When commuting and working in an office setting, I heard the term work-life balance a lot. The companies I've worked for have all had "Work Life Balance" policies. Some of the most common?
- 4/40 – Work four 10 hour days to get your 40 hours instead of five eight hour days.
- Flex Time – Work the hours that make the most sense for you. Prefer coming in at 7 am and leaving at 4 pm?
- Job Sharing – Two people share the same position
Flextime worked great for me when my son was young and we were a two-career household. I was at work by 6:30 in the morning. My husband dropped him off at daycare before he went to work at 9, and then when I got off at 3:30, I picked him up.
Of course, as our life situation changed (my husband took an early retirement offer, I got promotions that involved travel), Flextime was no longer possible. I was always on call – completely connected – with a Blackberry®, laptop with a Virtual Private Network connection, and clients/bosses who knew how to get in touch with me at any hour of the day or night.
Work/Life Balance? Not so much.
But! Now that I work from home full-time, I'm making sure the balance returns.
How?
- Personal Use Time – I make sure that any time I would have spent doing the full makeup routine, commuting, and getting coffee before settling in is used in a fulfilling way. Now, instead of getting up at 6:30 and finally getting to my desk around 8:30, I get up at 6:30 and head to the track near my home. By 7:30 (when I would usually be thinking about heading to the office), I'm back home and in the shower. I'm still ready to start my day by 8:15 (with makeup on!) – AND I've gotten a good 45 minutes of exercise in. Me time!
- Block The Calendar – Most of the people I work with are in the Central time zone. I live in the Eastern, so the first hour of my day is spent reaching people's voice mail. That's good for me, but, on the other end of the day, my clients are still going strong when I'd like to be done. I try to keep to a nine-hour day, so it may mean that I block out an hour or ninety-minutes during the day to run personal errands. No one needs to know you're at the grocery store or getting your hair colored. You're just "unavailable".
- Multi-Task – Listening to a conference call that only requires partial participation? I've crocheted baby sweaters and bonnets. When I know that I'm going to be typing into a spreadsheet for an hour or so and won't be able to get up, I touch up my pedicure. It's not likely that I'd be able to do that in an office setting – nor would I be able to sit around barefoot while it dried. And then, of course, there's always the ability to throw in a load of wash or turn on the dishwasher. Do the things you can't do while sitting in a cubicle.
Working from home allows you to bend your clock, put only to a certain extent. There are still deadlines. There are still co-workers or clients or bosses that work in offices – and sometimes, you must still work within their clock.
But, meeting deadlines and working within others' timeframes doesn't mean working around the clock. It can be too easy to forget to take down time because you're "at home", not an office.
Twelve hour days just because work is in your house makes Jane a dull girl. Keep that balance and you (and your work!) will be better for it.
How about you? What tips do you have for balancing your work and your life? How would those tips translate to a work from home situation? Let's talk about it at Blissfully Domestic.
My personal blog is My Life as a Hotfessional – if you'd like to hear about the rest of the craziness in my life, please come by for a visit.
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My first at-home gig took too much of my time. I supervised an off-shore team that worked 7 days a week. This resulted in me checking in 7 days a week to answer questions and resolve issues. NOT fun. Now I've got 2 part-time work-from-home jobs and there's now more family time. I don't supervise anyone and I can fit in the work when I can.
Great suggestions. I especially like the focus on "me time". It's so easy to forget it. Now how do we get the members of our family to let us have it?
great post!! yes, working from home can be very challenging, at times! but the flexibility is great!
It's ironic. I recently escaped the rat race a few months ago and now work at home full time and I have less time now than I did when I was trying to juggle my websites and my job.
So this post really touched home for me. Now that I have a new baby girl it's even harder. Thank goodness for my wife and being able to afford to keep her home for a year. I don't think I would get anything done. lol
We all imagine working at home as being on an ongoing vacation. Or at least I did. But then you have a bundle of joy and your whole world changes.
At the end of the day we can't complain. I would never trade being at home with my wife and baby girl for the life of Corporate America. The fact that my family and I can pick up and leave at a whim to some island somewhere is priceless.
So it's totally worth it even when my little girl is screaming at the top of her lungs. How she gets so much volume from such a little frame is beyond me. lol
Take care guys,
Eddy Salomon
WorkAtHomeNoScams.com
WorkAtHomeCareers.com
Thank you all for the comments on this post! I'm sorry I've been a bit delayed in responding – (Why is that?!? Oh, yea, work stuff!)
Grace – I understand completely. I also work with an offshore team, and the difference in hours (11.5 for me) – translates to a lot of late nights or early mornings!
Mary and Renee – Thank you both very much…since I started working from home in April (only a week before my step-son moved in with us, and a month before my son got out of school for the summer!) my routine is going to change drastically soon. I can't wait to see how it all works out!
Eddy – Enjoy her while she's little and huggable!