Being able to work from home has freed me in a lot of ways, but there are days where I honestly regret not having an office to work in. Somewhere to go, be as productive as possible for the eight or so hours I would be there, and then come home, where work couldn’t reach me. But working from home doesn’t offer me that definitive separation. Instead of having a block of time spent away from home, and then coming home to enjoy my family and my own personal time, every waking moment gives me the potential to do work. It’s hard to set boundaries, to define time for work vs. time for play vs. time for me. For anyone who is looking to work from home, I can only caution you and urge you to be very disciplined with time and routine. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself like me, giving up personal hobbies and sometimes sleep just to make a deadline or get work done a little sooner so you can get paid a little sooner.
Lately I feel like I am just overwhelmed. I have a lot of work on my plate, and it’s coming at me from multiple sources. There are days where I don’t know what the hell to do first. But then there are other days where I tackle everything with a ferocious energy (not always a good idea: I did this over the weekend and was completely burnt out yesterday afternoon. I sat around like a lump for a good hour or more.).
And then there’s the feeling of obligation. I think to myself, while I’m blogging/downloading music/organizing my playlist/transferring photos to my computer I could be working. And then I want to beat myself up for “slacking”, even though I might have already put in four hours worth of work already.
Grr. Two years into this working from home thing and I’m still struggling to set limits, create boundaries and stick to them, stick to a schedule and most importantly, make time for myself.
But I did make some time for myself yesterday afternoon. I went and got a much-needed hair cut. I had my last hair cut back in December, I think, but it was just a very brief touch-up. The last hair cut that put some style into my hair was back in September! So anyway, I went back to that same stylist. I have to admit, I’m not quite sure how my hair looks, because right after she trimmed off the split ends and threw in some new chunky layers, she whipped out a few bottles of hair gunking stuff and a curling iron and went to work:
I admit, I loved the look, especially as it got later in the day and the weight of my thick ass hair pulled the waves down (see third picture). But I normally do not use a blow dryer or curling iron (I have a blow dryer, I think I used it once two years ago, and the curling iron is still in its original packaging!), and I use texturizing/volumizing spray/gel/mouse maybe once a month. I normally wash, brush and let everything air dry, which, depending on if my hair is up or down, can take HOURS — up to twelve of ‘em! But I watched exactly what the stylist did, and it only took her fifteen minutes to rub Paul Mitchell extrabody Thicken Up styling liquid into my hair, blow dry it a bit, spritz on some Bed Head stuff, make eight or nine loose curls with the curling iron, and then spray on a tiny bit more of the Bed Head stuff. I already have the Bed Head stuff that she used, and on a whim I bought a small bottle of the Paul Mitchell styling liquid, so as of tomorrow afternoon I’ll know if I can pull off the same look or not. I’m leaning more towards or not. Hah.
All right, back to the grind for me!
Welcome to my world. Basically I work when hubby is at work. When he gets home, I’ve been off the comp for an hour to cook dinner and dinner is ready. We all eat, and then do whatever. If its one of those nights where he wants to play street fighter or watch golf on tv or something I don’t want to watch, I play with Olivia. If she’s with her Nana then I jump on the comp and do me stuff. Which is work stuff..but..yeah. Uhm. I looked into getting an office. It was pretty cheap. I still want to do it. However hubby said no at the time. Said it doesn’t make sense because I asked to be allowed to work from home and be with Olivia.
Yeah okay..I’m gonna stop here before I rant. Its part of his argument that he’s allowed to still go and hang out with his friends like when he was 20 because it was me that wanted a baby and thats why I’m not allowed to do that.
grrrrrrrr
I can totally relate to you when it comes to working from home. Sure, I can just stop what I’m doing and tend to the laundry or the kids and I love being home BUT what should take me 2 hours to do takes me like 5 hours because of all the interruptions!
I too sometimes wish I had a place to work – get it done and then enjoy my day.
What exactly is your profession? I’d love to work in my own home.
@Sam: I write SEO content and website articles.
I totally understand where you are coming from. I mean, I don’t work from home, but as a full-time college student who usually has several LONG essays due every week I know what it is like to have a lot to do and never feel like I have time for myself. And even though there is no (immediate) monetary gain, I’m still on deadlines. Ughh.
Anyway, I really like your hair! Hopefully you can accomplish the same look that the stylist did because it is so cute! And I love your hair color. I wish I had your hair color! Mine is a light, bland brown; your hair color is more vibrant, and is beautiful against your skin tone :). Me is jealous.
I really like working at home for the freedom, but like you said, it’s hard to balance everything. I wish I had a little more on my plate, but I don’t want to have to cut into my sleep to meet deadlines!
And, I like the new haircut! My hair always looks best the day of the cut. I can never duplicate what they do at the salon!
Well I’m not really doing a whole lot of anything from home anymore. I feel like I’m going into a really deep depression from being cut off from the outside world so long that I no longer even want to interact with the internet world either. It’s sad really, everyone is suffering. Don’t get too burnt out!!!!
BTW your hair looks fantastic. I’m shocked to see it so long, it seems like it is usually shoulder length and I hadn’t realized it was getting so much longer. It’s a good look on you.