Tell people you work from home and they inevitably have one of two reactions.
- Aren’t you lucky?!?!
- I could never do that. I don’t have that kind of discipline.
They’re both pretty accurate assessments.
Yes, I AM lucky. I pretty much get to set my own work schedule. (Except for those pesky deadline times when I’ve inevitably estimated incorrectly how long something is going to take me OR I’ve come up with a new, “brilliant” idea that I must incorporate into a work that was all but finished.) I’ve got no commute. Not only can I light as many candles as I want, I can refill my coffee as much as I desire without being judged. Not to mention, it’s perfectly acceptable, and way more comfortable, to not have to wear a bra or pants. 😉
If you follow my instagram, you know that I’m big on getting outside in the middle of the day (in the morning and evening too, lol) and my work set-up allows me to do that AND get to the beach to watch the sunset. So yes, I am really, really lucky.
But what you won’t see is that I offset my daily distractions and diversions by working strange hours. If I go to watch the sunset, I’ll most likely come home and work until ten or eleven at night. Or like today, I had a friend over for brunch and am just sitting down to work at three on a Sunday afternoon because I’m trying to finish a project before Wednesday. That takes some discipline. Some people can do it. Some people can’t.
It’s perfectly okay to know what you are capable of…and not.
Working from home is not for everyone. Neither is working for yourself, but that’s a whole other topic for another day.
((Hmmm, the photo makes it look like sand, which is fitting for a book that’s set in a beach town, but in person it’s more like gold glitter.)