Life-Work-Training Balance for the home-worker.
Hi all - looking for advice / your experience of managing life-balance, especially if you're a home-worker.
I run my own business from home (with outsourced/remote employee model) - my business is sales related with lots of phone & email contact, business pitches etc.
It is ideal in many respects for training & life in general and I do control my own agenda to a large extent - can train morning, lunch times & evenings - kids are teenagers (youngest 15) so child care isn't a major issue anymore.
Despite all this I tend to struggle to seperate life - work - tri training as it can all blur together into one melting pot with the usual end result that I'll gravitate (when bored, tired, stressed etc) to the interesting stuff, i.e. triathlon & training (especially when I'm desk/internet based!)
I know (and you're probably already thinking) this is a time management and predominantly a self-discipline & planning thing - however, as every home worker will testify, it is hard to create the seperation, e.g. you don't have the usual life-style seperation points such as commuting to a work-place, being on the clock, being surrounded by colleagues who keep you on track / on-topic (i.e. work). In some respects, being limited or constrained in this way is easier, it was for me at least.
@Patrick - did I read once that you wake at 4AM to get your workouts in? I guess I'm after real-time examples from fellow homeworkers who also face these issues.
Any tips/hints welcome - for one, the early training session model seems worth a shot altho' I don't have issues fitting workouts in - the other stuff just slips!
Also, i guess I'm the typical type-A perhaps, do get slightly intense about things (especially on stuff I'm passionate about). Friends suggest dropping the sports training but thats not me & I need the balance it gives me - you guys can relate I know.........
Thanks folks,
Dave
Comments
1- My office is on a separate "floor" completely detached from the main part of my home. My "commute" is just a walk down the steps, but I do have a better ability to separate work/home because when I go "home" I can't even hear the work phone ring (and vice verse).
2- The type of work I do means my work schedule is dependant on when others around the country are available. Sure, I can (and occasionally do) work at 8:00pm on editing a contract, but eventually I need to communicate & negotiate those changes with someone else and those people are only available 9-5 (for the most part).
However, my biggest problem is procrastination and using other stuff (like EN) to help me avoid tasks I'd rather not be doing. This has always been a challenge for me. When I was working during the day and going to school for my MBA at night, my hubby said he knew whenever a school paper was due because the house was spotless and the laundry was all done! HA HA HA! I've gotten better at just tackling those problems as they come up though and if I find myself backsliding and using time cleaning up my email inbox instead of working on a tough clause, I'll give myself a challenge (like- no checking personal e-mail for 4 hours) to see if I can make it. That usually puts me back on track.
Thinking that even if I don't need to now, I may as well get used to it if its inevitable.
Dave
P
Nemo...so true. I always did housework before I would write my papers. Now I'm taking a class and can't motivate myself. I like Patrick's plan. Get up early, get the workout in, then "go" to work. I find I procrastinate everything! I'm trying now to workout early, come home, pick up the house, "start" dinner whatever that means (crockpot, mix things up....) then shower and sit down to study. Then I get distracted......and it all unravels.....