid to do this...its hard work!

Just having a quick catch up on threads...back from hols on Fridays, wet weekend and then up to my eyeballs in work. Strangely I am rather enjoying being so busy - less time for faffing that's for sure.

You all sound busy too what with pregnancies and moving house...glad it's just work load for me!

For me motivation is time off, all to myself. I have three days childcare a week, Mon-Weds, so if I know I can scoot through my work and then nip out for a coffee and to read the paper, or even, bliss, to the cinema on Wednesday afternoon, that really gets me going.

When I worked in an office the prospect of an after-work drink used to work wonders for getting through stuff

well, not doing too well so far on the motivation - i can't seem to get to the freelance stuff until after DS is asleep and then i don't get more than an hour or so done. . must pick up my game...

I am working from home today and it's sooo boring, I just can't stay focussed. I even contemplated doing the ironing earlier.

DD is back in 45 mins [sigh]

My motivator ordinarily is money but sometimes it just doesn't work, like today.