Working from home...

I couldn't be more thankful for the flexibility in my job that allows me to work from home on a regular basis. I live about 45 minutes away from the office, and the drive really has never bothered me. But once you get in the habit of NOT having to get up at 5am, and NOT driving 27 miles to work each way, and NOT having a crazy drycleaning bill, or NOT having to fill up my car every few days, and NOT having to pay over $400 a month in doggie daycare..... it's hard to switch back! I've gained my independence in this role and it's forced me to really figure things out on my own and take ownership in my time management and project management skills.


While I absolutely love seeing the people in my office, a lot of the times I have a ton of work that needs to get done and I'm actually a lot more productive at home. When I tell most people I work from home, they respond with, "Oh, I would never be able to do that. I'd be too tempted to watch TV or do other things around the house." The reality is, sometimes put a load of laundry in, or run to the post office, or call my dad in the middle of the day.... but as long as my work gets done by the deadline, that's all that really matters in the end. I end up being more productive at home because I don't have as many distractions. I have music playing but don't think I've ever had the TV on for more than background noise-- it's weird. My dogs can't carry on a conversation for 45 minutes, so they're not much of a distraction either.



My work in the office days:

• Alarm clock goes off at 4:30am, get out of bed around 5am
• Drop the dogs off at daycare by 6am
• Drop off Stefan at work around 6:45am
• Work by 7am
• Pick up Stefan from work around 5pm
• Pick up the dogs around 6pm
• Home by 6:30pm
• Dinner, then log back into my computer and do a little more work at home
• Length of my day: about 14 hours
• Amount of work that realistically gets done: 9-11 hours
• Time spent driving, running errands, socializing, etc: 3-5 HOURS!!!!!!! 

My work from home days:

• Alarm goes off at 6:30am, get out of bed by 6:55am
• Work starts around 7am
• Done around 6pm, sometimes earlier/sometimes later
• Stefan drives to work by himself and the dogs stay home with me.
• Length of my day: 11 hours
• Amount of work that gets done: 10-11 hours
• Time spent driving, running errands, socializing: um.... maybe 20 minutes if I have an errand to run.

Even though I still feel like an idiot learning my "new" job, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Having the flexibility and awesome "work environment" is so worth it!


...even when I have these two craving for attention :)