When you work from home, it may be tempting to fill up your schedule with as much work as you can possibly cram into it. As tempting as it is, it is important to leave some room in your schedule to accommodate things that arise in the course of your everyday life that you can not predict. When you work from home, the amount of time that you are able to work is influenced by other things in your life such as the demands of home and family.
The influence of home and family life on the amount of time that a home – based professional can work does not make that person any less of a professional than someone who works outside of the home. It does, however, require acknowledging that your home and family life and your work are affected by each other. Once this basic fact is acknowledged in a theoretical sense, you can translate it into real life by leaving room in your schedule for the little surprises that life sends your way.
The kinds of things that I am referring to here will, of course, be determined by what kinds of other people you have in your household. For example, if you have young children, struggles at bedtime could cut into your work time on some evenings. Not that I would know anything about that. Older children may have to stay home from school if they are sick, and you could have to switch gears and devote part or all of a planned work day to take care of their needs. If you have a parent who develops an illness or disability, you may wish to spend some time helping them.
If your schedule is packed too full and something comes up which cuts into your work time by even an hour or two, you could be left in an uncomfortable position where you have to choose between going to bed on time and getting enough rest or getting a project finished on time. If this happens often, you may put your own health at risk by being habitually short on sleep. In contrast, if you leave some room in your schedule each week in case life throws you some curve balls, you can absorb the little things that happen without difficulty. What’s more, if nothing comes up and you have extra work time available, you can probably find ways to use it rather easily.
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