Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Tips on Watching the U.S Open for Tennis when you are Self-Employed

So this is the final week for the U.S Open for Tennis and the men's singles play has been phenomenal. For anyone engaged in work at a home office, the temptation for turning on the television to watch the world's finest tennis matches can be overwhelming. The TV ads will constantly tell you to "never miss a moment," making it even more difficult to meet your deadlines and be productive.

Today's matches for example, kept me glued to the television set ALL day ( mind you I wasn't feeling well so it wasn't hard to do- I was already on the couch).

That aside, with a few more work days to go- how can you keep your productivity up and not miss the best matches? See if any of these tips might help.

1. Get up REALLY early in the morning and try to put in four hours of work before the telecast starts at 9:00am- then you won't feel too bad taking out the time for a match.
2. Stay up REALLY late and work overtime so you can essentially take part of the morning off the next day for tennis. Burning the candle at both ends-good stuff!
3. Check the Tennis schedule and plan your day around a possible match. Prepare for rain delays and five setters. Only watch the people you are really interested in cheering for. Don't waste your time on tennis you don't really care about. ( For me- I find most of the women's tennis absolutely boring unless there is a real contender to wipe out one of the Williams sisters. Even upsets don't seem to matter much because those fashion diva's just keep on going! I pray for the day that women's tennis becomes interesting again!)
5. Go to the U.S Open Org site and have the scores sent to your phone or computer on the hour to keep you in the loop. If you can't watch the games at least you can cheer silently as you are working on your computer.
6. If you can't watch any tennis during the day-plan to watch the night games. That is if the TV will show them. TSN is notorious for switching up to TSN2 which I can't find on my cable anywhere!
7. Plan your lunch hour around a possible match. I have a friend who doesn't allow himself any tennis until 1:00pm everyday. Stick to your schedule. If you are working at home chances are you can manipulate your 8 hours to suit who you want to watch for tennis.
8. If you can't watch any other tennis you need to watch at least one game played by Federer and Nadal. With luck it will be the final.

And Finally, plan your vacation around the U.S Open. I did and it's been great!

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