Setting Office Hours When You Work at Home

by L Shepherd | More from this Blogger

05 Feb 2007 10:20 PM

Just about every piece of advice I have ever read about working at home and raising a family says to set specific working hours and to stick to a schedule. Somehow, I have never managed to do this.

Setting a set number of office hours makes sense: your family would know what to expect, your work will get the concentrated time it needs, and there will actually be time that you don't have to be thinking about work or worrying about how you will find the time to get it done. It all sounds terrific in theory, I've just never found any way to make it work. I have tried countless times to set specific "office hours," but with a lot of home businesses, you never really know from one day to the next what the workload will be. Add to that the ever surprising realm of children and a schedule is a recipe for disaster.

The last time I decided to set specific hours, there was a little snag. Two days into the schedule the entire household came down with head lice. Try explaining that to online clients! All I could do was to email every client and try to explain that there was a serious family situation that had to be dealt with. Some work was late, the kids were awake at strange hours, and the schedule has never been put right again.

I don't know if I will try a schedule again, since every time I try something weird happens to throw it off. Stomach flu, flooded bathroom, lice, runaway dog- it never seems to end. If fate just doesn't want to be tempted by a neat schedule, then I will try to respect that. The best I can do right now is to try to find the time somewhere, somehow, to get everything done. Well, most of it anyway.

OTher blog entries about time management: Are Your Business Practices Saving Time or Wasting Time? A Home Business means Longer Hours

Learn more about L Shepherd

L. Shepherd is a freelance writer and home business entrepreneur. Being involved in online retail with several third party sites, she knows the long hours and commitment that a home business requires.

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