Over the last year or so, we've talked a lot about the various aspects of my business in
my Design Your Biz series. I've discussed some of the challenges in
finding a workflow, or
the fun of living the dream. Today, let's talk about working from home.
Working from home is awesome and challenging all at the same time (mostly awesome though). It took me a little while to get into the groove of working from home, but here are some things that I've found to be helpful for me, my mental health and my business. Maybe they'll help you too!
- Get out of the house. When I first started working full-time in my business, I rarely left the house. It got depressing and overwhelming pretty quick. Now, I start most days going to a boot camp workout class and then come home and start my day. That little bit of social interaction has made a big difference in my mood (not to mention that working out is good for you, lol). Not a workout person? No problem! I also will go work at a coffee house about once a week for a couple of hours. The change of scenery always makes me a little more productive. Don't want the other coffeehouse patrons to catch you slacking off and on Facebook, right? :)
- Take a Day Off. I get it, it's hard to do. I try very hard not to work on the weekends. It doesn't always work out that way, but I do my best to at least stay off the computer. The emails can wait until Monday.
- Create a Routine. When I was working in the lab, everything was so routine. Certain tests were done on certain days. Schedules were made saying which lab tech was doing what. Again, when I first started working at home, there was no routine. There was no schedule. It was chaos! These days, my routine means starting work between 9 and 10 in the morning. I try to batch my tasks together as much as possible (write all my blog posts for the week at once, for example). If I need to go to the post office of something, I go in the middle of the day, to give myself a little break. And now that I recently started using my Kanban board, I know what I need to get done and when I need to get it done. My husband works from home most Fridays. I know I don't get as much work done that day. We end up chatting. We go to lunch. But, I've worked it into the routine/schedule, so it's not a problem!
- Learn to Say No. When you work at home, especially in this business for some reason, there will be people in your life that don't think your job is a job. Seriously, someone in my life referred to my business as my "cute hobby" recently. Yes, the beauty of working from home is flexibility - I love meeting my mother-in-law for breakfast once a month and going to the pool with my nieces once a week in the summer, but you don't have to say yes to every invitation that comes along during your normal work day (whatever that is for you). Things greatly improved for me when I started kindly reminding people that I can't do x, y, and z all the time during the week - I'm working just like most other people.
If you're struggling with working from home or are thinking about working from home, hopefully this will give you a little guidance in how to make it work!
Do you work from home? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
