Well, it’s our current work from home to do list, actually, but it often feels that our work from home to do list gets longer instead of shorter, so it’s perhaps a typical work from home to do list as well as a current work from home to do list.

This list (scroll down further to see it) and info probably also give a little insight into what may go into working from home if you too decide to start working from home doing similar things.

When we start feeling a little stressed or overwhelmed at all the work from home we need to do, or when we need to prioritize, making a work from home to do list helps relieve the stress a little, and helps make us feel more organized and ready to tackle it all, hence this list.

One can think about it all, but it really helps (us anyway) to actually write it down or type it up. If just thinking about it and not actually writing it all down, then the first thing on a mental to do list (for us) is to write the to do list!

I wrote it down, and also typed it up and emailed it to an American friend / client of ours, who helpfully replied with some notes on how to get the to do list even more organized.

I had it all in one long list, and it included things we need to do only when we get that work in (things we don’t have to do right now, but would have to if the work came in so as not to keep a client or customer waiting too long.

We need to increase our work from home income. This means we need to try kill many birds with one stone or split our work from home time between:

– quick responses and getting the work done when new work comes in

– marketing for more work

– adding more content to our sites – which serves many purposes including the previous one here: marketing for more work – just adding more content to our sites helps us get more work in, or helps us earn more, due to the extra content helping to increase natural traffic to our sites (more chances of getting found in search results of Google or other search engines).

It is obvious that we need to work fairly quickly when we actually get a new client or customer, but in order to increase our work from home income we also need to split our time up between two other things:

– working on things (besides working with a new client or customer) that can increase our income quite quickly (within 2 to 3 months),

– and working on things that, although they may be a good way to earn quite a bit more than the short-term income earners, will take longer or lots more work before those things get to the point of doing well for us.

We cannot take forever to get work done for new clients or customers, and not do other things that will help us earn some income within 2 to 3 months, while all we do is work on the bigger earners – bigger earners that won’t make us money for some time yet. If we worked on only the bigger project/s, we’d have no current income for our living expenses for quite a while.

It can be frustrating or stressful not having enough time or current income or back-up monies to allow us to spend tons of time on the bigger earning project that we have in mind. While we understand that we need to work with the quicker earning smaller projects first, we also don’t want to spend absolutely no time on the longer-to-get-there bigger earning project!

Gosh, am I finally going to get to
THE WORK FROM HOME TO DO LIST?!

Three main goals of this work from home to do list:
– to be more organized
– to make progress with getting work done
– to increase income

Split into high priority, medium priority, and low priority.

Also if for both Tony and I, or for just Tony, or for just me, Terry.

Let’s go!

HIGH PRIORITY

Both Tony and I:

– get some work done for our over-four-years-now American client

– go do any beach family photo shoots or product / premises photo shoot work that comes in

– write perhaps 10 posts each for our “big project” site so that at least it can get started

Tony:

– work for / with a new local web client – and related email exchanges

– work for / with an existing local web client doing big changes for their site – and related email exchanges

– any work and related email exchanges that comes in relating to: updates or alterations to existing clients’ sites, new web (and domain registration and hosting) clients, face-to-face or telephonic website-related consultations, face-to-face or telephonic WordPress lessons, setting up emails at a client’s business or home

– any work that comes in related to: cleaning driftwood pieces, packaging driftwood or sea glass or craft product items for sending off to the customers, burning DVD’s after a photo shoot we’ve done

– any work that comes in related to making a custom craft item or items as per order / specifications

Terry:

– any work that comes in related to on-page SEO or website text content editing

– upload photos from camera to computer, edit photos and do other special edits after a beach family photo shoot or web client’s products/premises photo shoot, and copy to a flash for Tony to then burn to a DVD from his computer

– change the look of the “big project” site (the site is already existing but there is barely any content there so far)

– create a keyword list of at least 1 000 keywords with their search volume, so Tony and I can use it for writing on certain topics for the “big project” site

– create a rough general list of different amounts of words for posts (example 300 to 350 words, 350 to 400 words etc), and the rough required repetition of keywords for that amount of words to get a keyword density for each post of between 1.5 and 4 % – and refer to this when writing a new post for any site, but in particular when writing for the “big project” site.

– add the 20 posts (10 written by Tony; 10 written by myself) to the “big project” site, and fill in the SEO plugin for each of them

– any necessary email exchanges with customers/clients re sea glass, driftwood, other market products of ours, photo shoots, sometimes re websites or blogs and SEO too

– any work that comes in related to driftwood, sea glass or craft product orders: sorting the pieces, arranging into lots, photographing the lots, labeling the photographed lots’ packets or other containers to be the same as the photo file name/number (in case the potential customer does not go through with the order, then at least it’s all ready for another potential customer), edit / resize the photos, email them to the potential customer.

– make changes or updates on the driftwoodforsale.co.za site where we mention that parcels are posted only via the post office – the South African post office service is a little risky right now, and we need to let potential customers know (on the site before they don’t bother to contact us or find out only after emailing us) that we can (and have been) also posting via Postnet to Postnet. It’s more expensive, but less risky.

– remove any photos of lots of sea glass or driftwood if those lots have been sold

– get more clients or customers (or visitors to our sites) through marketing – by adding some more search engine optimized content pages or posts to 4 of our sites (besides the “big project” site) – I need to do tons of this, as we’re sorely lacking in the effective or enough marketing department, and we can’t increase our work from home income unless we get more visitors to our sites, but for high priority I can do just a few pages or posts, and can use posts I’ve already written that just need to be added.

MEDIUM PRIORITY

Both Tony and I:

– go sell at good craft markets

– write more posts for our “big project” site

– collect driftwood

– collect sea glass

– keep records of expenses and income, and of hours worked etc

Tony:

– preparing and emailing existing clients annual domain and hosting renewal reminder messages and invoices twice a month

– make more stock for craft markets – anything not sold at the few craft markets we go to throughout the year can go towards a build up of stock for the busy December markets – we ran out of time to have enough stock made ahead of the December markets last time and could have made a lot more money in December if we’d had more stock already made

– finish removing posts from Bubblews (so they can start de-indexing from search engines ahead of being re-published elsewhere)

Terry:

– finish removing posts from Bubblews

– add any further posts Tony and I have written for the “big project” site to the site and fill in the SEO plugin for each

– add a few more already-written posts to tant.co.za, beachy.co.za, and driftwoodforsale.co.za sites

– write and add a few more posts to tant.co.za, beachy.co.za and driftwoodforsale.co.za sites

– move pages about sea glass from this site tant.co.za to the beachy.co.za site

– sort driftwood and sea glass and craft products into different sizes or lots etc, ready for photographing

– photograph the lots of driftwood or sea glass or craft products, label the photographed lots’ packets or other containers to be the same as the photo file name/number, edit / resize the photos, upload them to the site (either beachy.co.za or driftwoodforsale.co.za) for selling those lots or items from our sites.

– write and add a page of content for each of the services we offer on this site tant.co.za

– check for broken links on this site tant.co.za and remove or edit them

LOW PRIORITY

Both Tony and I:

– look for more ideas for new-to-our-existing-range craft products Tony can make related to bottles, leather, driftwood, sea glass etc and discuss with each other

Tony:

– make Terry a larger-than-bathroom-mat-size rectangular frame with nails on two ends (weaving loom)

– add more posts to oldposts.co.za

Terry:

– add more posts to blogposts.co.za

– make small mats with the weaving loom Tony will make for me

– update pages of content on this site tant.co.za that are about or that include mention of Bubblews with a message saying the earnings rates have changed there, and in the same message perhaps add a few words and link to our list of 3000 ways to earn extra income page

– remove any links to Bubblews that are on this site tant.co.za

– look for and join more referral programs / affiliate sites and add the ads/links to tant.co.za and blogposts.co.za

– put the beach family photo shoots page back on beachy.co.za but first edit it, and have some different or new photos already resized and ready to add to the page too

– write more articles for selling them on Constant Content (and add them to Constant Content).

– add photos of sold sea glass lots and sold driftwood lots (to the appropriate page or pages on beachy.co.za or to driftwoodforsale.co.za)

Conclusion
Phew! a lot to get done – but at least creating this work from home to do list, and separating the high priority, medium priority and low priority projects, has made it all make a lot more sense now 🙂

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2015