It’s not easy to work from home, but everyone thinks it is!
Your friends with day jobs and office jobs think you spend your time lounging in pajamas and watching Bravo TV marathons. Your parents are afraid you’re dealing drugs because you make money without leaving the house. All your loved ones are slightly jealous, truth be told.
And yet, working from home is not always a walk in the park. These tips will help keep your work space and your home life divided, whether you’re wearing pj’s or not.
♥ Designate a work space. Make sure you can close the door/zipper/curtain on it when necessary.
Since I’m an author and a business whisperer, it’s fairly easy for me to keep all my business supplies in a backpack. The backpack — which contains my laptop, notebooks, pens, power cords, notes, and a few files — comes out of the closet and is opened every morning. When I’m done working, everything is packed up, zippered up, and put back into the closet. This unpacking and repacking ritual helps me to keep my work and home life separate, even though they take place in the same space. You might do the same with remaking a closet into an office, pulling a curtain on a space that is only opened when you’re working, or even fashioning a “Bother at your own risk” sign to keep your loved ones at bay while you’re in the zone.
Mentally separating your business from your home life is crucial to working at home for the long term, and will keep your pets/kids/loved ones happy, too.
♥ Figure out your genius time. And work during it.
Your genius time is, quite literally, the time you function at peak capacity as a human being; the time it’s easiest to channel your genius into your work.
I’m at my best between 7am and Noon, and find myself absolutely useless after those hours have passed. Sure, I can Tweet or Facebook or sort accounting bits and pieces into categories, but my best work happens before lunch. I’ve learned to schedule meetings and writing for early in the day, saving workouts, errands, cooking, cleaning, and other tasks for later.
Whether you work best at 8am or 8pm, identifying the times your brain feels clearest and/or your hands feel most inspired to make stuff will help you maximize the time you have to work. Using this tip, you’ll be a faster and more productive worker without changing anything except when you work!
♥ Get out of the house once a week for business.
It’s easy to go into working-at-home mode and refuse to leave for any reason. I’ve had groceries, books, and clothes delivered to make time for keeping my nose to the grindstone. I’ve tricked my husband into walking the dog to keep working for a while longer.
We all know that’s not the healthiest behavior on the planet, though, and getting outside to talk with other human beings on a regular basis will keep you from turning into the crazy cat lady who only talks about YouTube videos and mosaic art. Getting out for your business could mean finding a biz buddy to talk shop with over coffee, networking with local businesses, joining a meet-up group, shopping with the idea of partnering with brick and mortars in the back of your mind, or exploring new retail spaces where your work could eventually be sold.
Go on, prove that you’re not a total agoraphobe by getting into the world on a regularly scheduled basis — it’ll help you enjoy your pajama time even more than you thought possible.
If you’ve got working-from-home tips your fellow handmaders could use, please share ‘em in the comments!
Kristen Kalp — Brand Camp
Kristen Kalp is a (ghost)writer who believes people should have fun being in business. She blogs at Brand Camp for like-minded folks.
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great tips! I love the backpack idea.
These sort of tips are invaluable to me at the mo, I’m due to start working a new job which means i’m only needed in the office 14 days out of the month, leaving the rest of the time to work from home on my own projects! I can’t wait but was also getting worried about being productive, think I’ll be using some of your tips
Love this! Omg! Great tips,some of them re affirming what I have had notions of and so fun to read! I love the jokey stuff about bravo marathons and mosaic art. More more more rad articles from you Kristen. Xo
i don’t work from home FT, but i hope to someday
thanks for the great tips! my genius time is from about 5-11am. i love waking up before my family and getting a bunch of stuff done. i really need that quiet time and that’s hard to carve out when you have a family!
Love this post Kristen and it is exactly what I needed to hear! I love advice about working from home because I am still trying to figure out my best schedule. Lately my genius time has been from 9pm to 1am which is not the best when I have two little ones up early but I have been cranking out some work during that time so I’ll see if I can make it work.
@Masa – I love the backpack idea too!
@Charlotte – Good luck with your new schedule! Exciting!
@Moxie – I love the jokey stuff too
Hey Lynn! I agree and think that is why I get more done at night because the house is quiet and the kids are asleep!
Great tips. Yes, finding your creative and productive is crucial, that what saved me from loosing my mind
. I work in my studio on comp in the mornings usually 9am-12,it’s all about packing orders, sending e-mails, checking social media.After that i have a break till 8-9pm and that’s when my making and creating takes place, and that goes on till 1-2 am ( or longer depending on orders). Since I have 4 kids day time is mostly about family, I’m thinking once they are older I will have more time to work during day, but for now it is what it is. I love you ‘ Bother at your own risk ‘ sign,I’m totally putting this on my door 
I work at home full time as well, and I have to say that finding time for time off is probably the most challenging part (that and being more disciplined at waking up at regular times). I myself will sometimes work until 1 am, and of course I sleep in to make up the hours. I suppose being my own boss is a challenge in itself, as I won’t really yell at myself if I don’t get my work done that day, but I do feel really guilty.
I wouldn’t go back to working for someone else, but working from home is the most challenging thing ever!
@Melanie — I’ve found that having my absolute must-do items scheduled on my Google calendar makes sure I get them done. It’s something I resisted for YEARS, and when I finally started doing it — my business life got much easier!
I include fun activities on the same calendar, and regularly schedule time off, so it’s easier for me to balance work and play.
Ummm STOP reading my mind?!?! I was JUST talking to my husband about this. It’s about 6 months now that I’ve been working at home doing the creative biz and I”m starting to lose it a little bit at the end of the day. I’m not quite sure how to “switch” the working part of my brain off and the “relax” part on without feeling guilty. I like the shutting/closing the door idea or backpack. Glad to hear I’m not alone!
I can relate Patty! I love the freedom from working at home but man it is so hard to actually end the day!
@aneta – Sounds like you have a good sytem going on! The summer schedule w/ the kids has thrown me off a bit and I love reading this kind of advice!
@melanie – I agree Melanie!!! It is rewarding and challenging to be your own boss!!
Wow, I find it so hard to work from home every day. And yet, I did it on purpose! I think I work best when I’m also getting enough sunlight and exercise to feel like I’m in the world. But yet, when I do that, I feel guilty, as if I should be glued to the computer.
The main thing is those genius hours. I’m best in the morning, but I also usually teach at that time. If I could have a couple of days a week to get up and work, then have a break for yoga and food/walking, then get back to business I’d probably get a lot more done.
Now to make it happen…
I love everything you wrote here Laura! I am shooting to have the same kind of day! That will probably happen once both my boys are in school full-time.
Good luck!