I saw a post from a woman who was constantly interrupted at her work-from-home job by family members and friends.
There are a lot of people who say they are ‘working’ from home but aren’t truly working from home. And that has f*cked things up for the rest of us.
Because family members and friends think we are like those people. They think we’re goofing around and doing nothing during the day.
As I TRULY work from home (that is how I treat writing – as a full time plus job), I emphasize that it is WORK.
I communicated my core business hours (9 am to 5pm Monday to Fridays) to friends and family. I told them I wouldn’t answer their personal calls during that time, though I would check messages in case of emergencies. And if they wanted to see me or drop by, they had to make an appointment.
They immediately received the message that only the location of my ‘office’ had changed. I was truly WORKING from home.
Some loved ones, of course, tried to ‘test’ my rules. They would drop by.
I would answer the door with “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know we had an appointment today. I’m double booked right now. Let’s do this after 5 pm.”
And then I would shut the door.
It felt rude but dropping by during my work hours was MUCH ruder.
Oh and keep those communicated working hours constant, if at all possible. If you change your communicated working hours for any reason, loved ones will then believe your working hours can be changed for them also.
Plus it becomes super confusing for loved ones.
That is why I chose 9 to 5 Monday to Friday as my communicated core hours. Those are standard working hours and are easy for loved ones to remember.
