4 Proven Strategies for Separating Work From Home
Posted by: Rachel Rae in Career, tags: CareerThere is a simple philosophy that I live by to help maintain peace and harmony in life, and that is what happens at work stays at work and what happens at home stays at home. Letting the two worlds impact one another can have devastating effects on both areas of your world. This can be especially challenging for people that work from home.
Of course after I say that I need to clarify. I also believe that your job takes at least eight hours of your day, and that being able to share that time with your spouse is important. Talking about it is one thing, coming home and taking it out on your family is something else.
Tip One: Use your commute time to shift gears mentally from letting go of the day at work, and begin thinking about your family.
Granted this is sometimes easier said than done, but you can use your commute time profitably, and is more geared toward those working outside the home. Begin to actively let go of the work day’s problems knowing they’ll be there tomorrow, and look forward to time with your family and what may be next.
Tip Two: Make a Schedule
This strategy is for people that work from home, where keeping work and family separate is even more of a challenge. It is so easy when you work from home to work way more then you would at a traditional office, because you have everything right there. You need to create a work schedule, and this schedule is going to have to take two things into consideration, demands of your work and demands of your family. You may find that you need to be working early in the morning or after the kids go to bed. Create a schedule that you can stick to and that will work so that your business isn’t suffering and neither is your family.
Three: Get Different Phone lines
Fortunately for me, with my business I rarely have to be on the phone, almost all communication with clients is done via email. But if you are finding that you are getting business phone calls at all hours, having a separate number for them to call is great. You also have the option of making your cell phone your business phone and the home phone is personal. This way when your work day is done you can put the phone down and walk away from it. You can also separate the rings for people you know personally and business so you don’t accidentally answer a business call after working hours.
Strategy Four: Have an Office that is separate from the rest of the house.
Do you have an extra room that could be used exclusively for this purpose? I know it’s not always possible. Perhaps you could get inexpensive room partitions to create a work area. It’s important that you try to make a space so that your roles can be separate and you can walk away from it when you need to. It also helps to keep family out of your work area as well.
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