I’m back to working at home. Just temporarily. But even temporarily, working from home is downright depressing. I don’t care what anyone says, it sucks. Really. Here is what today has looked like so far (see if just reading it doesn’t make you depressed):
7:30 a.m. wake up, make coffee, oatmeal and toast.
7:45 drink coffee and eat oatmeal and toast.
8:15 check and reply to email.
9:00 make 3 phone calls.
9:45 check off phone calls and necessary emails from to-do list.
9:47 stare out window wondering what to do next.
9:55 take a walk and listen to This American Life.
11:00 return home and eat a banana.
11:05 shower.
11:10 put pajama’s back on (yes, I really did this).
11:15 wash dishes, take out trash. Also make toasted bagel with peanut butter.
11:30 eat bagel while checking email.
11:32 realize the house is too quiet and start iTunes on shuffle. It’s Nelly Furtado right now.
11:45 blow dry hair.
11:55 get distracted by clutter on dresser and put stray jewelry back in appropriate places. Also fold and put away laundry.
12:05 p.m. back at computer writing this blog post and convincing self to spend one hour writing before checking email again.
12:06 realize that people reading this may wonder why I’m working at home and not somewhere else (a question that deserves a whole separate blog post, which maybe I’ll write some day soon).
12:11 reread post and revise intro.
12:15 stare out the window again. Scratch eyebrow while thinking about whether or not to publish this post.
12:19 ignore phone call from an 8oo number. Reread post one more time.
12:24 appalled at amount of “work” that’s been done.
12:25 publish post anyway.
Yes . . I know exactly what you mean. The afternoon I’ve just had was a bit like that.
After 15 yrs in full-time office employment (+ some fun travel) I have been doing 2 days at home + 3 days in office for the past 6 months. But now, depressingly, all days are at home. For me a big part of the problem is worrying about money / prospects / future. But then there’s the thing you are talking about on top of that.
Today – actually my FIRST full week of being at home – I didn’t really have enough to do and am suffering from a bad case of inertia. I usually find the afternoon is the worst, after lunch bad, then I recover a bit then I have to go out and collect younger child from school and after that I seem to hit a wall: it’s only after 7pm I seem to summon enough energy to do anything productive again.
The constant distraction that is the Internet is a problem – so distracting. Basically I’m ok if I have LOTS to do but it’s those days where you can delay things til the next day that I find the hardest.
At the end of an unproductive, boring day when I am supposed to have supplied various articles for websites and done some editing work, I’m full of self-loathing about how little I have achieved, and de-energised by the grim monotony of sitting at a screen all day (ok, I get that in the office too . . but at least then I have getting home to look forward to! Weird isn’t it?)
So true, Tom! If you’re in Sacramento or surrounding areas, I would invite you to try out ThinkHouse Collective (thinkhousecollective.com). Otherwise you should definitely google coworking spaces in your area — it makes a world of difference to have a place like that to go, get out of the house, interact with people, feel legit, etc. Let me know if you try it out!