Movement to eliminate school property taxes pushes for support in Western Pennsylvania

TARENTUM, PA. (TNS) Local supporters of eliminating school property taxes think spending by districts is out of control: Schools are overstaffed, class sizes are too small and pensions are too big.They say the responsibility to pay for those costs falls on homeowners — an expanding, aging population who increasingly cannot afford to stay in their homes.“But I want to stress the word ‘everybody' — not just the property owners, everybody — has [...]

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Snydersville Diner goes on the market

Apricot crumb, pineapple cheese, and a dozen other varieties of pies are stacked on shelves in a tall, vertical showcase inside the entrance of the Snydersville Diner. It is the restaurant’s specialty — local people know where to go if they want a good dessert.The landmark Hamilton Township restaurant, which has operated for 80 years, is for sale. The owner, Bill Kaperski is ready to retire.The bustle of the breakfast crowd extends far beyond the customary [...]

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Pocono Brewing Company to reopen

The Pocono Brewing Company, also known as PBC, is coming back. And it may feature beers like Big Pocono and Grey Towers.The restaurant is reopening sometime in April under the new management of its owners after closing a year ago. It will spotlight Italian-American food offerings and a variety of on-site brewed beers in a family atmosphere.Silvio Vitiello of Tobyhanna bought the restaurant in 2014 after his Gilbert restaurant, Luna Rosa, in Polk Township, burned down. He [...]

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ESU student running for Stroudsburg school board

Alex Reincke wants you to bring up his age.The East Stroudsburg University student is studying international relations and comparative studies under the political science major. He’s a 2015 graduate of Stroudsburg High School, where in his senior year he served as president of the model congress club and public relations chair for the annual Mini-Thon fundraiser.Reincke was also the Stroudsburg school board student representative his senior year, at a time when he said [...]

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Planning, planting begin months ahead for farmers

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Spring may be weeks away, but Westmoreland County farmers already are sowing the seeds for summer success.Paul Sarver, 55, owner of Sarver Hill Farms in Hempfield Township, is seeing sprouts of his customers' favorite crop: kale."Yeah, that's a big thing right now. Greens as a whole are big right now," he said.Many of his greens — lettuce, kale, cabbage and even peppers — have been growing in flats in his greenhouse since the [...]

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'So much more to tell'

February is Black History Month. Established by the federal government in 1976, this month-long celebration is dedicated to recognizing the important role African-Americans played in the development of the United States. Interestingly, in 1926, Carter Woodson, a NAACP leader and historian, first established “Negro History Week,” which was celebrated the second week in February. This week coincided with both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass’s birthdays.In the [...]

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Bee numbers down, but everyone can fight problem

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Bees, pollinators for much of the world's food supply, are still suffering severe drops in their populations. Experts and local beekeepers say the best way for the average person to help is to avoid using harmful pesticides in their gardens, plant bee-friendly flowers and to become a beekeeper.Bees pollinate 1/3 of the United States' food supply. Many of the world's most important and nutritious crops are pollinated by insects, with bees, particularly honey [...]

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12 Strategies for Maintaining Focus While Working at Home

I’ve been working from home on at least a regular basis for more than a decade, and on a full-time basis for nearly a decade. Over the years, I’ve come to learn quite a lot about what it takes to effectively telecommute for your work.

The number one thing? It absolutely requires the ability to focus.

Our homes are gigantic pits of distraction. There are always chores to be done. There are always sources of entertainment to distract you. Even worse, you don’t have any sort of threat of your boss looking over your shoulder to see if you’re still working. Either your boss is remote or you don’t have a boss at all.

Generally, the expectation of a person working from home is that they are delivering certain products on a certain schedule and that they’re available for some meetings. Outside of that, your boss and/or your clients generally don’t care when you do the work, just that it gets done and that it arrives on their desk when expected.

That encourages procrastination. That encourages a lack of focus. That encourages you to say, “Well, I need to get the laundry done and the dishes done and there’s nothing too urgent right now, so I’ll do those chores… and look, there’s an interesting segment on SportsCenter… and gee, this book sitting here looks pretty interesting…” and four hours pass.

If you do that too much, you’re going to be caught in a deadline crunch. If you get caught in too many deadline crunches, you’re going to start missing deadlines. If you do that very often at all, you’re probably going to lose clients, lose the perk of telecommuting, or even lose your job.

The key to solving that problem is focus. Being able to sit down at home and bear down on your work and get things done is absolutely vital to success when you’re working from home. It’s the ingredient that matters.

Over the years, I’ve managed to figure out a ton of effective strategies for focusing while working at home. Here are some of the best strategies I’ve learned.

Strategy #1: Set and keep a daily schedule.

A daily schedule that you stick to day-in and day-out is absolutely vital for keeping a steady forward progress on all of the tasks you have on the table (or digging for more tasks if you happen to have an empty slate at the moment). Walling off certain hours exclusively for work purposes is absolutely vital if you’re working from home or else you’ll find that distractions and other things keep interfering.

Personally, most days, I get up quite early – around 5:30 AM or so – and start writing, researching, and brainstorming almost immediately (I use the restroom, drink a big glass of water, and dig in). Other than a break from around 7:00 to 7:30 to see my kids off to school and do one or two minor tasks around the house (which I’ll mention again in a bit) and a break to stretch in the mid-morning, I generally work right on until noon. I do a bit more in the early afternoon sometimes, but that’s usually the end of my workday. I do this about six days a week, so if you do the math, that’s about a 40-hour workweek, give or take a bit (6.5 hours a day, six days a week).

I make that schedule almost sacrosanct. Nothing interferes with it if I can possibly help it. Before noon, Monday through Saturday, I’m working.

Because of that, I have a strong mindset that the morning hours are when I am working. I work before lunch, and anything else I’m doing then is something I shouldn’t be doing. That ensures that I always have a block of time within which to get my work done and that things won’t dig into that block of time unless it’s an absolute crisis.

That mindset – that you still have “working hours” and that time is devoted to work – is incredibly valuable. It can create something of a “mental switch” in your head, just like a normal workday at a different place of employment can do. At certain times of the day, you’re working, and it’s as simple as that.

Strategy #2: End each workday with a period of reflection on successes and failures.

The reality is that as you begin to adjust to working at home, you’re going to find some aspects of it very different and likely very difficult. It’s not easy to maintain focus and be productive when you suddenly don’t have a supervisor over your shoulder. It’s a real change to be at home alone working when you’re used to coworkers. It’s a different environment, too.

Those changes can really cloud your judgment and make for all kinds of challenges. As you adjust, you’re going to try things, some of them will work, and some of them will not.

That’s where a period of daily reflection comes in. It’s simply a period of time that you set aside for intentionally reflecting on what’s working and what isn’t in terms of working at home, and why those things are succeeding or failing. The purpose is to figure out ways to minimize or eliminate the problems and maximize the successes.

I personally use journaling as a tool for this. At some point each day, often during the early afternoon, I stop for a few minutes and think about the things that are going well and the things that aren’t going well in my professional life (and other aspects of my life). I then try to tease through those issues by figuring out why something is succeeding and, more often, why something is failing. What’s really happening here? How can I fix it? Can I even fix it?

By making this kind of thinking a regular part of your day, you’ll remain vigilant against many of the traps that working from home can lead you into, such as wasting more time than you think.

Strategy #3: Have a specific place in your home where you work.

For some people, a home office – a small room that’s intended for working – might be the right place to work. For others, particularly in a smaller home or apartment, an office might not be realistic, so a “working nook” or even a “working chair” might be more appropriate.

Whatever it is, identify a place that you primarily use only for work. The reason for this is twofold. One, it gives you a clear place to keep all of your work-related items, like your computers or your chargers or your “everyday carry bag.” Two, it provides a place where you can execute a mental switch into “work mode.”

This mental switch is surprisingly important. The simple move of having a specific place that means “work” in your head gives you a ton of little visual and environmental cues that it’s time to get down to business and stop doing personal things.

I’m lucky enough to have a home office – it’s a tiny little bedroom that’s also used as a library and game storage room. There’s a desk and some shelves in one corner that’s my work space. When I’m there and it’s morning – which I visually signify with light coming in the east window – I know that it’s time for me to be working. It’s a shockingly effective mental cue.

Strategy #4: Find an ‘alternative workplace’ or two outside of your home, and maintain a ‘portable office’ bag.

Sometimes, however, you can’t work from home. Perhaps there’s construction going on nearby or maybe your spouse is home and is distracting you. It might even be something where you just need a change in environment.

For those situations, having an “alternate workplace” is a good idea. It’s a place you can go that also signifies “work” in your head, but you are in a somewhat different environment. That change in environment can often spur on creative thought.

I personally use a study room at the local library as my “alternate workplace.” I tend to use it when I need to brainstorm, so I’ll go through the shelves at the library, grab a bunch of personal finance books and magazines, head into a study room, close the door, and get down to work. I take tons of notes and come up with article ideas and article outlines. The change in environment is really conducive to changing my thinking.

To make this easy, it’s well worth spending the time to have a “portable office” bag or an “everyday carry” bag if at all possible. The contents of that bag are simply all of the things you need to work effectively somewhere else.

My “everyday carry” bag is a North Face backpack that holds my laptop, a bunch of chargers and charging cables and backup batteries, a bunch of pens and notebooks, and a few reference materials, along with a few basic toiletry items. I know that whenever I need to change environments, I can just grab that bag and I have everything I need for work.

Strategy #5: At the beginning of your day, start loads of dishes and laundry.

This seems like a bizarre suggestion, but it is incredibly helpful for me personally in terms of keeping household distractions at bay. During my first break in the morning, when I’m getting the children ready for school, I also spend some of that time unloading and loading the dishwasher, putting clothes from the washing machine into the dryer, and putting a new load in the washing machine.

If things go well, I can start a load of clothes washing, a load of clothes drying, and a load of dishes washing all at the same time right after the kids leave for school and just before I get back to work.

When I do that, and I return to my workspace, I feel really productive that morning. It’s because in the back of my mind, I know that dishes are being cleaned and clothes are being cleaned and dried as I type. It provides a strong sense of multitasking without any need to break my focus.

Try it. If you have tasks around your house that are more passive in nature, like washing clothes or washing dishes or cooking a meal in the slow cooker, start those things before you settle in for work. You’ll find that the simple passive sense that personal tasks are being completed in the background makes you feel a lot more productive about your day and a lot less drawn to pull yourself away for personal tasks.

Strategy #6: Figure out which times of the day are most conducive to your focus, and work during those periods.

Some of us are morning people – I’m raising my own hand here. Other people work better in the afternoon. My sister-in-law is a complete night owl and seems to do her best work at three in the morning when her house is absolutely quiet. We’re all different. The key is to figure out what makes you really tick and take advantage of it.

What time of the day do you work most effectively? Are you like a zombie in the morning but start clicking in the afternoon? If that’s true, don’t be afraid to sleep in more and spend the morning doing mindless tasks and then settle in for a full afternoon of work. Are you someone who hits peak thinking right after arising from bed? Then start your workday as soon as possible, even when you’re still in your pajamas.

Pay attention to your own body and your own mind and figure out when the best time for you to work really is, then use that freedom that telecommuting gives you to work during those times. Save the more mindless personal tasks for periods outside of those times.

Strategy #7: Turn off digital distractions during those key focus periods.

So, you’ve identified your peak period for focus and you have a distinct place to work that’s got all of your stuff in place that you need. What else is important? The next step is simply eliminating as many digital distractions as you can.

Turn off your cell phone. Close your web browser. Disconnect from Wi-Fi. Turn off as many digital distractions as you possibly can in order to help you focus in on the task at hand.

The more distractions you have, the more you’re going to find that it’s easy to step away from your task and get sucked into something else, and every time you do that, you’ll find that there’s a loss in focus and concentration when you return to your old task.

Some of the worst digital distractions include notifications from your cell phone that emit some kind of audio or vibration, a web browser or other live updating window in the background of your screen, or an app on your computer that provides social media updates constantly. Turn off all of those that you possibly can. It’s fine to have them running at other times, but when you need to bear down on a task, they’re not helpful at all.

• Related: Productivity Apps Are No Match for a Simple Timer

Strategy #8: Use ‘focusing audio’ by playing it in the background.

Unexpected noise can be a pretty significant distraction. I know I get distracted all the time by little noises of people going about normal activities in my neighborhood. I’ll hear a little clatter or the revving of an engine in the distance and I’m distracted.

What works for me in terms of solving that problem is to have some kind of background noise or simple music going at all times. An audio stream that’s conducive to focus can be incredibly helpful in terms of eliminating those audio distractions and helping you keep your attention where it should be.

For this purpose, I like to use the audio from the YouTube channel Relax Sleep ASMR. Almost any of their 10-hour videos will do the trick. Find one that seems to click with you. I particularly like their Arctic Ocean and icebreaker video and often have it playing in the background quietly as I work.

Such audio seems to effectively cancel out minor sounds in the area. It also seems to help some people – myself included – to focus better on the task in front of them.

Strategy #9: Try to get in the ‘flow’ as much as you can.

The book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes a mindset where people are so fully engaged with the task in front of them that they seemingly lose all track of the world around them. Every spare bit of their brainpower is sucked into successfully completing or progressing on the task at hand.

Wikipedia describes it like this:

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does.

Every time you can achieve a “flow state,” you’ll find yourself getting a large amount of very good work done very quickly. There isn’t a recipe for everyone getting into that flow state because everyone works differently, but there’s often a combination of factors – many of which are strategies in this article – that increase the chances of a person dropping into a flow state.

I have several personal tricks that work well for me – dropping distractions, listening to focusing audio, drinking black coffee and green tea on an alternating basis – but there’s no perfect recipe for everyone. However, I will say that flow states are the source of the vast majority of my work and I strive to get into those states as often as I can.

Experiment. See what things you do help you to drift into a state where you’re sucked into your work and lose track of time and space. Try to find the common factors that trigger such a mental state for you, and repeat them so that it becomes a common thing. The more time you spend in that state, the more you can get done, and thus the less time you have to spend in front of your desk and the more time you can spend doing other things at home.

Strategy #10: ‘Bank’ as much work as possible and use every droplet of focused time.

Telecommuting – and especially self-employed work from home – often puts you in a situation where you don’t really have blocked-off vacation times or sick leave. If you get sick, then you’re probably missing deadlines unless you’ve prepared for that illness.

Your best strategy, if possible, is to simply “bank” as much work as you can in preparation for that downtime. If you’re a writer, have a few “timeless” pieces ready to go in case you’re sick or have a personal emergency. If you make videos, do the same.

Another useful strategy is to establish timelines for projects that bring you to completion well in advance of the actual due date. For example, if you have a month to complete a project, shoot to have it finished in three weeks and plan accordingly. That way, if an illness or an emergency interferes, it doesn’t derail your work and it doesn’t reflect poorly on your organizational skills.

Strategy #11: Block off times for professional development.

When you work from home, it is incredibly easy to blow off professional development. It can often feel like the “unimportant” part of your day and when you’re at home, there are infinite things to distract you that seem important and enticing.

Don’t let that happen. Make professional development a regular part of your work schedule. You should set aside time at least once a week to sharpen your skills and learn new parallel skills.

For example, I intentionally set aside time to learn new things about personal finance, about topics parallel to the field like self-improvement, and about writing practices as well. I intentionally write things in completely different voices (think snarky, for example) just to practice and flesh out my writing chops. This keeps my writing skills sharp; they’re currently honed to be fast and solid rather than slow and great.

• Related: Making a ‘Future Self Friday’

Strategy #12: Find small rituals that signify the ‘start’ of a block of work and the ‘end’ of a block of work.

This is another way to mentally signal yourself that your work day is starting. You simply do a certain number of things at the start of your workday and collectively they indicate that work is about to begin.

For me, that usually involves drinking a bunch of water, pouring a cup of black coffee, stretching a little, walking up the stairs, going into my office, turning on all the lights, and closing the door. Those steps, in order, signify a mental shift into work mode.

Your steps might be different – and, in fact, probably should be different. Just look for things to do that properly set the mood for working in your head and then make those steps into a “ritual” of sorts.

You can do the same thing at the end of your day, but I find the transition away from a work mindset to be much easier. Mine is usually just a block of journaling about my day, as mentioned above.

Final Thoughts

Working from home offers a ton of freedom and opportunity, but it also leaves the door wide open to a lot of mistakes and mis-steps. Most of these mistakes and mis-steps can be avoided by simply having some smart strategies in place to encourage focus on one’s professional work.

These 12 steps are a key part of how I’m able to work effectively from home and maintain focus no matter what’s going on around me. Hopefully, they can work effectively for you, too.

Good luck!

Related Articles:

• The Secret of the Launch Pad
• The Tools I Use to Manage Work, Money, and Life
• What I Learned from Working Remotely, and Why I Decided to Stop

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This Could Lower Your Monthly Student Loan Payment — but is It Worth It?

As if college wasn’t stressful enough, there’s also the crushing pressure that comes when your first student loan payment is due six months after graduation.

Depending on how much debt you have, that bill could range from a couple hundred dollars to more than $1,000 a month. And if you weren’t lucky enough to land a six-figure job right out of college, making those payments on top of all your other bills can be a struggle.

Income-based repayment plans can help. If you’ve got federal student loans, these plans may help relieve some of your stress by significantly lowering your monthly payment based on your income.

When he graduated with a degree in political science from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Derek Lawrence had $23,788 in student loan debt. He makes between $22,000 and $24,000 a year, which made paying $245 a month under the standard repayment plan a bit tough.

After he applied for an income-based repayment plan, his monthly payment dropped to $38, which created a little extra breathing room in his budget. Meanwhile, he’s focused on paying off a car loan with a higher interest rate than his student loans and building his savings for unexpected expenses.

“The beauty of (these plans) is that it doesn’t mean you can’t pay more,” Lawrence said. “If you are eligible for it, you can pay as much as you can while having the option to slack off one month if something happens. My payment dropped from $245 a month to $38, but I’m still paying well over double that amount and don’t plan on paying anywhere close to the minimum unless something drastic happens.”

Keep in mind: These plans may not be the best choice for everyone, but they’re certainly an option to consider if you know you won’t be able to make ends meet.

Income-Based Repayment Plans, Explained

In short, these plans cap your monthly payment at a percentage — typically between 10% and 20% —  of your discretionary income. These plans are only available for federal student loans, so if you’ve got private loans, these plans can’t help you. If you’re in default, you’re also out of luck. After you make monthly payments for a set period of time, typically 20 to 25 years, any remaining debt is forgiven (more on that later — this perk comes at a cost).

Types of Plans

There are four types of income-based student loan repayment plans. They vary in terms of who qualifies, how much a borrower must pay each month, the length of the repayment period and the type of loans that are eligible. Certain types of federal loans may not qualify on their own, but may qualify if they’re consolidated.

Here’s a quick rundown on each. Stay with us, because this is about to get confusing. For more detailed information about each type of plan, be sure to visit the Federal Student Aid office’s website or consult with a financial planner.

“Each plan is a further improvement (mostly) of the plan before it,” according to Joshua Cohen, a lawyer based on the East Coast who specializes in student loans. “It is very confusing, even for those of us in the field.”

REPAYE Plan (stands for Revised Pay As You Earn)

• Monthly payment: 10% of discretionary income

• Repayment period: 20 years for undergraduate debt, 25 years for graduate debt

• Eligibility: Any borrower with eligible federal loans.

Income-Based Repayment Plan

• Monthly payment: 10% of discretionary income if you took out your first loan after July 1, 2014, and 15% if you took out your first loan before July 1, 2014.

• Repayment period: 20 years if you took out your first loan after July 1, 2014, and 25 years if you took out your first loan before July 1, 2014.

• Eligibility: Your monthly payment must be less than what you would pay under the standard repayment plan over a 10-year period.

PAYE Plan (stands for Pay As You Earn)

• Monthly payment: 10% of discretionary income

• Repayment period: 20 years

• Eligibility: Borrowers who took out their first loan after Sept. 30, 2007, and at least one loan on or after Oct. 1, 2011. Your monthly payment must be less than what you would pay under the standard repayment plan over a 10-year period.

Income-Contingent Repayment Plan

• Monthly payment: 20% of discretionary income or what you would pay on a 12-year standard repayment plan adjusted according to your income, whichever is less.

• Repayment period: 25 years

• Eligibility: Any borrower with eligible federal loans, including loans made to parents after they’re consolidated.

How Do I Know Which Plan Is Right For Me?

Good question. Since there are so many plans, loan types and eligibility dates, it’s best to get in touch with your loan servicer or the company that maintains your student loan. According to the Federal Student Aid office, your loan servicer can determine which plans you qualify for and which plan will provide you the lowest monthly payment amount.

If you’re confused about what types of federal loans you took out, you can visit the National Student Loan Data System, which serves as the U.S. Department of Education’s central database for student aid information.

Who Are These Plans Designed For?

Income-based repayment plans are designed for borrowers who have a high amount of debt compared to their income, according to the White House. Borrowers can apply through the U.S. Department of Education, which will factor in your discretionary income and the size of your family to determine your monthly payment amount. You may have no monthly payment at all.

The U.S. Department of Education calculates discretionary income using federal poverty guidelines. Depending on which plan you choose, your discretionary income is calculated by subtracting either 150% (IBR and PAYE) or 100% (ICR) of the poverty guideline for your household size from your income, depending on the program you qualify for and select.

Since your monthly payment is based on your income and family size, your payment will change over time. Bottom line: Every year, you must send in updated information about your situation, even if there’s been no change.

“For borrowers that experience an earnings bump, be prepared for a change in your income-based monthly payment,” said Greg Stallkamp, strategic adviser for GradFin.

If you forget to re-certify (remember, you’ll be doing this every year for 20 to 25 years — you may slip up), you’ll move to a standard repayment plan, which you may not be able to afford. This is one of the top reasons people default on their student loans, said Robert Farrington, founder of TheCollegeInvestor.com.

What If I’m Married?

It depends on which plan you pick, according to the Federal Student Aid office. Under the PAYE, IBR and ICR plans, if you file your tax return separately from your spouse, only your income and debt will be considered. Under the REPAYE plan, it doesn’t matter if you file separately or jointly. The payment will still be based on your combined income and loan debt.

Downsides to Income-Based Repayment Plans

Though they sound attractive upfront, these repayment plans may end up being more expensive than a standard repayment plan in the long run.

“Income-based repayment plans are really only suitable for borrowers with fairly specific circumstances,” said Katie Ross, education and development manager for American Consumer Credit Counseling. “It’s an attractive idea to recent grads to pay as little as possible because they’ve just started making money, and they want to enjoy it a little. It also sounds fair to pay based on what they’re earning. Unfortunately, this is a trap that makes the loan more expensive and increases the repayment timeline.”

There are two main downsides to income-based repayment plans.

• You’ll pay more interest. Under a standard repayment plan, you’d make fixed monthly payments for 10 years. But under an income-based repayment plan, you’re extending the payment period to 20 or 25 years, which means you’ll pay more in interest.

• You’ll pay taxes on any debt that is forgiven. This one is a huge bummer. The IRS views any amount of debt forgiven as income on top of your regular earnings, which means you could be looking at a hefty income tax bill the year your balance is forgiven. According to the Federal Student Aid office and the IRS, there are some exceptions to this rule, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which is a plan for borrowers who work for the government, a nonprofit organization, or for a program like AmeriCorps or Peace Corps.

Depending on your situation, the pros of income-based repayment plans may still outweigh the cons. And there have been efforts over the years to remove the income tax burden on forgiven student loan debt. Who knows, maybe someday one of those efforts will be successful.

“The laws could change both for how income is calculated to qualify, and there may be tax advantages introduced later to waive the forgiveness of debt in this situation,” said Crystal Stranger, president of 1st Tax. “I wouldn’t bet on it, but at the same time it would not surprise me. The bottom line is that for those who qualify, you may as well take advantage of the program while you can and get the most benefits possible, then hope and pray that Congress will be kind to you when the forgiveness payments finally come in.”

As you can see, there are a ton of factors to consider before deciding the best way to pay off your student loans. Just remember, if you sign up for an income-based repayment plan, you can always make extra payments or switch to a standard plan — nothing is set in stone. The important thing is to keep making payments in some shape or form so you stay out of default.

Your Turn: How are you paying off your student loans?

Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.

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