Friday, November 07, 2008

Working from Home

Working from home is a new thing for me. Sure I'd occasionally work from home if I wasn't feeling well or other reasons I needed to stay home but was capable of working, but it's not the same. When you work from home, after hours because of a specific project or task, that's easy to say with, but if you are just working from home now and again, it's easy to get distracted from what needs to get done, because you can always do it tomorrow.

When you work from home full time things change. You don't have tomorrow to take care of those things. The work has to be done when it's supposed to be done. Even more so there is a pressure, whether real or imagined, that you have to work extra hard to show that you are indeed working. You are your own supervisor and you can be a tough boss.

Well that's how it is for me so far.

Additionally you never fully leave work. You work where you live, so your computer, your phone, etc are right around the corner. It's a strange thing. I do a pretty good job of separating my work life and home life, but this confuses that a bit. I could go grab a beer from the fridge. (I have not done that, but I could.) The bathroom is my own and really close. Lots of similar examples.

Leaving work at 5pm is going to be an important habit to develop now that work is in the other room. But it also creates an odd cabin fever. I have to get out more, which in itself is not a bad thing but it creates an interesting situation.

I feel fortunate that I've not fallen into the trap of having a TV in the other room, or playing games or other distractions. I was worried about those things but they've not been a problem at all.

At the end of the day it's simply getting used to having a new work habit. It's an unusual one for someone who has always worked in an office (not at home), but not a bad one. After one week I think I'm doing pretty good. Let's hope that continues to be the case.

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