Homeworking dilemmas
Would you let your kids plan your home working diary?
Jul 13th
The little Somerset town of Frome where we moved two years ago is a vibrant and creative place and its annual festival is growing every year. On Sunday I was delighted to take part in Writers and Publishers Day by running a workshop for writers who work from home.
I had a very enjoyable and useful time talking to twelve enthusiastic writers about the issues that most affect them and any home worker – developing some kind of routine for your working day, the terrors of procrastination, and how to recognise when you’re spending too much time alone.
Everyone agreed that juggling home and family commitments with work can be a nightmare and often the writing gets abandoned because other, more mundane jobs seem so much more pressing. Even things like ironing and digging the garden yield a quick, tangible result, while making time to write can seem indulgent and selfish.
We agreed that these are issues that never seem to get resolved, and then yesterday one of the group told me that her children had planned the day to include a couple of hours writing time – and unlike many of her own previous plans, those hours actually happened!
Which makes me wonder if she has stumbled upon a brilliant solution to home working parents’ guilt – let the kids have a hand in planning the diary, including your work time, so they have an investment in making it happen.
5 reasons to hate home working
Jul 8th
1. Incipient madness
So you thought it would be wonderful to get away from the interrruptions of the office and be massively more productive. What you didn’t reckon on was how quickly motivation can spiral down when there’s nobody around to help keep the momentum going. The horrors of the mid-afternoon slump can make you doubt your own sanity.
2. Weight gain
You’re constantly in temptingly close proximity to the fridge and food cupboard, which need to be stocked if the household isn’t going to starve. Snacks and drinks are always just metres and a few minutes away and it’s all to easy to pop down to the kitchen whenever you’re feeling stuck, bored or demotivated (see 1 above).
3. Just leave me alone
Nobody seems to understand the working bit of being at home. They think they can pitch up at any time for a cuppa or a favour. You unthinkingly answer the phone in the middle of a task only to get your mother asking if you are coming to lunch on Sunday and do you like broad beans? Having caused offence with your off-hand response, it is impossible to find your way back to that sweet spot of concentration.
4. I’m never off-duty
It feels more like living at work than working from home. Work haunts you with reminders whenever you pass the ‘office’ (dining room/spare bedroom/garage) door. Paper and bits of IT equipment drift into the corners of every room and the cat chooses your in-tray as its favourite bed.
5. Get me out of here
People are always banging on about how much time and money you save by not commuting. But nobody ever mentions how claustrophobic it gets when you spend nearly all your life within the same four walls. Mind-numbingly claustrophobic to the point where the weekly shopping trip to Asda becomes a kind of treat. Tragic.
A moving experience
Jun 27th
Moving house is supposed to be up there amongst the most stressful events of a lifetime, and if you run a business from home, there’s even more to consider. We’ve moved our home and two businesses several times in recent years and so I’ve distilled my experiences into a short guide ‘How to move house when you work at home’ published by my pals at Enterprise Nation.
What I’ve learnt is that there’s plenty you can’t control about a house move (such as whether your utility suppliers actually provide what they’ve promised, as I described in Moving in more ways than one) but you’ll have less to worry about if you prepare as much as you possibly can and keep track of what others are doing. Often things will happen that you didn’t predict, but I find it helps to bear in mind that it will all work out in the end, even if you can’t sort it out straightaway!
What’s up your sleeve?
Jun 1st
One day last week I returned to the computer after a short break to find the broadband connection had mysteriously disappeared. Putting it down to my technological cackhandedness, I waited for A to return from a meeting in the confident expectation he would get us back on in no time.
But no, there was no broadband to be had. BT had a major problem affecting several large towns in the South West and in the end it was almost 8 hours before we were reconnected. In the meantime although we both had other work we could do, we felt disoriented and cut loose, and I was reminded of a recent blog by Judy Piatkus, the founder of Piatkus Books and now a speaker and thinker about new trends in life and business.
We are now so reliant on technology in its many forms that we don’t even think about it as long as it’s working. But as Judy points out, technology and many of our other structures are actually very fragile. Who would ever have anticipated planes would be grounded throughout the UK due to a volcano erupting in Iceland?
She suggests we all think about possible scenarios in our own lives and have contingency plans in place. Not so that we are constantly worried about a disaster, but so that we can be confident we have done our best to prepare for whatever life throws at us.
What would you do if your broadband connection disappeared for the next eight hours? Would you be thrown into panic or have a plan up your sleeve?
Decisions, decisions
Jan 20th
Today I need to take some of my own advice, as outlined in my book about working from home in the chapter on productivity, to decide what to work on first. There are so many things I’d like to get done, preferably now, straightaway, this minute, that it’s hard to plump for one and just concentrate on it.
Sometimes it’s very clear what needs to be my priority, other times I pick one thing and as I do it, in the back of my mind I’m thinking I should be doing something else! For example, I’ve been leaving the dreaded search engine optimisation (SEO) to the bottom of the list for ages, because I couldn’t get a grip on where to start.
I’ve wondered about paying someone else to do it, then changed my mind, and finally bought a copy of Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
I think it’s easier to decide on priorities when you work with other people, as there’s often a common goal or deadline to work to. When you’re on your own it’s harder to make a decision. So when I’ve finished this post I’m going to prioritise the jobs, start with the most urgent and put the rest firmly out of my mind.
Work from…where?
Jan 5th
We had some disappointing news before Christmas. Our landlords have decided to sell the house we rent and so we will have to find somewhere else by March. It’s a shame because we really like it here, it’s light, roomy and a quick walk into the town centre, which has all the amenities a home worker could want – Post Office, banks, building societies, cafes, library, good mix of shops, markets etc.
It’s a big upheaval to move two businesses as well as all our belongings and inform all the authorities about our change of address, make sure post doesn’t go astray, arrange for new phone lines and internet and so on.
A level of insecurity goes with renting, but we are just not ready yet to commit to buying again. We both want to get our businesses firmly established and know for sure where we want to be. So if you know of a nice house in Frome with 3 bedrooms or enough space for us both to work from home, please get in touch. Oh, and a woodburner would be good…
A little of what you fancy
Dec 14th
I’ve just been out for my daily walk to get away from the desk and do some little jobs, and it’s one of those dark, damp, cold winter days that seeps gloom and lethargy. Days like this always seem to make me hanker after a treat to eat. We have supper all planned, so a little something at teatime fits the bill. A little smackerel, I think Winnie the Pooh called it, but you have to be careful or after too many little smackerels you too will have a Pooh girth.
We are lucky in still having an M&S food store, always a good source of smackerels, so as well as the virtuous leek and cooking apple, my bag also contained an apricot pastry for A and a packet of chocolate rolls for moi. They cost the same, but the enjoyment in a pack of mini rolls can be strung out so much longer!
I have to buy my edible treats one by one, as anything stored in the cupboard simply cries out to be eaten. (Actually so did 2 bags of lovely German lebkuchen A had bought as gifts for friends. I promised to replace one I wanted to take along to a meeting with Louise Billington, my excellent coach. Rushing out slightly late, I forgot it, but then of course it was as good as mine and so I ate it later. And the other bag, because in for a penny…)
So to those people who worry that working from home will make them fat, I’d say that yes, you do have to be disciplined, but no more than you have to be working with other people who probably eat crisps, chocolate, biscuits and all that tempting stuff in front of you and ask you out for coffee and drinks. Just don’t stock up with your favourite indulgence at the supermarket – you might save pounds in one sense but you’ll gain them in another!
But I was always told not to eat and talk at the same time…
Sep 29th
Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the breakfast meeting of the local branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, held at a rather smart hotel just outside Bath. As is usual at these events, everyone gathered in a reception room first for a cup of coffee and then we were ushered into the dining room and had large plates of full English set before us. I picked at mine – after all, if you’re about to address a roomful of people the last thing you want is a palate thick with egg and bacon – feeling bad about the waste of food.
I totally understand the principle of networking over a meal. It saves time in a busy day to refuel at the same time as meeting people, but I find that all too often I eat automatically without enjoying the food and maybe end up eating too much without even noticing till it’s too late. Or I eat almost nothing and leave with a rumbling stomach and low energy.
There’s also the potential for so much embarrassment when you’re meeting and eating with strangers. Juggling with drink and food, not to mention exploding vol au vents and canapés that drip filling down your clothes and onto the carpet.
Food and people are both sources of fascination to me and I prefer to concentrate and enjoy each separately, but I’ve never heard anybody else express this opinion. Maybe I’m socially inept. Or just plain greedy. Is it just me?
Who’s a homeworking early bird?
May 6th
I’ve always thought I was one of those people who likes to get things done and out of the way before giving themselves permission to relax, the type who gets up early and revels in having the world to themselves before anyone else is about.
But I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s just strong childhood conditioning, reinforced by years of running an office cleaning company when early mornings were essential, and topped off by many years of self-deception.
I discovered while on my MA writing course and later while writing the book that I struggled to get going with work during the day, whereas in the evening I somehow relaxed and slipped into it, it became much easier and time just slid by. But I didn’t want to accept that might be my preferred style of working. I liked the idea of experiencing that virtuous feeling when you’ve done all you can and feel justified in relaxing for the evening. It seems more logical too – shouldn’t one be brighter after a good night’s sleep and wind down with the day?
Or maybe I need to accept that the Muse is an elusive creature and doesn’t always descend to fit in with human timetables. Although Somerset Maugham apparently said ‘I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.’
Or maybe we’re all completely different and what is procrastination for one person can simply be acknowledged by another as the wrong timing.
She did WHAT?
Mar 13th
Since my last post I’ve had an exchange of emails with someone who would rather not tell her story herself – you’ll see why – but has given permission for me to pass it on. Here it is in her own words:
‘In a previous job I once had to make a sales call to a self-employed businesswoman who worked from home. It was like going into a skip filled with children and her husband was there too. The rooms were filled with junk of all types and weirdly they insisted on showing me around the house – it was so strange. We then repaired to the kitchen which was of a minimalist design but filled with family detritus, and tried to have a meeting while three children added their two pennyworth! My sales pitch was peppered with Thalia or Otto or Primrose interjecting and at one point being breast fed while I looked on – IT WAS AWFUL!!
‘I felt like I didn’t know how I was meant to behave – was I meant to act like a friend or a professional business contact… Very weird and I bet they aren’t in business anymore!!!’
So beat that for how not to do it! In a generous mood I’d say that the woman might not have known how else to behave to a visitor to her home. If I was more cynical I might wonder if she was trying to disarm the salesperson and get a better price.
