Do you work from home?

[JustJo]

I've been working from home for the last 5 and a bit years.

Most days I love it. My commute is nothing...I don't have to buy office clothes...I avoid office politics...and I can be home when my son gets off the school bus in the afternoon.

There's a downside though. Less visibility in the office can mean fewer raises and promotions....some people seem to think you don't work at all and can spend the day running their errands or watching their kids...and sometimes it can be pretty isolating.

Sure....some days I work from home....but some days it feels like I live at work.

I've gotten better over the years at walking away from the computer promptly at 5 and not opening it on the weekends....but there are others where it's hard to get motivated to work when I'm home and the kitchen or the laundry or the book I'm reading are only steps away.

So...what do you do to keep yourself on-track and balanced and happily working from home? What do you like? What do you dislike? If you were giving advice to someone just starting to work from home what would that be?

[aishah]

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).

[1QuirkyKiwi]

I bring paper work home and get it done quickly as it has to be handed in the next day. I'm looking to work from home in the near future. Fortunately, I am able to work well alone and unsupervised because my current career, for the most part, I've had to work alone and unsupervised and on my own initiative. I'm able to work quietly and productively to meet reasonable deadlines that allows me to focus with few interruptions and distractions.

My stumbling block is interruptions and distractions which then makes it hard for me to find consistancy in working productively. When this happens I get stressed easily which then has a snowballing effect of me getting irritable and tearful.

My current job isn't 9-5 and I can't always walk away from it when I want. I accept that this will most likely be the situation again, should I work from home on a full time basis.

[ArkansasPiscesGrrl]

I am also self-employed, with a business I started up last fall. The weight of the "OMG, if I don't put ALL of my time possible into productive working, my business will fail, and I will become a homeless failure!" really gets to me sometimes. Yes, it is wonderful and such a blessing that I can take the time, if I want or need to, to take something over to my kids' house, to run them to school if needed, to go lay out by the pool on a particularly sunny day (I have taken my notes and my laptop with me to the apt's pool. It helped alleviate some of my guilt over NOT slaving away on my computer!) My partner keeps telling me "Ann, the world as you know it will NOT fall apart if you take 5 min to step away from your computer and go outside and WALK a bit!".

I also do some contracting for my old company, and have to justify on an hourly basis, what kind of hours I put in for a paycheck.So that keeps me aware, in a way, of time management.

I have been known, on too many occasions, to find myself sitting working perhaps 16-18+ hours a day. That is crazy for someone my age, I think!

[Linus]

I also work from home but I'm not self-employed. My company allows for me to work from home as I'm a remote employee and I also teach at customer sites (which is where most of my travel comes from). I love being able to set my own hours (unless I'm teaching online -- then it becomes a downside since it means being up early since classes are often in CST timezone while I live in the PST timezone). Since I can set my own hours I can get up early and finish early (HA!) if I want to. I do find the challenge is that I tend to be nearly 24/7 with my job. Since we've gone hourly (and I have no limit on OT, Double OT, etc.) that means every little thing I do I can charge for. It's too easy, however, to not do that because of all the little breaks I can now and again (to check out here or do things for here).

My biggest downside is the lack of interaction with others. When I used to work at our offices in Canada, we'd have discussions and fun stuff. I kind of miss that. And I miss -- somewhat -- the commute. I don't miss biking in the winter but I do miss biking to and from work. To help ensure that the sofa doesn't meld too much to my butt (I tend to sit in the living room with the pugs when I'm working), I've booked a personal trainer and scheduled "personal meetings/out of office" during those times. I need to do the same for cycling as well -- ideally earlier than later.

My biggest plus is being able to work outside (having a cigar and a coffee or something stronger) while it's sunny and watching the pugs run amok.

[Sachita]

I work and operate my businesses from home/farm. My entire day is all about balance and keep disciplined to get the job done. I've worked for myself since I was in my early 20's so I have always preferred working at home. The times I did have an office I still worked at home. I don't like a lot of distractions. I'm a fierce multi-tasker and can do two things at once.

My biggest struggle is knowing when to shut it off. Too often I'm grabbing my lap top to finish something or look something up. I can afford to have days where I just don't feel like working but I also know I have to make that time up. I also have to work towards delegation because I'm such a control freak I end up doing task others can easily do. I'm working on this and seem to be getting better.

Something that works well for me is taking frequent breaks to take a walk outside or if its nice out I'll take my work outside. Luckily I get to work doing the things I love so it all works out great.

I rarely wear shoes and when I do it's simple. I wear very little clothing- T-shirts & jeans or I have all these PJ sets and enjoy simple feminine flowing type things. Anything silky or loose fitting. If I don't have workers around I'll wear these flimsy little cami/slip things. I want to be comfortable. I'm often on the phone and brushing a dog.

Like Linus stated I miss interaction but I do make sure to get out a few times a week.

[Medusa]

I work at home a lot with my company.

Pros:

• I get a LOT of work done because I don't have any distractions.
• My house is super clean because I often wash clothes or pick up in between conference calls.
• My dog is happier because we spend the day together.
• I don't have to get dressed and can leave my facial treatments on as long as I want. Green face anyone?

Cons:

• I miss interacting with my coworkers and still choose to go in 2 - 3 days a week because of this. We are a very tight-knit group and even though we can all work from home, we tend to be at work more often than not.
• I have caught myself eating more mainly due to being out of my routine.
• Feeling isolated.

I mostly LOVE working at home. If it weren't for my amazing coworkers, I'd do it all the time.