It's hard when all of our pursuits are creative, sometimes it's good to work when inspiration strikes. But we can't keep doing that 24/7. It's just not working.
So this is me asking for help. Do any of you work from home and have a schedule set in place? I'd especially love to hear from those of you that both you and your husband work from home, since that brings even more distractions into the mix.
Any suggestions are welcome! I'm not sure how I feel about having business hours, but maybe we need them. What do you all think?
Home is work for me at the moment, since I'm a professional mom. :)
ReplyDeleteOn occasion, my husband works from home, and so we share the house by necessity. On those days, I try to make sure the kids and I have something to do for at least a few hours in the morning, or during the school year, the 9 year old is at school and I'll send the 3 year old to the sitter.
If I don't have errands to run, I do stuff that stays out of his way and move my laptop to a different area to give him some space. I do check in with him so I know what's going on - he often has meetings that he takes by conference call and interruptions are not appreciated. He is also very good about telling me when he'll be "home" and when meetings happen.
As far as lunch breaks, etc., we do have lunch together - very often he goes out and brings something back or comes upstairs to take a break from his grind. It's nice.
It's definitely doable - I think the issues of space and schedule play a huge part in making it work.
If I don't have a schedule, my house simply falls apart. My schedule is not very strict now, but I know I'll have to get better at it when I open my biz and go back to school. I think having biz hours will help you a lot! Right now I write down, on Sunday,the tasks that need to be done during that certain week and then the night before, I organize the things I'd like to get done that day and things that NEED to be be done. And I set a timer sometimes!
ReplyDeleteWell staying productive is a really hard thing. My boyfriend and I both work from home and it's very distracting, but we're trying hard to make it work. Every morning we wake up at 8-9 a.m. eat breakfast together, talk about that day's goals and then actually go do things we are supposed to do that day. We try not to interact with each other much during the work hours but then we eat dinner together and chat a little, talk about how the day is going. We usually keep working till 5-6 p.m and then try to get out somewhere. Spending an evening biking, walking or eating out is a lovely way to end the day.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about your situation but having a schedule is the only way to make it through the day in our home! I hope you'll figure it all out soon! :)
My general business hours are 10am-5/6pm, but I'm a bit adaptive with it. It's mostly so that, even if I wake up at 8, I don't have to deal with brain-requiring things like talking to clients on the phone until after 10. (not a morning person). And depending on workload, my "work" hours for a particular day might be much less than that.
ReplyDeleteI do envy people who can work from home. I would definitely set myself a schedule if I was home. Allowing time for breaks to do laundry and such :-)
ReplyDeleteworking from home with my husband sounds dreamy!! but knowing sam, he'd probably shut himself in the office with the door closed to focus & crank out work while i'd just want to play!
ReplyDeletegood luck to you on finding a schedule... i'm still working on that. i've started doing photography every other night & blogging every night & just realizing i can't do it all & i really just need to pace myself. you can only do what you can do :)
My husband is a musician, too, and whe he's home he does all the booking for his band (i.e. A LOT of emailing and phone calls all day long). I work from home doing marketing and photography. Our schedule is that I wake up with the baby and let Dan sleep in. I feed and play with him. Then Dan gets up and I start work at 10am. Dan works while "BB" naps and we take turns playing with him or driving him to any of his various appointments (he's a foster child so he has LOTS). Our days are crazy and we never have "enough time" but we always quit at 5. No ifs ands or buts. We are done at 5 and we get to be a normal family sans computer screens and cell phones and just have fun together! I dont know if that helps you, though. You'll find your groove. Some days are great and some days aren't so great. That's just life. :)
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