7 Ways to Keep Your Business Life Separate From Your Home Life When Working From Home

by Lisa Taliga

If you’re already working from home, you may have got into the habit of doing a bit of work, doing the laundry, taking some personal calls, doing a bit more work, picking up the groceries and so on. It’s easy to let work duties merge into home duties until you find yourself pulled in all kinds of directions.

One of the biggest challenges you’ll find when working from home is keeping your working life separate from your home life. Of course, in a ‘9 to 5' office job, you go to work, do what you need to do and hopefully leave it behind when it’s time to head off home. But when you’re working from home, it’s easy to allow work time to seep into your free time.

Here are 7 ways to run a profitable business whilst keeping things running smoothly at home:

• Draw up a work and leisure timetable that you stick to. During the time that you’re ‘at work’, don’t take any personal calls, or do any domestic errands / home duties. And during your recreational time such as evenings and weekends, don’t answer any work emails, take any business calls or do any work. Of course, according to your individual situation, you may want to be available for urgent jobs at the weekends, especially if you’re charging a premium for this service. This is just guideline for you to schedule and compartmentalize your time so that you get control over your time. The downside to accepting business calls and visits after hours is that clients will start to take this for granted and expect that you’re available pretty much whenever they want. An advantage to developing a timetable that encompasses leisure time is that you and your family will much more likely get to spend time together simply because it’s been scheduled.
  
  
• Friends and family may be under the impression that because you’re working from home, this is an open invitation to call you during the day or go out for coffee. If you explain that you have set working hours and that you’d prefer to talk or meet after hours, they’ll get the message.
  
  
• Get separate phone lines installed: one for business and one for personal use. Not only does this serve to efficiently separate work from personal life, it looks much more professional than having family members pick up your business phone. Answer your business phone with your name, or business name, and keep your children away from the business phone line.
  
  
• Use a PO Box as your business address, not your home street address. This is important for professional reasons but also helps to maintain your privacy. Your business cards will be circulating around and you don’t want everyone knowing your home address. Similarly, separate bank accounts for business and personal use are essential for minimal confusion and efficient bookkeeping.
  
  
• Make the most of your flexibility. You no longer have a boss to answer to or somewhere to be at a particular time. You don’t have to follow the 9 to 5 regime any longer. If you are more productive first thing in the morning, you can schedule work to start at 6am and finish early afternoon, if you wish. Alternatively if you’re a night owl, you can spend the morning exercising or doing some other leisure activity or domestic duties, having scheduled your work for the afternoon. If you have children, working from home is perfect. You have the freedom to get your children ready and off to school, followed by work in the morning, with a break in the afternoon when they’re home from school, and then work again in the evening after dinner. Work your schedule to suit yourself, your life and your natural rhythms. You’ll get things done so much quicker, easier and more effectively.
  
  
• It’s very important to try to have a home office completely separate from the rest of your home. A closed door is an effective way of letting people know that you’re working. If a separate room isn’t possible, you could use a room partition or screen to serve as a visual hint that you’re at work and don’t want to be disturbed.
  
  
• Try different ‘tricks’ to make you ‘feel’ that you’re at work. Some people wear business clothing and shoes during working hours. It makes them feel professional and productive. I also heard of someone dressing as if he were going to work each day, getting into his car, driving around the block and returning to his home office! As crazy as it sounds, it helped him get into ‘work mode’.

Implement these tips and make sure you keep to them. Don’t let a temporary slip-up dissuade you, just get right back on track. Once you’ve established a regular routine and boundaries for your business and home life, you’ll feel much more satisfied and productive in all areas of your life. And after all, a better quality of life is the reason that you chose to work from home.

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