I Hate My Boss!

Many of us leave our corporate jobs to get away from officepolitics, long hours and most of all, an unreasonable boss. Ournewfound freedom, however, often leaves us working for a muchtougher boss: ourselves. If you're tired of working for a jerk,these suggestions will help you enjoy working for yourself.

• Set designated work hours and keep them. The inabilityto stop working well past normal office hours is common whenyou're your own boss. Get in the habit of working from aspecific time each morning until a certain time each evening. Ofcourse, last minute deadlines will affect your hours, but overall,if you don't set limits, you'll work too much and burn outtoo quickly. You wouldn't ask an employee to work those hours,so give yourself a break.

• Keep your "to do" list reasonable. It'seasy to make the mistake of scheduling several tasks to accomplishin one day when in reality, you have time for only a few. Anoverloaded list is daunting and an open invitation toprocrastination. Rewrite your list at the end of each day or firstthing each morning, and determine a realistic number of tasks totackle that day. In your daily planner, set aside time for phonecalls, marketing, correspondence and any other tasks you need toaccomplish.