Work At Home Safari

That’s right, don’t forget to shower.  You laugh, but I’m serious.  In my early days of working-at-home, I’d start working and realize around 2:30 PM that I hadn’t showered yet.  It was too late by then to shower, so I’d just continue working and figured I’d do it the next day. 

Well, not only did my husband suffer the olfactory consequences, I started feeling like the workday just went on and on.  The problem:  I had no beginning and no end to my office hours.  Home life and work life overlapped, causing me to feel rundown because my hours seemed to start the second I woke up to the minute I fell asleep.  The lesson:  treat your work-at-home career as a real job. 

Whether you’re working part-time or full-time, make sure you take time every morning to shower and get ready.  Change out of your pajamas and into something you’d want a colleague to see you in.  Set a specific time to report into work, eat lunch at a consistent time (which is good for your metabolism as well), and stop working at the end of the day (no earlier, no later – make this a rule, not an exception).

I do not know what I would do without the Internet, email, IM, and broadband.  I can’t even imagine how stay-at-home moms, let alone those who worked from home, did it before high-speed internet access.  Technology has definitely made working from home so much easier; not only from a speed and access perspective, but as a way to stay connected with the world outside of your home.

When I had my baby and started working from home, I found it so isolating.  Most of the conversations I had were one-way with an infant that responded with nothing more than a gurgle.  I overcame that loneliness by establishing a professional and social network with moms, dads, singles, entrepreneurs, and others who worked at home.

I’d love to connect with you about issues or accomplishments you’re facing working-at-home whether it’s starting a new business, ways to fit the gym into your schedule, or just a “hello”.  You can reach me via:

Group Talk - You are a smart cookie, share your wisdom.  This is my favorite way to connect because I get to see how you handle all the day-to-day issues with a work-at-home career and others can learn from your triumphs or mistakes too.  Share your tips or read what others have to say.

Email – Use the form below.  Don’t let the form scare you into thinking your email will go into some black hole, I am a real person and will read your emails, so write me.