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aishah · 05-12-2012, 12:50 PM

thank you for starting this thread!

i work from home (unless i'm traveling to speak or teach workshops) and i'm self-employed. i've been doing this for almost two years now. there are things i absolutely love about it and things i hate about it.

one of the most irritating things is that i've found that most people think it must be 110% amazing all the time, so when i grumble about it (even to my partner sometimes) they're like, "well, if you hate it so much, why not find a real job?" and then i have to point out...i don't know anyone who LOVES their job ALL the time, and i know very few people who would rather work than lay in bed and watch grey's anatomy. i really like my job but some days i just don't feel like working, dammit! :P and the fact that i set my own schedule can really be a trap in that way because i'm only accountable to myself most of the time.

i agree that it can get really isolating. i get my best work done when i have the whole day with nothing else to do, but i've been trying to ease into a schedule where i leave the house for an hour or two to run an errand or get acupuncture or something. otherwise i can go days without seeing people or going outside, which is really unhealthy for me. i've been thinking about getting a part-time job just to get out of the house, and i recently started volunteering at the acupuncture clinic once or twice a week, so that helps.

feeling like i'm always at work is the worst feeling! i can definitely relate to that. i used to have roommates so i worked from my bedroom and that was extremely difficult. now that i have my own apartment, i have an office, which helps a lot. i try to do non-work things in other parts of the house, even if it means having to move my laptop around a lot. my computer NEVER goes in my bedroom now...not even for fun stuff. working somewhere separate from where i sleep and sometimes from where i play (although i do creative stuff in the office too sometimes) has helped immensely. and it's one of the few business expenses i can write off on my taxes

i love being able to make my own schedule. this means on most days that if i go to bed at a decent hour and if i don't have any phone or chat meetings scheduled, i don't have to set an alarm in the morning, and sleeping as much as i need to is so good for my health. i can take more time to get ready for work and do other things in the morning (like exercise, journal, meditate, etc.). the downside is for some of my projects, i have meetings scheduled at odd hours (like 8pm on a monday), so it's hard to maintain the same schedule every day and i usually end up working on weekends. i'm trying to ease into a more regular schedule, but all the traveling this spring has kind of screwed that up. sometimes things are regular, sometimes they're not. hoping it'll even out more after june.

i'd definitely recommend keeping as regular a schedule as possible, having a separate space for work, and making sure to have good self-care...for me that means seeing other human beings and also sunlight on a semi-regular basis. and remembering to eat - because most of my work (and a lot of my fun) is computer-related, i can get wrapped up in things on the computer and forget to eat, which hurts my body and makes me useless when it comes to worky-things. so i try to set regular breaks to do that, and do my best to avoid getting wrapped up in laundry and dishes during breaks...hehehe

regarding accountability...i keep a spreadsheet of my hours and (if i'm working on something where it's possible to actually estimate hourly earnings) how much i've made. i make myself fill it out every day that i work. getting to the end of the week and realizing i've only worked 2/3 of the hours i need, or i haven't spent enough time on certain projects, is a crappy feeling. usually that (and not wanting to, you know, get evicted) helps keep me in line. since i also have several projects going at once, i keep a binder with a sheet of paper with my responsibilities, deadlines, and to-do list for each one so i can check them off on paper (i like paper systems better than online to-do lists, but workflowy.com is a great tool for this too).

05-12-2012, 12:50 PM	#2
aishah Member How Do You Identify?: queer stone femme shark baby girl Preferred Pronoun?: she, her, little one Relationship Status: dating myself. Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: dallas, tx Posts: 1,495 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 13,823 Thanked 6,442 Times in 1,288 Posts Rep Power: 21474851	thank you for starting this thread! i work from home (unless i'm traveling to speak or teach workshops) and i'm self-employed. i've been doing this for almost two years now. there are things i absolutely love about it and things i hate about it. one of the most irritating things is that i've found that most people think it must be 110% amazing all the time, so when i grumble about it (even to my partner sometimes) they're like, "well, if you hate it so much, why not find a real job?" and then i have to point out...i don't know anyone who LOVES their job ALL the time, and i know very few people who would rather work than lay in bed and watch grey's anatomy. i really like my job but some days i just don't feel like working, dammit! :P and the fact that i set my own schedule can really be a trap in that way because i'm only accountable to myself most of the time. i agree that it can get really isolating. i get my best work done when i have the whole day with nothing else to do, but i've been trying to ease into a schedule where i leave the house for an hour or two to run an errand or get acupuncture or something. otherwise i can go days without seeing people or going outside, which is really unhealthy for me. i've been thinking about getting a part-time job just to get out of the house, and i recently started volunteering at the acupuncture clinic once or twice a week, so that helps. feeling like i'm always at work is the worst feeling! i can definitely relate to that. i used to have roommates so i worked from my bedroom and that was extremely difficult. now that i have my own apartment, i have an office, which helps a lot. i try to do non-work things in other parts of the house, even if it means having to move my laptop around a lot. my computer NEVER goes in my bedroom now...not even for fun stuff. working somewhere separate from where i sleep and sometimes from where i play (although i do creative stuff in the office too sometimes) has helped immensely. and it's one of the few business expenses i can write off on my taxes i love being able to make my own schedule. this means on most days that if i go to bed at a decent hour and if i don't have any phone or chat meetings scheduled, i don't have to set an alarm in the morning, and sleeping as much as i need to is so good for my health. i can take more time to get ready for work and do other things in the morning (like exercise, journal, meditate, etc.). the downside is for some of my projects, i have meetings scheduled at odd hours (like 8pm on a monday), so it's hard to maintain the same schedule every day and i usually end up working on weekends. i'm trying to ease into a more regular schedule, but all the traveling this spring has kind of screwed that up. sometimes things are regular, sometimes they're not. hoping it'll even out more after june. i'd definitely recommend keeping as regular a schedule as possible, having a separate space for work, and making sure to have good self-care...for me that means seeing other human beings and also sunlight on a semi-regular basis. and remembering to eat - because most of my work (and a lot of my fun) is computer-related, i can get wrapped up in things on the computer and forget to eat, which hurts my body and makes me useless when it comes to worky-things. so i try to set regular breaks to do that, and do my best to avoid getting wrapped up in laundry and dishes during breaks...hehehe regarding accountability...i keep a spreadsheet of my hours and (if i'm working on something where it's possible to actually estimate hourly earnings) how much i've made. i make myself fill it out every day that i work. getting to the end of the week and realizing i've only worked 2/3 of the hours i need, or i haven't spent enough time on certain projects, is a crappy feeling. usually that (and not wanting to, you know, get evicted) helps keep me in line. since i also have several projects going at once, i keep a binder with a sheet of paper with my responsibilities, deadlines, and to-do list for each one so i can check them off on paper (i like paper systems better than online to-do lists, but workflowy.com is a great tool for this too).