A Life-Saving Tip for Home-Based Entrepreneurs
By: Coach Paul, author of Moving Forward: Turning Good Intentions Into Great Results
A Double-Edged Sword
Creating the opportunity to work from home can be one of the best things that has ever happened to you or it could become one of the worst. On one hand, home-based businesses offer you the opportunity to eliminate the time and money you used to spend commuting to the office, spend more time with your family, or even work in your pajamas (one of my favorites). But on the other hand, working from home makes it much easier for you to lose sight of the line between your personal and your professional lives, experience distractions from those same family members, and be less productive. More often than not, because they don’t have that commute to the office to visually remind them of the line between home and work, home-based entrepreneurs find themselves working long hours, spending less time with their loved ones, and feeling like life is just one big blur.
Open for Business
One of the most effective techniques I have found for maximizing your work at home experience is to do what traditional businesses do and create an open for business sign that lists your business hours for each working day. Once you do this, make two copies of the sign, one for you and one for your family members. Put your copy of the sign somewhere where you will be able to see it, so that you will know when you should be starting and (more importantly) stopping your work day. Post your family’s copy of your open for business sign somewhere where all of your family members can see it to remind them when you should and when you shouldn’t be disturbed.
This simple technique will do two things for you. First, it will help you redraw the line between your business life and your personal life. Successful entrepreneurs avoid burnout because they maintain harmony between their work and their non-work obligations. For example, if your business hours are from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, then by 5:05 PM, you should be closing the door to your office or shutting down your laptop and moving into the non-work part of your life. Your open for business sign will be a visible reminder to you that it is not okay to keep working until 11:00 PM or later.
Secondly, this technique will help your family identify and respect your business boundaries. If you are like most people, you like the people you live with and undoubtedly they like you. This means that they like spending time with you. When you’re not working, spending time with your loved ones is an enjoyable activity, but when you are working, it can become distracting, unproductive, and even frustrating. By posting your business hours sign for your family members to see, you are letting them know when it’s okay and not okay to interrupt you. Doing so will lead to less frustration on your part and allow you to be more focused on whatever it is that you are working on.
Backsliding and Boundary Jumping
If creating a business hours sign seems like a great idea to you and you are ready to start using it, let me warn you about two things that you are more than likely to experience: backsliding and boundary jumping. Backsliding refers to the fact that old habits, even bad ones, are hard to break. If you are used to working 12 to 14 hours a day and you determine that you are now going to start working only 8, be prepared for your brain to become very creative in giving you reasons for not stopping at your new closing time. “It will only take a minute.” “You really need to get this done.” “That can’t wait until tomorrow.” Not only will your brain try to stop you, but it will also feel uncomfortable. When your closing time, say it’s 5:00 PM, rolls around and you stop working, you will feel like you are being unproductive and irresponsible. All of these are typical and normal reactions to restoring limits between your work and your personal life. And you may find yourself working past your posted closing time. When that happens, don’t beat yourself up for it. Remember that I told you it would happen and simply remind yourself that you have established your business hours so that you can avoid burnout and maintain harmony between your personal and professional lives. Eventually, you will start to consistently honor your business hours and one day you will even marvel that you used to live the old way.
Boundary jumping refers to the fact that it’s going to take some time for your family members to adjust to your new business hours also. When they do cross into your business boundary for non-work related interactions, gently, nicely, but firmly ask them if they could wait until after your closing time to discuss the item with you. Just like your brain needs to adjust to your new business hours, so do their brains. Give them some time and eventually, they too will learn to respect your newly erected work fences.
Where’s Your Sign?
I invite you to try this simple little technique and see if it doesn’t in fact improve both your professional, as well as your personal life. When you draw clear boundaries and enforce them with yourself and with those you love, the time you spend in each of your life’s domain will be more productive and enjoyable.
About the Author:
“Coach Paul” is a psychologist, author and business coach. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs and other influential people move forward. You may visit his website at: http://www.EdwardProfessionalAdvisors.com, email him at: coachpaul@edwardprofessionaladvisors.com or call him at 909-624-6427 for more information.
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admin | Aug 11, 2009 | Comments 0
Filed Under: Business Planning • Entrepreneurialism
