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How to Set Boundaries with a Home-Based Business
It sounds like a great idea. You have no commute. There?s no need to dress up. You can access the office 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And if you want to, you can make it to the kids? soccer games or run to the grocery store, no questions asked. Working from home is the perfect situation in theory. Reality, however, is a different story.
Many of the things you thought would make life easier are now causing chaos. Phone calls, equipment, paperwork and the constant pull to be working are invading your home. Family, friends, TV, pets and the constant pull from each are invading work. If any of this sounds familiar, then structure is the key to regaining peace at home.
There are always going to be times when you feel like you are being pulled from several different directions, but here are five ways to gain more control over the intertwined mess that is your home/work life.
- Clearly defining work time
You have to set regular work hours, and you have to stick to them. The beauty of it is that they don?t have to be the typical 9 to 5, but they do have to be consistent nonetheless. Maybe you work from 8 to 3, take a break during prime family time and then from 8 to 10 go back to work. By keeping a predictable work schedule, friends and family will be less likely to bug you when they know you're working, and you'll know that you?re getting an adequate amount of work done.
You'll always want to be on top of your latest phone calls and emails, but you have to know when to flip the switch. If it?s work time, don't fuss with family/home-type stuff. If it?s not work time, don?t fuss with work stuff.
- Clearly defining work space
Set aside a definite space that can only be used for work. This could be a spare bedroom, the garage, or if space is limited it may even be a small desk set up at the end of a hallway. Wherever it is, the rest of your space needs to be reserved for home life. These boundaries should absolutely not be crossed.
- Using separate business equipment (phone lines, computer, etc.)
This one is important particularly if you have a larger family or older children. You don't want to have conflicts, like when you're expecting an important call while a family member is using the phone, or you're working on the computer and your kid needs to write a book report. If you absolutely can't get another phone line, then at least make sure that you have caller ID, call-waiting and some sort of answering/messaging system.
- Saying ?no?
Right off the bat you need to communicate to your friends and family that just because you work from home doesn?t mean that you're sitting around watching soap operas or taking naps and basically have nothing better to do. You?re working, so you can?t drop what you?re doing to pick up the dry cleaning. You can?t cater to people popping by to say hello. And you don?t have time to sit and chat with your mother. It may seem rude to start rejecting people like that, but if you don?t you?ll just end up falling behind and losing control of your time. You can still be polite about it, but remain firm and stick to your guns
- Getting help from others
It's difficult to run a professional company and take care of all the other things that need to get done, and if you're at home you'll be that much more tempted to put off work and clean the house or run errands. And if you?re also supposed to be taking care of the kids, then you'll never get any work done. It might be a wise investment to hire a nanny, a cleaning person, a dog walker or any other outsourced work that might help you out, consider it part of the cost of doing business.
