How good are you at balancing your work with your home life?
Another question that came in from a newsletter reader asked how best to separate one’s work life from home and family life.
That’s a heck of a good question, particularly when you have small children at home, shopping to do, school runs to make and so on.
The first thing to say that it’s hard. On the one hand you need to be disciplined about doing your work, but on the other it is more than difficult to ignore the requests and needs of your children.
If you don’t have children, then you don’t have much of an excuse to struggle over separating your work and home lives. Just set yourself hours for work in the same way you would in an office. And no, watching Oprah isn’t working.
If you do have children in the home, or coming home from school in the middle of the afternoon, you have to make some choices.
Some people I know earn enough from their freelance work to hire someone to be with the children until supper time or thereabouts.
Others have their children stay in day care after school.
When neither option is available or affordable, you’ll have to adjust your working hours accordingly.
I also know working moms, with kids coming home from school, who work all morning, stop when the kids get home and then put in some more hours after the children have gone to bed. It isn’t easy, but sometimes it’s the only way you can do it.
If you don’t have a problem with the kids interrupting your work, but do have a problem with your partner, who should know better, then you need to draw some lines in the sand.
In fact, a few years ago I made up a T-Shirt which had the following line on the front.
“I know I'm at home. But right now I'm at work.”
You can still get yourself one of those T-Shirts here.
And your spouse really should know better. Set some start and end times for your work, morning and afternoon, and keep to them. The more disciplined you are, the more likely your partner is to respect those boundaries. But if you chop and change those times, and pop out for a coffee mid-morning, he or she will reasonable assume that your schedule is actually quite flexible. Next thing you know you’ll be asked to drive out to get the dry cleaning while you’re in the middle of a client call.
Be realistic about what you can and can’t do. Make time for your work and your family. And understand that the more self-disciplined you are, the more easily your family will come to respect your work time.
Don't miss the next article, sign up for my newsletter...
Get a FREE copy of the Freelance Business Growth Checklist and SAVE 50% on a one-hour phone call with me when you sign up for my coaching newsletter.
Privacy: I'll never sell or share your email address. And you can unsubscribe at any time.
Learn more about the coaching and pricing options I offer...
This new Q&A Workbook will help you identify the tough questions you need to ask and answer in order to catapult your freelance business forward.
25 Tough Questions to Ask About Your Freelance Writing or Copywriting Business