When you tell people you work from home, they seem to imagine you sitting around in pajamas all day and not actually doing any work. Well, let me put an end to that story.
Working from home almost always means working more than you would in a normal job. There is no 9 to 5 at home. It’s more like a lot of 12 hour days. The benefit is that I get to choose the 12 hours myself instead of clocking in.
That allows me to bring my kid to school and be there for her recitals. I can get the shopping done and wash the dishes. But, that means that I’ll be burning the midnight oil to finish what I was working on.
Here are some things to think about if you want to work from home.
The Bad: It Doesn’t Pay Much
When I say working from home, I mean basically freelancing. Hustling for clients and writing proposals is a big time suck. That is time that would be spent on the clock and paying you if you had a normal job.
You’ll have to get creative when it comes to making sure you always have money for the bills. Setting up a strict budget is the first order of business. And trying to save money wherever possible.
If you own your home, then this is a good time to do a remortgage. Check out sites like habito.com to figure out how to do it. I am bad at that kind of stuff so let them help you with finding a good rate.
The Good: You Won’t Work Yourself To Death
When you work from home, you take away a lot of the pressures that come with working in an office. There is no commute. No office politics. No face time that has you staying late because the boss is working late and expects you to do the same.
Working yourself to death is the new feudal system for modern times and when you work from home you can totally disconnect from that.
As I said, you will still work a lot, but you have a pressure release valve by taking a break when it is needed. You don’t have to stress about juggling your personal life since you can duck out of the house when you need to without anybody telling you that you can’t.
The Neutral: Your Work And Home Life Blend Together
This is neither good, nor bad. It just is. Something you’ll have to get used to is that there is not much separation. You will feel that you are always shirking your work when you are at home doing something else.
That makes you feel like you are always working or thinking about work and leaves you very tired. Try to find ways to break up your day to feel like you have two distinct and separate lives.
It isn’t all rosy working from home. Yet, once you do it, you can never go back to working in an office for somebody else.