One of the biggest issues facing home – based professionals is defining the boundary between work and home. It is both a physical boundary, as well as one made up of your time and attention. It can be challenging to keep your work and home separate from one another, but if you can make and implement a plan for doing so both you and your family will be happier. One of the best strategies that I have found for keeping work and home separate is to avoid multitasking.
Since I work only a limited amount of hours each day, I am rarely tempted to delve into household tasks during my designated work time. Since I spend the bulk of my time tending to my children, and to a lesser extent my home, I have to work hard to avoid the temptation to try to squeeze in a little work here and there during my non – working hours. After all, phone calls and email are generally best handled during normal business hours and my working hours are at night.
I have noticed that if I do check my email throughout the day or make business calls, my kids are not as happy. My toddler often acts out when he senses that my attention is divided between the phone and him. The obvious solution is to postpone those tasks until nap time. Of course, nap time is not a given any more so I have to do what I can on days when it does happen. Also, I have started having my sister -in – law take care of my two and a half year old for a few hours each week so that I can “take care of business” during day time hours. To further reduce the amount of work that I must attend to during day time hours I have also allowed my law practice to become even smaller by not taking on any new cases.
It is difficult to keep work and home separate when you are a home – based professional. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to make the separation even clearer than it is right now. If you do find yourself mixing work and home, don’t be too hard on yourself. Every home – based professional does it from time to time, and we simply do the best we can to keep it to a minimum.
Photo by darrenhester on morguefile.com.