Budget Around Personal Time When You Work from Home
by BillT
(Cleveland, OH USA)
Work from home businesses, like a craft business, where you do not have assigned hours to work can be challenging and rewarding. There are two key things to doing this, dedicated workspace and time management.
Although I live alone, I still move to my desk in a separate room when I am doing work. This puts me into the mindset of focusing.
I use a laptop, and often I will take it into the living room with the television on when I am doing personal tasks. But when I am working, I am at my desk.
This is even more important if you have people living with you. They need to know what you are doing when you are in a certain space.
The other is time management. But in reverse.
Plan when you are going to do non work things. I like to read the morning paper, have coffee, catch some morning news, go to the gym, etc. I plan these things and other chores, then build my work time around them.
In my mind personal things still come first, but in reality, because of the good planning, I am putting in way more hours on my business than I used to.
I fill my time when I don't have personal commitments with business. I find this approach better than building a set work schedule.