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| photo by herval | via PhotoRee |
Working for yourself from home can be intense, particularly hour-wise! I blog (obviously) and love it but I also work freelance (and really love that too!), and I’m a Mum and wife and I REALLY love that as well! I also sincerely believe that whoever decided 24hr was an adequate number of hours for one day wasn’t a working parent – I mean what a silly number!
Basically there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Over time my working week, (a typical day starting at 5am as I’m a natural early riser, and ending at approximately 11am),was starting to slip into the weekend. Then it took over. We still did family stuff and the kids get plenty of quality time in and out of the house, but I work in snatches around the clock, especially over the summer and then it’s heads down for an evening’s work. My saviour has been that fact that Taylor goes to his Grandma one day a week and the same day Kieran is either at school or a playscheme. A full day of concentrated work!
This summer though I have decided that things have to change. As much as I love my work, it’s not my life and I have decided to reclaim my weekend. Yes, no full-on Saturday and Sunday working, no weekend to-do lists.
And what a difference!!
I find myself better organised (as much as you can be with kids at home!) and my working week more productive because I know that when the laptop goes off on Friday night, that is it. Don’t get me wrong, I still need my twitter fix and enjoy a bit of browsing etc but that’s where it stops.
I’ve had to re-teach myself about the work/life balance and working to live, not living to work. I’m much happier as a result. Since reclaiming weekends and my “me” time I’ve realised how much I’ve missed. I’ve started reading for pleasure again, walking, and spending more time exploring in the kitchen (cookery not just eating!). I am also very pleased to find that after years of only catching snatches, I seem to have missed absolutely nothing from soapland!
Do you find yourself pushing yourself harder than you should? Do you know what your working cut-off time is or do you plough on regardless of the fact that you’ve had no “me” time? It’s never easy getting the balance right is it?
Good for you for beginning to find the right balance. I only work from home time to time, but it is difficult getting it right isn’t it?! Emma 🙂
It’s definitely a balancing act. I work from home full-time but whether you do 40hrs or 10hrs, it can be a juggle!
I’m still trying to find the right balance..I tend to work on & off all day every day, I’m glued to the laptop and when I’m away from it I crave it! I have said that as from next month when the kids go back to school & little one is in pre-school 3 days a week I will get organised use those 3 days productively & try not to do work related stuff on the weekends…we shall see!
My aim is to only work school hours (my mum looks after Eleanor while Rosemary’s at school, or both of them in the holidays). But it rarely works out that way. If we have deadlines and a lot of extra work, while we outsource as much as possible, there are times when we end up working most evenings and one of us working at weekends (swapping in the middle of the day or one day off, one day on). We’ve just finished a hugely period and are enjoying mostly only working in the daytime and also having some holiday time with the girls, too.
Working for yourself does make it hard to get the balance right and I do sometimes crave a ‘normal’ 9 to 5 where I can just switch off at the end of the day, but there are so many other benefits that it doesn’t last to long.
I think, though, it’s best to try to plan to not work evenings or weekends (or whenever your personal set-aside time is) and make sure you only ever eat into that time in an emergency. Nothing would stop me from doing my school runs, for example, or cooking the tea, or looking after the girls in the morning. So, we should be able to keep work away from ‘Me time’, too!
Good luck!
My aim is to only work school hours (my mum looks after Eleanor while Rosemary’s at school, or both of them in the holidays). But it rarely works out that way. If we have deadlines and a lot of extra work, while we outsource as much as possible, there are times when we end up working most evenings and one of us working at weekends (swapping in the middle of the day or one day off, one day on). We’ve just finished a hugely period and are enjoying mostly only working in the daytime and also having some holiday time with the girls, too.
Working for yourself does make it hard to get the balance right and I do sometimes crave a ‘normal’ 9 to 5 where I can just switch off at the end of the day, but there are so many other benefits that it doesn’t last to long.
I think, though, it’s best to try to plan to not work evenings or weekends (or whenever your personal set-aside time is) and make sure you only ever eat into that time in an emergency. Nothing would stop me from doing my school runs, for example, or cooking the tea, or looking after the girls in the morning. So, we should be able to keep work away from ‘Me time’, too!
Good luck!
Sorry! Double-post