Thursday, February 16, 2006

Life and Work

Man, I have always thought of myself as a disciplined, scheduled person. But now that I'm telecommuting most of the time, I am finding it a huge challenge to make myself stay on task and work the appropriate number of hours. It's just too easy to stop and have a snack, watch something on TV, do some chores, catch up on email, read stuff on the net, blah blah blah. No one is here to watch me or know when I'm working and when I'm not.

I have found that if I stay in my jammies all day, I am much less productive. Now that makes absolutely no sense really, but I have done scientific studies (well, not exactly scientific, but I have noticed . . .). Staying in your jammies sounds so appealing, but you end up kinda feeling like you are home on a sick day from work and so you feel like napping and reading and stuff, not much like you are at the office.

Don't get me wrong, I am so totally blessed to have the opportunity to work at home and do something I love. It's just been a new and unexpected challenge. The best part of it is, I get to plan my work around my life, not my life around my work. I am working at finding the balance, and it's really sometimes hard to believe I am actually able to do this. I never thought I'd get here.

Now if I could just make time in my day for working on my novel . . .

3 comments:

Julie Kibler said...

Santa does. He's sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good, for goodness sake.

;)

Sunshine said...

Julie, you're silly.

God sees us, too. ;) This morning Steven and I were discussing the verse about working for God, rather than for men (Colossians 3:23). Could be easier to be good about working when we know we are to work in a way that is an honor to Him. That should also help us balance our life and our work, as you mentioned.

But I totally know what you're talking about! It is hard to get into the groove of working from home. I'm finally beginning to feel like I've found my working groove. Now, like you, I've just got to find my "other writing" groove....

hampton said...

you know, i've read that before, that if you work from home, you tend to get a lot more done if you get dressed like you are going to work (not nessesarily business casual, but you know, not a bathrobe either, haha) and have some sort of routine that says to you "getting ready to work."

working from home sounds really nice to me right now. i can't believe i have to start the job hunt AGAIN! i really thought i was set for a while, but such is life i guess. so as you have probably gathered, i'm back home, got in last night around 7. i will have to come visit later this week! see you soon,
love hampton