Separating Work From Home

by Rachel Rae

There 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.

One: Use the drive home to transition from the work issues to prepare for the family needs. Try to consciously let go of the work day happening and refuse to dwell on those issues. They will be there tomorrow.

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.

Two: Come up with a Schedule

You might need to think outside of the box when you work from home. There’s a tendency to put in more work hours when you work from home, simply because there’s not clear boundaries of work hours. Maybe you can work after the kids have gone to bed, or early in the morning. But look at the schedule of your family and see if you can find times in their day when their needs are less and use that for work hours.

Strategy Three: Get Separate Phone lines

This will help create a division between work and home. Define work hours as much as you can. You can either have a cell or land line be one or the other. You can also have different phone rings for personal use to separate the roles. When it’s not work hours, let those business calls go to an answering device.

Tip Four: Create a space that is separate from 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.

About the Author:

Making income from home creates unusual tensions between work and personal life balance. Drop by our site to get ideas about this for people who want a home business

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