Maintaining A Healthy Balance When Working From Home
Owner Abigail shares her tips for how to maintain a healthy balance when working from home.
A glimpse of the “work from home” life.
Abigail spends most of her time at local Fort Worth coffee shops.
Written by Owner Abigail Nelson:
Hi there! Thanks for taking a look at our blog! By no means do I have this whole “work from home” thing perfected, nor do I think I ever will. However, I’m at the place in my life where I have a decent balance when it comes to maintaining my work life and my personal life.
I’ve learned a lot in the past year of what joys come from working from home, as well as the struggles that come from working in your home. Here are my pros and cons:
Pros + Cons:
Pros:
You get to wear comfy clothes, and nothing makes me feel better than comfy clothes.
You have unlimited access to the fridge + snacks (this may be a con for some, but I recognize it as a pro).
You get to decide your schedule for each day, meaning you can take off on whichever day is convenient for you.
You can work from coffee shops!
Cons:
There’s always house chores to do, and if you’re like me, the thought of laundry being in the basket and dishes being in the sink cloud my brain from working until those things are squared away.
It can be lonely. I’m an extrovert and find joy in meeting new people, so being in my home office leaves me feeling as though I’m not networking to my fullest potential as I meet a lot of future clients in coffee shops.
If you decide to “work from home” in a coffee shop, you better prepare for that coffee budget! (Speaking to myself here).
It can be hard to mentally clock out of work when walking from your home office to the living room.
Now that I’ve listed some of my pros and cons, I’d like to share with you some methods I’ve discovered to help me mentally clock in and out when working from home.
Tips + Tricks:
T-Sheets: Download this app! It doesn’t require you to be part of a company. It simply lets you clock in and out and tracks your time over each day and into each week. Before I had this app, I struggled mentally with being at home and not working. I felt as though while I was doing the dishes, that I was being unproductive or somehow procrastinating in my work by tending to my household. However, when I downloaded this app it let me know how much I was working daily and that was reassuring to me to see actual time I had spent in work v. home life.
Coffee Shops: My husband and I are blessed to live in a hub of specialty coffee. I like to take my laptop to local shops and often times this is where I meet a lot of my clients. Coffee shops are an excellent place if you’re trying to network. * Special tip: most shops offer reward systems for each dollar spent. Meaning you’'ll eventually save on future purchases by building up your points! If you don’t have a local specialty coffee shop, Starbucks is a great option if you’re trying to gain reward points for your money spent.
What methods do you find helpful when balancing work and home life? Leave a comment below.