The Telecommuting Mom

I don’t work everyday, but I feel like I do. I don’t work (for pay) full-time, but I really feel like I do. My biggest complaint about working at home is that I am always thinking about work. That’s right. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. This is similar to how I felt during my college days. There was always something I could be doing to accomplish more. There was never a real end to the day.

And that is precisely the problem with working from home. I never actually leave my office because it is always there, downstairs, taunting me with the hum of the computer and the glow of the screen. I can hear it saying there is more you can do. Don’t have that cup of tea and take a break. You should be rewriting that article, tweaking that web page, updating your database, more, more, more!

Which brings me to one of the critical points about working at home:

You must set boundaries.

In the era of cell phones, blackberries, Facebook and little privacy, we always feel connected. I have a set number of hours per week when I don’t have either child in my care. Though these hours are few, they are the ones in which I accomplish the most, therefore, I dedicate those hours to work. When those hours are up, I am done working during the day (night is a whole other story). If I don’t commit to this plan, I find myself constantly logging into email with the nagging feeling that I need to get XYZ done. When I do commit to this plan I find that I have accomplished what I could in that time frame and that feels great.

A “day off” is hard to come by when you work from home, and in my case, work for myself. It may be difficult to feel like you are accomplishing something but if you set boundaries you can meet your expectations.

Filed under: productivity