Working From Home: My Four Biggest Time-Wasters

OK, first off: the good news. Working full-time from home is great. On rainy days, you can't beat the commute. On sunny days, I pull my laptop onto my terrace and feel nothing short of smug. However, I've discovered the hard way that there are many pratfalls you need to look out for, lest you want to be working from home well into the night.

What is my biggest pratfall of all? I bet you can guess. Time-wasters. Here are the biggies:

* Personal phone calls. I have discovered that some people equate working from home with not really working at all. As such, I have fielded many a long, involved personal phone call at, oh, 10:30 on a Monday morning. Next thing I know, it's noon. I have found the solution to be as simple as it sounds - Caller ID. If it's not work-related, I call back on my lunch hour. No exceptions. I've become hyper-vigilant about this, and noticed a big difference.
* Unexpected Visitors. A friend of mine is an artist who lives six blocks away. Thursday is his designated day off, where he does errands and likes to catch up with friends. The first couple of times he stopped by unannounced, I felt it was important to show I could be spontaneous and take advantage of my work-from-home freedom. Next thing I knew, it was 10:00 pm and I was racing towards a deadline. The truth is, you need to be disciplined, not spontaneous, for working from home to really work.
* Email. Perhaps the toughest time waster of all. Many corporations ban internet email, and that's a smart move if you ask me. Without coworkers to banter with, I often look to email as an opportunity to connect with people in a limited, time effective way. I don't feel a need to reply to every email, and save prolonged communications for the weekend. Does anyone out there have strategies for effectively limiting your email? I'm all ears!
* The Ellen Degeneres Show. OK, this is one rule I learned hard and fast. No TV. Never. Ever. I watch the Ellen Degeneres Show on vacation, and it's all the sweeter.

Working from home has pros and cons. You'll work much harder than you ever imagined (time is money), and it can be lonely. But if it's what you want, it is so worth it. I'd love to hear your stories of working from home. Is it all you thought it would be?

Working From Home: No Shower, Mommy!

When I started to work full time again, my recently-turned-three daughter didn't credit my "mom account" for the times in her life that I worked part time, when I would sometimes work in the middle of the night so I could be with her the next day (part devotion, part typical freelancer-with-lack-of-regular-childcare). It was a double whammy: more hours and a big project that temporarily required five days per week at the office. "Temporarily" is not a concept for three-year-olds. All my sweetie knew was that I was no longer just a staircase away in my basement office...and she wasn't pleased.

I wasn't either, despite loving the new job. I could hardly even look at other moms pushing strollers past me in the city, knowing that earlier that morning, I had to poke my own daughter's fingers back into the house so I could safely shut the door and not miss my bus. Her screaming was so bad during my departure, that even my eight-month-old son joined in the chorus of terror one morning, thus blowing my rationalization that I least I wasn't screwing up both my kids.

Then things started to improve. I was able to work from home again for one day a week, and sometimes two! One "office-day" morning, I started my shower and I heard the screaming that typically accompanied my coat coming out of the closet: "NO! DON'T take a shower mommy! NO SHOWER! NO SHOWER." My smart little gal had caught on that I don't shower on days I work at home. My child actually breathes easier when she sees me in sweatpants and a ponytail.

Some days--just to survive--I would resort to lying that I was just going shopping. Other days I would say I was going to visit our friends Mrs. Marr and Mrs. Ketchup. (Carolyn gets a kick out of that!)

Then one day, it was over. My daughter announced, "I'm not going to cry today, Mommy." She even gave me a present as I went to leave: a Little People person. It was a well-earned trophy, if I do say so.

We made it through.

Now I go to the office a few times a week, sometimes (gasp!) by choice, because although I have babysitting, I can still hear the screaming upstairs. And as awful this sounds, it's sometimes better not knowing. Plus, showering's a good thing.

My name is Domenica and I'm a guilt addict.

Working From Home: You Telecommuters Have It Made!

In my oft-mentioned past life as a M-F 9-5 corporate gal, I would occasionally glance up from my desk and notice that not everyone got up, got pretty, and drove off somewhere to spend the day awash in fluorescent light. Their lives always looked so nice.

I assumed it would reduce the daily workload. Now that a part of my work life is spent in a home office, nary a fluorescent bulb in sight (I’m pasty enough as it is, thank you) I see that in some ways, it merely shuffles the workload and blurs the lines. And…I like it.

My husband recently made the critical error of coming home, exhausted, wearing a quizzical what-did-you-do-today? look. I suppose it was in response to the undone dishes and multi-room havoc inflicted by an active kindergartener with drive, determination, and nothing but time. Had I tossed out self control and answered the unspoken question, it would have been:

I got up at 5 and worked uninterrupted until 7 (bliss), went back to bed until 7:45 (even better), drove my son to school, got a haircut, grocery shopped, got back in time for my 9:30 conference call, worked steadily, stopping only to let in a repairman who charged roughly double what we had budgeted (much pulling out of freshly-cut hair), picked up my little treasure at noon, fed him lunch and me breakfast, put in some laundry, bribed aforementioned treasure to stay quiet for my 3:00 teleconference, sent several emails, wrote a report, returned phone calls, and gave scant thought to dinner preparation.

Here is the bright side: 90 minutes I once spent commuting made for a nice evening watercolor painting session with my son (that was the bribe—he loves to paint). And the dishes did eventually get done. So, as an office worker on the outside looking in, I may have had some misconceptions about working from home, but I was right about one thing: it is so nice.

Working From Home: Work/Life Interrupted

This week has been interesting.

Aside from the typical challenges of working from home -- removing the french fry wedged in my laptop, keeping my dog quiet during conference calls, and dispelling the myth firmly held by my husband that I have plenty of time during the day to tackle our to-do list – this week was teacher conference week at my boys’ school.

Which means three half-days of school, from 8:45-12:25. (Effectively for my schedule, once I build-in drop-off and pick-up, 9-noon.)

To add to the creative work scheduling, both my boys, poor guys, had to stay home sick, each on a different day.

All of this combined to leave me with lots more work than work hours. A challenging spot, especially for a semi-obsessive to-do-lister.

In contrast, one of my coworkers has been behind closed doors all week, working on a colossal project, barely coming out to refill his coffee. Not that he probably sees his current situation as a bed of roses. But for some reason, dare I say it?, I’m slightly, well, jealous.

I love being a mom, I do. I really do. And I am entirely thankful to be at home with and for my boys. But, this week, there is this small little vicious and selfish bundle nestled somewhere near my spleen that is yelling, "I WANT A FULL DAY OF UNINTERRUPTED WORK!!!"

Can anyone relate? Please?

Roundtable Responses: Working From Home

For the first time in my life as a career woman, I’ve recently had the opportunity to work part-time from my home and I am loving it. I’m able to get things done on my time and in the space that I designed specifically to my tastes, there’s peace and quiet (read: no speakerphone-happy neighbors) for me to think, research and write, and my cat is happier than ever with someone constantly around to scratch her head!

But, of course it’s not all kitties and cream.

I’ve heard (and had) an assortment of concerns about the growing trend of flexible work arrangements and specifically, working from home:

- Am I looked at as less effective or not as committed if I’m not in the office?
- How do I stave off the lure of to-dos during time set aside for work?
- Do I lose out on opportunities by not having face time with my coworkers and boss?
- Is it time to install a landline in the house or up my cell phone plan? These phone conferences are killing me!
- Is it even possible to have work-only time with kids in the house?
- Will I get rusty with my people and presentation skills?

Of course, the list goes on and there are countless angles and schools of thought on at-home work. So, I asked a few fwm staffers to share their stories of working from home, which I’ll share with you blog readers over the next few days. In the meantime, please share your thoughts! Does working from home work for you?