Don’t Let Work At Home Benefits Backfire
There are a lot of reasons you might have decided to work at home. At the time you made the decision, all those reasons sounded like solutions to the problems of commuting, childcare, and restrictive schedules, to name a few.
You now have your home office arranged and you’re enjoying the good life and all the benefits of working from home.
Except…
Some of the benefits have actually morphed into unexpected trouble. Let’s take a look at a few of the ways work at home assets can turn into liabilities, and how to correct it.
You Can Spend More Time With Your Family
Skipping the commute and time at work for a day at home with the kids, spouse, and pets is a common reason for working from home. Everyone is happy you’re right there in your office, close at hand, all day long, accessible at the drop of a hat.
The problem is, of course, you don’t get any work done. You are just a few steps away from everyone’s wants and needs, so why wouldn’t they call on you?
The solution is to set up boundaries and schedules. You have to treat your workday as if you were gone from the house. Schedule in plenty of play time, as well, and you will enjoy that extra time with the family that you wanted.
You Can Get Housework Done 
If you worked outside the home for any amount of time, you’ll remember how much you disliked having to spend your evenings and weekends doing housework. Now that you’re working at home, you can easily get those chores done during the day.
The problem created by this benefit of working at home is you lose focus rather quickly. On the way down the hall you pick up the laundry. Then as you head to the laundry room, you see dishes in the sink. Each little chore will end up growing into larger chores if you allow it.
Instead, choose an hour during your day to catch up on a few things that would have otherwise waiting until you arrived home at night after work. Your evenings are free, like you wanted, and the housework gets done.
You Can Work When You Want And How You Want
The image of pajama-clad work at home folks is not that far-fetched. Many people like the idea of getting the kids off to school and spouse off to work, then getting cozy with another cup of coffee and snuggling on the couch with their laptop, answering emails and starting their work day.
Unfortunately, this lovely scenario can backfire. When we are in this cozy mode, we can lose track of time. The day disappears and we are still in our pajamas and deadlines are looming. Now we are stuck working into the night trying to get things done. This is not the ‘when and how’ we planned. In order to make this benefit work is to, again, set a schedule. Treat your work day like, well, a work day by punching a time-clock you create for yourself. Get ready, get dressed, and get to work.
You Can Have Your Own Peaceful Little Office
Having your own space after perhaps sharing desks with other workers sounds like a nice thought.
No more office politics. No more gossiping. No more stress. Right? Just the peace and quiet of your own keyboard clicking away.
Peace and quiet. And more peace and quiet. Now you’re feeling lonely and isolated. You begin to miss the camaraderie of having co-workers. The solution is to create a similar circle of co-workers in your work at home situation. Reach out to people in the same type of work, either through professional groups or social media.
Find forums that are engaging and purposeful. And don’t forget to wander out of the house routinely to meet up with friends for some face-to-face chats.
There appears to be a common thread among people who work at home. Most say they chose this career path for family, convenience, and for a more relaxing work environment.
All these benefits of working at home are possible to achieve, however, they each have pitfalls, which are avoidable once you recognize the risks.
Did you get some value from todays post Don’t Let Work At Home Benefits Backfire? If you did feel free to leave me a comment below and share your own experience.
Have a great day.
The Reawakened Entrepreneur
Helping You To Retire Wealthy. Travel The World. Stay Young, with
Your Own Home Based Business
Email me at Lyndakonline@gmail.com
Phone or Text me 00447515940004
Skype Lynda.m.kenny
Love the peaceful office…. cracked me up… thanks for sharing Lynda… great post as always….
Ha ha, not so peaceful. Thanks Ron as always
Great post today Lynda! Those little things can certainly distract you and take your focus off your business! I now set a specific time for every task that has to completed that day for work and when they are done I get on with the rest!
I remember when I began my business on my kitchen table years ago Matt, it would have been too easy to be lazy so I had to really discipline myself to get the jobs done. What I couldn’t do was legislate for the dog barking when I was on an important call, lol Thanks for commenting as always
Great post about how to balance working from home. Like you said it’s so easy to get distracted you have to be careful. Thanks for sharing this wonderful article Lynda!
Thanks Dereco, it happens to us all. I thought it was worth a mention.