If you had asked me last year, I would have said that my ideal job was working from home, as it would mean that my children wouldn't be in childcare for ten hours a day, I could attend assemblies and nativities without having to beg, put the dinner on, hang washing out and just generally have a more relaxing time. All of these things are true, but I forgot one crucial point: it's very lonely. At the moment, I am working from home two days a week. The way it works is that I drop one son off at nursery, another at school then race home so I can get as much done as possible before 3pm. Sometimes I don't even clear the breakfast stuff away as I have so much to do. I try to have a little break from the screen around 11am and then work through until 3pm when I have to pick my son up from school. Somewhere, somehow, something has gone wrong. It isn't the relaxing idyll I imagined at all. If anything it's more fraught as I am so aware of the horrid mess around me and all the jobs that need doing around the house. Worst of all, I have literally no-one to talk to, to bounce ideas off, to ask advice or seek inspiration from. It's hard to come up with ideas when it's just you on your own all day and hardly a "working from home" day goes by when I don't sink into bleak thoughts, I'm painting a lovely picture aren't I?!
There are many pros, but I didn't think of the cons, as a human we need that interaction to keep us going, to make us feel alive.
The other con is the fact that I find it hard to cut off. After I pick my son up from school I tend to keep on working, often late into the evening, I find it hard to stop checking my iPhone and bobbing onto facebook (especially as some of my work is social media).
Does anyone have any advice on successful working from home strategies? What am I doing wrong?
I don't think there is a magic answer - I find it hard and now I'm going back into teaching I am really excited to be getting out again! I think it is the expectation that you are at home so you can still do everything "at home" as well as work. But you can't. I think if I was to work more at home I would insist on a cleaner and a bit of help to take off the pressure...and be firm with myself about the start and end of the day! Good luck! X
ReplyDeleteThanks, we have a cleaner which is great but it still feels like there are a million jobs to do. For me, it's the whole switching off thing, my friend suggested taking my emails off my phone so I can't look at them all the time, wondering if this might be the way to go?
Delete