I work anywhere from 20 to 60 hours a week. I am not interrupted. I have a four-year-old daughter, but as of three months ago, my husband is a stay-at-home dad. He dropped out of college to do this, and for us, that was an excellent decision (long story).

I don’t take phone calls, ever. The only reason I have a phone line is that it’s included with my DSL service. My family, friends, and long-term clients have no problem with this. New clients can use email or find someone else. On the other hand, I answer my email faithfully within five minutes when I’m home, and this has yet to present a problem.

I may come across as a primadonna here (I’m not, I swear!) but everyone at home understands that I am not to be interrupted while working, unless the house is on fire or someone needs to go to the hospital.

Admittedly, I do get frequent email while working, and this can throw me off very briefly, but not for long.

For all those people who somehow manage to work while watching their kids… I commend you. I am incapable of doing so.

One thing that did make all the difference for me is using a stopwatch. I start work at a certain time (generally 2 hours after waking) and I end work when I have spend 8 full hours working. Soon after I began freelancing full-time, this often wound up being 10 or 12 hours after I started. No more! Now, it’s usually exactly 8 hours after I start.

Work-related email responses count towards the 8 hours; if I have personal email, I don’t even read it until I’ve “clocked out” for the night. It does take a lot of self-discipline to avoid getting distracted (mostly on the part of my husband and daughter!) but everyone is happier if Mommy quits working 8 hours after she started.

Obviously, this wouldn’t work for everyone, and probably for very few people, but it does work for us. I think the original post covered one good way of dealing with it, but I also think that finding a solution that works for you (and your family, if applicable) is most important.

Please excuse my rambling — it’s “at-home happy hour” over here. Little one is in bed, and I’m enjoying a lovely Pinot Noir.

–K

I know that in the past six months, I’ve lost the ability to sit quietly to read, and I’ll call it what it is: a stress-related problem that I need to fix.

I wouldn’t want to fool myself by using a convenient label for it. The problem was caused by me, and it’s just a bad pattern of behavior I’ve created that I need to face and fix for my health’s sake and my stress level’s benefit.

I know there are many, many people who are having the same issues as you and I, too, unfortunately, so we’re not alone.

My only criticism of the “scheduling for real life” approach is that it’s turned me into a Type A crazy person. For example, I now include “Shower” and “Load Dishwasher” and “Take Dog to Vet” in my list of things needed to do each day. It helps because it allows me to carve time out for these mundanities – but it has also resulted in me itemizing nearly every second of my day and constructing my life solely around “productive” tasks. When I’m not being “productive” – aka, crossing things off my list – I’m at a loss. It leaves me feeling uncomfortable; hobbyless; boring; and like a workaholic.

It also unhealthily blurs the line between which tasks constitute work and which ones constitute life. Consequently, I just always feel like I’m working in some form or fashion. I have tried making Work Lists and “Other Chores” Lists to separate the two, but this just leaves me with so many lists that I again feel like a crazy person.

Now, I know ppl have suggested to “schedule time for nothing” – but that hasn’t worked exactly for me either. It still turns what should be personal, exploratory, creative time into a commodity of sorts, and leaves me feeling like I should be “making the most” of my 1 or 2 hrs of personal time.

I don’t know right now there are any solutions for me other than simply taking on less work and learning to overcome some of my Type A-ness, but I did really appreciate this post as it speaks to the main challenge in my work-from-home life.

I’m glad I found this site and thanks for sharing the advice. I’m going to revise my schedule.