Wednesday, May 29, 2013

My thoughts on working from home

I vaguely remember talking to my friend's older sister about  being a contractor and working from home every day and to me, that sounded like the best deal ever. Immediately, I decided I wanted to get out of college, work for a few years in the PR field & then start doing contracting myself. It sounded like the best kind of gig for a mom and Lord knows if I've ever wanted anything, it's to be a mom.

Well, this summer, I got the opportunity to do an internship blogging for a large company from home and I also run my photography busness. I was stoked at the opportunity to be home full time this summer. I still am stoked, actually. But while I'm still excited, my thoughts on working from home have quickly changed.

Working from home is hard, you guys.

 It's hard for a few reasons ....

I guess the most obvious reason working from home is hard is that it's tough to stay motivated. It's tough to get motivated. I mean, when you work outside the home, you go to work at a building and you know you're there for one thing: to work. And you have a boss there checking in on you just in case you've forgotten why you're there. Not the case at home.

And the other reason working at home is hard?

I never feel like I'm doing enough.

I mean, on any given day I may edit a session, schedule shoots, send invoices, do a shoot & blog. I guess that may not sound like a lot but it is.

But working from home means I feel like I need to do more.

My mom and I live in this house alone and that also means we take care of everything ourselves - from the house to the yard, from the dogs to each other. Thats a lot. And since she works outside the home, I feel like in addition to my work, I need to also keep up with the yard and make sure I keep the house picked up and walk the dogs too. Usually, a good workout is also necessary.

And I want to do that all in an eight hour day.

I've only been at this for a couple weeks now and it's clear I just haven't figured it out yet. I haven't figured out the balance that's oh so necessary.

Have you ever tried working/taking classes from home? Any advice on how to do a better job at this?
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1 comment:

jess said...

it always helps for me to get on a schedule & set deadlines. like if you're doing the same thing every day (the stuff you listed above) have your blog posts written by 10 am, have bookings done by 11, take lunch from 11 -- 12 & walk the dogs, have editing done by 2, etc. then create a weekly routine for house work that can be completed by 6 pm.

stick with the routine -- you & i are both creatures of habit, so once you find a routine that works, you'll feel more comfortable with the amount of work that you're doing & you'll find your happy place!