Today marks the beginning of the third week of this new venture – and I am still so very grateful for the opportunity I have. But friends, I’m also a feeling a little tapped out. As I wrote late last week, I’ve been pushing to hit my own self imposed deadline so that I can make a good impression on my potential target market tomorrow at a luncheon. Here’s the great news –Thanks to a weekend of uninterrupted work time, I’ve checked all of the “must have things” off of my to-do list.

• Website – Check (Although not perfect, it’ll work for now)
• Logo- Check
• Social Media Sites of various flavors – Check
• Business Cards – Check
• Brochure – Check
• Sales Pitch – Check

Now, the only thing that may be standing in my way of successfully marketing this idea is spilling tomato soup on my shirt. Well, that and they may not like what I have to offer. But I’ll focus on not spilling the soup, since I can control that.

I know, intelligent readers, you understand what each of those “checks” represent. Several hours of work (mostly by myself, although I called a pro to help me with the logo)… lots of the work is both tedious and brain draining at the same time. Creating something from quite literally nothing, pulling that out of your imagination through your fingers onto a computer screen – into something that seems remotely marketable – that’s hard work!

Since I had three straight days of solitude in which to accomplish all of this (Seriously, I didn’t leave my house and yard from Thursday afternoon until I picked up my husband at the airport last night), I can now report on the inside scoop of working exclusively at a home office. As I’m sure you’ve read – there are pros and cons.  I love the feeling of being in complete control of my schedule. I can work on what I want, when I want. 3:00 AM? Sounds like a great time to open an Instagram account. 9:00 PM? It’s a perfect time to design my business cards and send them off to the printer. I guess I don’t really need that much sleep – seems like 5 hours a night was all I can seem to focus on these days. That’s right – I need focus to actually sleep.

Here’s the truth about this idea of Entrepreneurism, especially in the start up phase. You are never NOT working. NEVER.  While my mind is no longer racing at 100MPH – it’s always moving – never quiet – always full of colorful images. It’s like being on stimulants, but completely natural. It’s so very energizing! Except for when your body tells you – enough. Stop typing. Stop writing. Stop texting, posting, tweeting, drawing.  Time to relax. Because you only have yourself to blame if something doesn’t get done (Which I love!), I just keep going. I’m like the little engine that could. This is an over developed skill for me – I can just churn out work for hours at a time if I can concentrate and am properly motivated. My body really does give out before my mind does. What a great problem to have, right?

Here are some tips that some highly productive and professional work at homers have given me – perhaps you have more for me!

• Hygiene still matters. Bathe every day, brush your teeth and comb your hair. Rolling out of bed and starting to work in your pajamas may sound like a dream, but I can attest to the fact that you tend to just stay in your PJ’s all day and then eventually crawl back into bed. You do that more than two days in a row, and you can imagine the issue there.
• Along the same lines – wear real clothes – preferably CLEAN. Clothes with buttons, zippers and ties. Choose your clothes from a hanger or a drawer – not from the perennial pile of stuff that be washed (See #1)
• Put shoes on EVERY DAY. Even if you don’t need to. Slippers don’t count. Flip flops don’t really count either. Oh – and they need to match each other – no mismatches! Shoes will help you with the next one:
• GET UP AND WALK AROUND! Yes- that’s me shouting. This past Sunday – I was horrified to look at my fitbit at 6:00pm and see that I had only taken 1,250 steps. You read that right. I had at least done some yardwork on Saturday; Sunday was too rainy to do any garden tours – I didn’t even go and get the paper from the front door. There could have been a Purple hippo hanging out in my front yard and I wouldn’t have noticed. If “Sitting is the new smoking”, I’ll be dead from butt cancer before I get my first client.
• Don’t forget to eat. Now – if you know me you’d say – not possible – Jenny loves to cook and enjoy a good meal. True. But left to my own devices, I’ll eat a Lean Cuisine every day for a month if it’s fast and hassle free. These days, I eat breakfast after working for a couple of hours, consumed lunch when I remembered, around 2 or 3.  Dinner usually was around 7 or 8. It’s like I’m back in college.
• Make sure you have a recycling bin and a garbage can in your work area/office. I was amazed at how quickly the diet coke cans line up. Like little support pods of caramel coloring and fake sugar. When I’ve made my way through a pot of coffee, I average a can of diet coke every two hours and doesn’t stop until dinner. I promised I was going to take them downstairs to the big recycling bin… yep – that didn’t happen.
• Tear yourself away from the computer. Look outside, pet the dog, touch some dirt and nature. Talk to a stranger. Your body and brain will thank you.  Don’t pick up your phone and use that as your computer’s surrogate!
• Lastly and most importantly if you live in a quiet neighborhood and have no other humans in your house, don’t let the quiet overwhelm you. I swear that for about three hours on Sunday, I was working in a space capsule floating just above the atmosphere. A radio on in another room helped me get over that creepy feeling fast.

I know this phase of my business venture won’t last forever. Before I can count to 100, I’ll have emails and phone calls to return, proposals to write and all sorts of outside stimulation. But for right now – this is the longest period of sustained isolated lock-down I have ever been in. I have a lot to show for it – I’m ready to take advantage of this opportunity! As long as I don’t show up, business cards in had, sales pitch memorized and promptly fall asleep in my bowl of soup!