It is fantastic to realize home and work are independent entities and to define work for one’s self. When entrepreneurs have small businesses or work from home it is easy for them to make the mistake of combining home and work instead of keeping them separate. It is important for small business entrepreneurs and those who work from home to define their work so that work gets the priority treatment it deserves. When a business is small and growing small business entrepreneurs often find themselves working to the exclusion of everything else. Similarly, people who work at home work all day long and in almost every room of the house. Both these groups of people need to define what work means. These people need to clearly decide the following items in reference to work:
- Hours
- Location
- Telephone Numbers
- Email addresses
It is important to define these things because efficiency is best achieved for the entrepreneur, worker and customers when work hours are clearly defined, set and adhered to at all times. When hours are clearly set, the entrepreneur, customers and family members have a clear understanding of when work will take place. It is important to know where work will take place so that all work materials are where they should be when needed. Work is more efficient when it takes place in a constant location rather than in every room of the house. Business telephone numbers must be clearly defined. Customers should be able to contact an entrepreneur on a business phone number that will be answered in a business like manner. It is not cute for customers to call a business for business purposes and have that call answered by your three-year old singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If an entrepreneur has a clearly set business phone number, it is easier to answer business calls only during business hours. Much of the written communication that takes place in today’s business world takes place via email. For this reason it is important to have a separate email address for business correspondence. This ensures that all business communication is in one place.
[Tweet “It is fantastic to realize home and work are independent entities and to define work for one’s self.”]
In conclusion, it is fantastic to realize home and work are independent entities and to define work for one’s self. So, the question for you this fantastic day is, how do you define work?
It is so very hard when the children are young. That is why I started consulting and writing because that type of work I could do at night after everyone was asleep. Maybe sometimes defining things means workingn around our real families in our real lives.
I definitely need to work on this. Part of the problem is my kids are so young that I’m often juggling both family and work simultaneously– unless I hire a babysitter, that’s the way it has to be until they go to school. And I could hire a babysitter, but… I committed to staying home with them. Such a conundrum! Can’t I pretend I can just handle both at the same time? (haha, no, I can’t!)
I wrote this because my husband and I as well as a few friends are all struggling with this issue.
LIke you said it is a simple solution, but many of my work from home friends and I are struggling to deal with this issue.
My husband and I were literally JUST talking about this. I need to revamp how I keep the two separated because lately I haven’t been doing such a great job of it.
This is such an important point! When I stopped doing laundry, dishes, and other things around the house on my ‘work days,’ my work was so much more productive. It sounds obvious but it took me a while to get to a point where I could separate the two.