It's a Messy Life
Posted on January 30, 2020 by dragonspitapothecary
We all have different views of our life that we show people. We want to show we have our act together, our homes are always clean and our family is always happy, organized and on time. It’s like we’re trying to live life as it’s seen in tv shows and commercials. I’m not sure about your life but mine rarely looks like one on a pretty commercial.
Most days I live in stretchy pants or shorts, depending on the weather, t-shirts and bare feet. My hair is pulled back and I don’t have make up on. Since I can work at home with only some travel these days I enjoy the non-commute, lounge look. Ok I don’t necessarily always enjoy it but it is comfortable and well it’s easy. I can just get up, dress, wash my face, brush my teeth, grab a coffee and I’m ready. It’s honestly nice not to have to spend an hour in the bathroom getting ready every day and then driving another 30 plus minutes to the office. It gives me time to work on my small business, keep my family life more structured and well feel like I have a life some days.
There is a misnomer about people who work at home for their jobs. This misnomer is that we have all this “extra” time in our days since we are not commuting and getting ourselves ready to rush out the door every day. It is true we do have some “extra” time but more often than not you will find work at home people actually work longer hours at their jobs. They also do not get downtime between work and family chores that need to be done as soon as they stop working at their jobs. Most likely too they have the same piles of laundry and shopping errands as everyone else who works in an office. These things just don’t magically start getting easier because you shift work locations. I admit a lot of life things are more balanced with a home office but a lot of it is still the same.
I have had the pleasure of working from home for over the the past 8 years. I love it. Now most of those 8 years had a lot of travel involved for work but these days it’s much, much less. For me, it’s much easier to get into work assignments, focus on details and get progress made on tough challenges when I’m at home. I have room to think. My home office is pretty and I enjoy being in it. I don’t have an ugly cubicle wall or noise from an office surrounding me. Granted I’m on the phone a lot but there’s a great mute button on my phone. It’s productive, comfortable and feels good for me. More and more people are finding they too enjoy the flexible work locations and can really dig deeper into their work as a result.
The challenge I have with balancing work and home life is still the same challenge I had when I was traveling everywhere or commuting to an office. Namely it is finding that precious time to eat right and exercise. Amazingly even with a home gym that has a wonderful treadmill and weight machine in a beautiful space I still struggle with making time to use it. I can set all the New Year’s Resolutions, weekly goals or simple good intentions and still not succeed. I just don’t seem to get to it and some of it is my own stressed out exhaustion, motivation and well interest. It truly is not that I’m not interested in losing weight or feeling better because I am but I find I end up pushing those needs aside more than I should.