The Dream has Come True (almost)
Considering Facts Of Working At Home Amidst Chaos! You finally did it. You found your plan and you worked it through and you gave your two weeks notice and you came home to go to work. This is what you’ve been working for over the past few years and who can’t get excited about it? You set up your home office and set limits with the kids, even retrained the dog so he would stop barking at every little thing that wandered by throughout the day.
You’ve been doing all the right things. You roll out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, whip up a little breakfast and get the family out the door. The dog gets a brief walk as a reward for learning his new behaviors, and you are sitting at your new desk by eight in the morning and ready to bring home the family bacon. You are the queen of work at home organization.
At nine thirty the phone rings and your mother in law blows a huge hole in your well thought out work at home organization. She announces that she needs your help and she’ll be over in twenty minutes, and naturally she is right on time. You spend an hour walking her through her bank’s website so that she learns how she can manage her savings account or whatever it was she wanted and after she stands around and chats about the kids. Your work at home organization is now off by almost two hours.
Despite all of your attention to detail and your work at home organization, your best friend calls around 1:00 with what seems like a crisis to her but really is just another bump in the road and really could have waited until that evening. Now you’re under the gun because you’ve spent nearly an hour dealing with her new man crisis and the kids will be home from school in forty five minutes and you have barely accomplished half the things on your well organized list for the day.
Despite your best efforts, you are far behind by the time the kids come home just like you were all last week. By the time your significant other comes home you have cooked dinner, ran a load of laundry through, played with the kids and got them settled on their homework and you want to cry as you feel as though you are helplessly watching your work at home dreams go down the drain. The business answering machine has seven messages on it that you should have called back before noon.
If you’re lucky you can squeeze in a few hours in the evening instead of spending the time with your family, even thought that was the point of bringing you into your home office. Despite your amazing work at home organization, you are failing. You know that if people would just leave you alone you could get the work done and the paychecks would be steady and secure. Things are slipping away and if you don’t change the ground rules, you will be seeking employment outside the home once again. By now you are “Considering Facts Of Working At Home Amidst Chaos”
The Work at Home Perception
Unfortunately, often only those closest to you realize that working at home is actually working at home. Your in-laws and parents, friends and neighbors, and even sometimes a well intentioned but misunderstood spouse loses the concept of work hours when an individual comes home to work. In their minds, you’re now home so you are in control of your own time so it is perfectly possible for you to work around other people, if they even believe you are working at all.
This is a frustrating work at home perspective and one that can seriously disrupt your progress and if you’re not careful, your well organized work at home plan. Many people believe that working at home is really just a scam and can’t be done successfully, no matter what business you set up at home.
The work at home perception that influences your day to day life may or may not be something that you can change. Those around you are going to see things as they see them and it’s up to you to either open their eyes or simply set limits to protect what you have worked for.
It may be helpful to host a small dinner. Inviting those who are your greatest daily distractions over for a small get together and at some point in the dinner conversation bring up the topic about work and all you’re accomplishing. Give them a brief tour of your office space and mention the challenges of getting everything done during the day. When people work in an office, they have the option to stay a little late to get caught up. Work at home parents have a fairly consistent schedule set for them around their children and their lifestyle. Pointing out these little details may help change the work at home perception without creating direct conflict. Most people will put two and two together and realize that whether they understand the concept or not, they are intruding on your work time when they understand it or not.
If kindness and subtlety doesn’t work, then it’s time to get tough. You are not only the work at home organization queen, but you are also a mother lion protecting her den. It is not necessary to lay out the rules with anger or hostility, but it may become necessary to set some ground rules with authority. This isn’t always easy especially when the offender is someone like your mother-in-law or your mother. But it is necessary if you want to protect your work at home experience.
Improving the Work at Home Experience
“Considering Facts Of Working At Home Amidst Chaos” Despite what people believe about the work at home experience, it can be both financially rewarding and emotionally rewarding. Setting your own schedule is empowering and taking command of your life is exhilarating. Knowing that you have accomplished what nearly 50% of the workforce would love to accomplish and to do it successfully is a serious boost to one’s self image and confidence level.
The work at home experience does not have to be ultimately taxing or frustrating once the basic ground rules are set and enforced. Although sometimes you will find that you will have to be a little flexible. Snow days and sick days are bound to happen. Just because the kids are home from school unexpectedly doesn’t mean that you can’t still get quite a bit accomplished, it just means you will have to go about it in an unusual way.
Even young children can grasp the work at home experience if small and basic concepts are explained to them. It’s okay to let them know that you have to do what you are doing for twenty minutes longer because it’s what allows you to be at home with them. Enlisting their help will enhance the work at home experience for both of you, even if that help is sitting next to you with a coloring book.
Significant others may or may not grasp the entire work at home concept right away. The work at home experience may need to be shared more intimately with them if they are having trouble understanding why the laundry is piling up or why you need help cooking dinner all of a sudden or why you have been so tired at the end of the day.
The work at home experience may be initially exhausting. This is normal. When people initially make the transition they tend to go at it with everything the can because there is a part of them that is afraid they may fail otherwise. Don’t work yourself to death. It’s okay to enjoy the work at home experience for everything it has to offer rather than just sitting inside your home office twelve hours a day every day.
You can enhance your own work at home experience by setting aside a little time for special things everyday. Take your lunch outside, not at your desk. Set aside twenty minutes or so in the middle of the day for an exercise routine. This not only helps keep you going but helps prevent office butt from sneaking up on you.
The work at home experience does not have to be a lonely one. The number one complaint that people have when they transition home is that they don’t have anyone to really talk to during the day, other than clients and potential clients. There are online communities out there that can help cure the loneliness factor. Of course, you will have to exercise caution and not spend your entire day chatting online with people or you will not be getting anything valuable accomplished. However, it is okay to periodically check in with people and share issues and work toward a common goal together. Depending on the business you are running out of your home, you may already have this set up through the business and just need to take full advantage of it.
Working at home is beautifully liberating and a huge shot of confidence. It can be stressful, and it can be wonderfully challenging and rewarding. It can be everything you think it is or it can absolutely exceed your expectations. For those of us who do it everyday, it has been well worth every single challenge and limit and fear and sleepless night. For more valuable information on working at home and making the most out of the work at home experience, visit allworkathomeguide.
Bobby Ryatt
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/considering-facts-of-working-at-home-amidst-chaos-94309.html
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