Compartmentalize for your (mental) health

For years, until recently, I got up at 5:30 am, left the house at 7:30, worked at an office from 8 to 5, took an hour for lunch and errands, reverse commuted and arrived at home just in time to start cooking dinner. No decompression time for me. Whew! The Holy Grail of Working From Home was calling to me.

Then the incomprehensible happened. I was laid off! So… was this a disaster? or an opportunity? Choosing to believe the latter I launched myself into the world of freelance writing and copy editing – both of which I did in the past. Yes, I love it. No, I’m not making much money at it. Yet.

Now that I’ve been working from home successfully for a few months, I feel qualified to share some of my experiences, in the hopes that they will help someone else who has recently been, umm, downsized.

Compartmentalize. Set up work hours and respect them. This is very important. I know the freedom to work whenever and wherever you choose is a large part of the attraction of working from home, but if you want to be successful — however you define success — you need to practice self-discipline. I quickly discovered that I could complete about the same amount of work in five dedicated hours in my home office asI had previously been doing in ten hours at the office (eight+lunch+commute). Taking advantage of ingrained habits, I get up at the same time every morning, and then at 7:30, when I would previously have left for the office, I start my 5 hour dedicated block of time. At 12:30, I stop for lunch. That’s it! Morning has always been my high-energy time, so this works well for me. (In the spirit of full disclosure…since I am growing my business, I usually put in an extra hour or more of reading, research or marketing during the afternoon. But I’m not as protective of this time as I am about my morning work hours.

During my office hours I don’t put in a load of laundry, or make any personal phone calls, or go for a walk, or run up to the grocery store, or start dinner, or surf the net, or answer personal emails, or vacuum, or… well, you get the idea.

It is important to differentiate between work-from-home work and your regular home and life maintenance duties. You should build a mental compartment for “when I am at work” and a different one for “when I am at home.”

I wasn’t as well organized originally, and I found myself staying busy but reaching many evenings wondering what I had accomplished during my day. So I set up my mental compartments and launched my office-hour plan with some straightforward goal setting and a designated office area (more on these later), and it is working for me.

1. Set aside regular “office” hours and respect them.

2. Have a separate work space, used only for when you are “at work.”

3. Have achievable, measurable goals you work towards daily.

4. Start each day with a roadmap of the day’s activities.

Try it for a week. Or write and let me know what works best for you. After all, we’re all different so there are bound to be lots of systems out there. I’d love to hear about some of them.