Finding Balance When You Work At Home
Working at home can be a dream come true and a curse at the same time. Of course if you ask most people, they’d jump on the idea of working at home if they could find something legitimate that would bring in the right amount of income. I mean who would say no to something so perfect? But if you’re not careful you could find yourself working during all of your waking hours (and maybe some of your sleeping hours as well).
Don’t get me wrong, working at home is great. You can stay home with your family, you don’t have to commute, you’re not polluting the air with your car, you don’t have to dress up, and you don’t have some creepy boss breathing down your neck all the time. I just want to make it clear that when you work at home, it’s essential to find balance if you want to have a successful business and a family that still wants to be around you!
First, get a planner that breaks the day down into hours. This may seem a bit extreme, but it’s not. When you work at home you need to keep track of what you will be doing at all times. Otherwise you may spend too little or too much time working. When you keep track of all your appointments, whether with clients or playing catch with your kids, you’ll be less stressed, more organized, and more efficient. So buy a planner and use it religiously.
Next, make a work schedule. You have to physically sit down and figure out when you’re going to work. Will it be early in the morning, late at night, or while your kids nap during the day? Only you know what will be the best time for you to get the most work done and when you are at your best. If it takes you a few hours to really wake up in the morning, you shouldn’t schedule yourself to work until the afternoon, and so on. Find your best time and use it; you work at home you can do that!
My last piece of advice is to stick to the schedule you choose. If you’ve decided to work three days a week then only work on those three days. If you let your work flow into your family time, a few things will happen: you’ll get run-down, you won’t enjoy working from home anymore, work will start to own you, and your family will become resentful. There has to be a line drawn between work and family time and it has to be clear. If you work from home but don’t make time for the people you love, then what good is being done?
Like I said before, working from home is great. But when I first started I didn’t know how to set aside time for work and time for family. I started to become consumed by work. I finally learned that when I’m working, I’m working. And when I’m at home, I’m at home. Family has to come first.
Shayna knows first hand about achieving balance and working at home. To get more tips about working at home, send her an e-mail at shaynas98@hotmail.com with the subject NEWSLETTER to subscribe to her work-at-home Newsletter.
Leave a Comment