Establishing Work At Home Boundaries
Posted by Mom at 5:14pm in Work At Home
One common work at home challenge, is dealing with friends and family members calling on the phone to chat.
People assume because you are home, you are easily accessible and hey…it’s a casual workplace, right?
I faced this same problem when I first starting working at home.
One quick “personal” call would turn into an hour long gab-fest and then my work would fall behind.
While my schedule is more flexible now that I work at home, I still have a full workload and need to stay focused in order to get things done.
Here are some practical suggestions I’ve learned to establish boundaries:
Establish a schedule and advertise it. I generally work from 7:30am – 4:30pm and I let everyone outside the home know I am unavailable during these times.
Keep a separate phone for work and home. I have a phone number for work that I have not shared with personal contacts. I do not answer my home phone during my normal working hours, my voice mail does all the work for me! I return calls after work.
It’s not only the phone that distracts and wastes time!
Separate your e-mail accounts. I have one e-mail account for work and for personal use. I only check and respond to personal e-mails once a day, usually at lunch or after dinnertime.
Separate IM accounts too. Honestly, instant messaging can be a huge time waster. I found that personal IM’s would interrupt my thoughts and workflow, so I keep my personal account logged off during my working hours.
By setting and enforcing YOUR rules, friends and family will take your work seriously.
