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Working from Home, finding Balance

Working from home is wonderful. You can work when you like or when you can. You can be feeding your baby and typing an email. It’s wonderful and it’s a joy, NOT!

Let’s face it work is still work. And working from home is great, you can work when your schedule allows but let’s face it feeding your baby and writing an email is a recipe for disaster.

Here are some tips to make things easier:

1. A workspace. You really need to have an office or sectioned off corner where you can work and your home life stays out. And vice versa work stays out of home life.

2. Time. You still need to set aside time to work. If you’ve got kids this may mean hiring a baby sitter to be there at the house while you’re working. If you can’t afford that this may mean working while your significant other is home to watch the kids.

3. Organization. You really really really need to be organized. You must keep home out of work and work out of home. I’m including office hours of some sort in this. You really shouldn’t be feeding your kids and working at the same time.

4. Balance. You must find balance. Remember a work from home job is still a small business and if you find that you need to work 70 hours per week from home to make it work then maybe it’s not worth it.

Most people work from home for more family time. Remember though that just because you’re physically there with your family doesn’t equate to being WITH them. If you’re goal is to spend more time with your family and make a “little” extra money then it may work for you. But if you’re having dreams of an extra home and longer vacations I’ll break it to you now it’s not going to happen.

I personally work from home so that I can maintain my career while I have a young child at home. I work only when my daughter doesn’t need me. And I only work when my husband can watch after her, or she’s asleep! It’s not easy but it’s allowing me to keep my career going, if at a slower pace, while I enjoy time with my family when it counts.

Once my daughter is old enough for school I plan to work while she’s at school but once she’s home and on weekends it will be no work for me.
It is hard to set aside work when I know it needs done or I just want to do it. I do enjoy my job tremendously. But my family comes first and I know that someday my daughter will be a teen with her own life doing her own thing, and then I’ll be able to return to my career full time and work as much as I’d like.

Copyright 2007 Kelly Paal
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. She started her own business Kelly Paal Photography. She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. Please visit www.kellypaalphotography.com for more FREE how to articles.