How to Relax At Home – When You Also Work There

When I first started working from home, I wrote about how much I loved it. 

The above post was written when I was taking six months leave from life at the office and I knew I had to go back. 

I wrote four posts based around a similar theme.  The origin of these earlier posts were more along of the lines of being your own boss, rather than working specifically from home.

Here are the earlier posts if you want to have a read – Working Alone Is it for you, Working Alone Part 2 and Part 3.

I read about the pitfalls of working from home, long before I got the chance to experience it for myself.  One of the negatives written about, was that people working from home have a hard time separating their home life from their work life.  I wasn’t concerned reading these articles.  I knew that wouldn’t happen to me.

Hummm…..

Well this is a bit embarrassing.  It seems my confidence on this matter was slightly premature.

Lately it seems, this is exactly what has happened to me.  My working life and my home life have blurred into one.

The fact that I live alone (which I love by the way) doesn’t seem to have helped the situation.  I have no one (like a partner or children) to tell me its time to stop working and spend some time with them.  My beautiful cat Bella jumping over the keyboard demanding my attention helps, but that is about it.  She hangs around for a cuddle, then she’s off for her next cat nap.

I have decided I need a plan of attack.  Fundamentally, it is about setting some working boundaries for myself.   Here are some ideas I plan to put into action.

Have scheduled down time

I know this seems obvious but when you get caught up with work, you can simply forget to take time out.

I noticed recently that anytime I didn’t have my laptop on when I was at home, I started to feel guilty.  Yes I know, not a good sign.

Time to start enjoying my weekend again and scheduling in some downtime.

Take a digital sabbatical

I have read a bit about this on a few other blogs.  Rowdy Kittens have a great post about it.    (While I was over picking up this link, I also found an interesting post over at 99% called Insecurity Work.  Also very thought provoking).   

In theory, a digital sabattical sounds just dandy.  The practicalities however involve not turning on my laptop over the weekend.   Honestly, I’m breaking into a sweat just thinking about that, so this part of the plan might take a little more work. 

One day a weekend, without turning on my computer – sounds like a good place to start.

Get out of the house

This probably seems like a no-brainer.

But here is the drill.  I normally work on Saturday, to get the drafts of my blog posts up and running for the following week. 

Sunday is primarily my day off.  So what do I do on Sundays? I start checking my email, blog stats, Facebook page for my blog etc.  By midday on Sunday, I am usually over work and want to take the rest of the day off (which I then proceed to feel guilty for doing). 

The solution, get out of the house.  Leave the laptop at home.  Have fun when out.  Drop the guilt.

Work outside of the house

This probably seems obvious these days in the world of laptops, IPads and wireless Internet.  When I started working from home, I had every intention of going to a coffee shop and regularly working from there.  I did it once.

Personally, I found the noise too distracting.  I like a quiet environment when I write.  No music,  television or people chattering in the background.  I tried working in the library once and it was much better (quieter naturally).

I need to give it another shot and keep trying until I can fit working sessions outside of my home office into a normal part of my routine.

Collaborate on work projects

I have to admit, I have not really done a lot of  this yet and I seriously need to get cracking on it. 

While I have some information on this subject, I could do with a little assistance from more experienced collaborators on how to get started.

Anyone care to share their knowledge on this one?

Get out and network

I am not doing enough networking.  I need to remedy this urgently.   I know about a few good functions coming up.  How could I not know about them, considering how much time I spend on the Internet searching out information each day?

Now it is simply a matter of getting my butt out the door and going to these functions.  Of course then comes the ’how to network effectively’ exercise, but I think I will leave that one to another time.   

Pick up the phone

To say I have been a bit reclusive lately, is a bit of an understatement.  

I need to remember, it’s not just about seeing my friends (which is difficult in many cases, since a lot of my friends live overseas or interstate).  Even my close family live hours away. 

Hence where the good old phone comes in.  Note to self: ring people more often dammit.  Shut the computer off, pick up the phone and reconnect with someone for a long leisurely chat. 

I am sure a lot of people (including myself just thought about ringing them on Skype instead).  More time sitting in front of the computer, not really what I need.

Plan activities with people

Again this seems like a no-brainer.  But for someone that lives alone and is single, it suddenly takes on a lot more importance. 

Back when I was saving to leave work, I could on rare occasions go whole weekends without speaking to another person.  I know that would drive most people nuts but it doesn’t bother me because I enjoy my own company.  Besides, I had the office from Monday – Friday as a source of communication with people. 

Now I don’t have that, which is fine.   The problem comes when you are spending too much time on your own (even I have my limits it seems).  I don’t feel lonely but I can sometimes feel a bit isolated (and I am the first to admit that this can be a result of my own doing). 

This might be a good time to point out that some people might have the exact opposite problem.  They are surrounded by people all the time (often wanting something from them) and never have any time for themselves.  You might enjoy being in this situation but remember even the most extroverted people could benefit from five minutes of reflection time every now and then.

The other issue that everyone faces is that people have busy lives.  Spending time with friends, particularly ones with partners, children or extended family, is not always easy.  I have to be a lot more ogranised if I want to see my friends now.  I need to book ahead.  Sometimes way ahead.

Mostly my reason for staying home more is financial.   If I had the enough cash to be out every day and night, I might be – but right now I don’t, so I’m not.

Eat regular meals sitting at a table

This one just popped into my head for one simple reason. I can’t remember the last time, I sat at my table and ate dinner.  I normally sit in front of the television and eat.  Or on the odd occasion if I am upstairs working in my office, I skip dinner all together.

Again this is probably worse because I am single.  No rallying the troops to the dinner table for a sit down meal.  Though I can’t help but wonder, how many families don’t have dinner together anymore or sit in front of the television to eat dinner?  I have a sneaky suspicion I might not alone on this one.

Have a place in the house that is a non-working area

I have a small townhouse (compared to Australian housing standards), so this is not all that easy.  I tend to mainly relax out in my courtyard (usually with Bella by my side). 

I have on occasion had trouble falling asleep at night and thought to myself, ‘I should get up and get my laptop and work in bed’.  I did it once but thankfully have talked myself out of it on other occasions.  This is one area where setting boundaries comes into play. 

My bedroom is a no work zone.

Exercise More

Writing can be bad for your health.  Okay well that is not quite true, writing won’t hurt you – but sitting for long periods of time, hunched over a laptop can be bad for you.  Just ask my chiropractor.

The trick is to sit correctly (you need to constantly recorrect your posture) and to take regular breaks in which you move around and stretch. I plan on taking this a step further by actually stepping out of the house and going for a walk.

The other great part of this plan is that walking always give me some of my best writing ideas.  A walk around the block and I will be pumped up with ideas and energy (at least that is the plan).  As I have mentioned in an earlier post on how to stop clock watching, I tend to suffer from an energy slump in the afternoons. My friend suggested recently that this would be the perfect time to take a walk.

Be more productive by working less

I need to get more done in the traditional five working days time frame.  They can be any days of the week mind you but I need to start working within five.

I find what is happening, is I am wasting time during the day, with the thought that I can make up for it by working the weekend.  You can see the problem here already, can’t you?

For starters, we can never ‘make up for wasted time’.  The time is gone.  Secondly by the time I get to the weekend, sometimes I am either too tired or I have run out of energy.  Consequently my workload on the weekend doesn’t go to plan.  I don’t get enough done, then Monday morning the cycle starts again.

Therefore, it makes sense to take more time off on the weekends and focus on being more productive during the week.

If you are reading this and thinking, this doesn’t apply to me  because I work in an office, you may have a valid point. 

On the other hand, substitute the words home or house  for office and you might need to have a rethink.   If your partner is subtly begging or downright nagging you to spend more time with them, you might want to take notice. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still love working from home.  I simply need to make some small adjustments to make my work environment more enjoyable and productive.

If you work from home and can relate to any of the above, I would love to hear from you.  It would be comforting to know I am not the only one that has stumbled over these issues!

This post was written by...

Thea – who has written 265 posts on Write Change Grow.

Hi! Welcome to my blog.  I'm a freelance writer and blogger. For more Write Change Grow goodness, sign up for my free newsletter.  You can connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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