July 22, 2008
Separating Work From Home
By Rachel Rae
There’s a common phrase, “what happens at work stays at work, what happens at home stays at home”. Not an easy thing to do, but especially for the one who’s work is at home. These people have unique challenges to find balance of these two roles.
Many people work long hours in their jobs or home business and find they don’t feel like they have much left over for their families after a long day. Yet, the families are the priority, how to give your best to both can be a struggle.
Tip One: Use your commute time to shift gears mentally from letting go of the day at work, and begin thinking about your family.
This strategy is more geared for people who work outside of the house, it’s important. However long your commute from work to home is, use that time to work through work issues somewhat and then focus on what you have to look forward to at home. Think about your loved ones and what their day might have been like.
Strategy Two: Create a Schedule
This strategy is for people that work from home, where keeping work and family separate is even more of a challenge. It is so easy when you work from home to work way more then you would at a traditional office, because you have everything right there. You need to create a work schedule, and this schedule is going to have to take two things into consideration, demands of your work and demands of your family. You may find that you need to be working early in the morning or after the kids go to bed. Create a schedule that you can stick to and that will work so that your business isn’t suffering and neither is your family.
Strategy Three: Get Separate Phone lines
Fortunately for me, with my business I rarely have to be on the phone, almost all communication with clients is done via email. But if you are finding that you are getting business phone calls at all hours, having a separate number for them to call is great. You also have the option of making your cell phone your business phone and the home phone is personal. This way when your work day is done you can put the phone down and walk away from it. You can also separate the rings for people you know personally and business so you don’t accidentally answer a business call after working hours.
Tip Four: Create a space that is separate from the house.
I know this isn’t always possible. What you can do is create a work space. There are really beautiful little room partitions that you can get to help create a separate workspace. It’s important for you to be able to get up and walk away from work.
Topics: Business |
Comments
« How to Find the Best Personal Injury Lawyer After an Accident | Home | Eliminating Credit Card Debt »