A question to anyone who has or does run a business from home.

[alsy]

In relation to working from home (business), are you/ did you have clear demarcation between work & non work?
What method/s do you/ did you use to create or maintain the separation between work & non work?
Do you have any strategies or rituals for separating internet useage between business & non business? Or is it just a straight discipline thing for you?
I guess this could apply to students as well.

I read about a business person who used a ritual to create the demarcation between work and personal life. It involved donning a suit, and walking around the block at the start of the day. He was at work for a full day, and ended the day by walking around the block with the brief case and changing clothes upon returning. It was made clear that personal family/ social relationships were directed outside of business hours.

Years ago, I came across a tradesperson who use to do paperwork only a couple of time a week. Because of space constraints he used a desk in his bedroom. At the time It did not click with me as to why there was an office partition between the desk and the bed. Now I realize it is a way of separating the personal life from work.

Several years ago I use to conduct business from home, and now that I think of it, It would have been more effective to create that demarcation. Distruptions to the work flow, getting sidetracked , iregular hours, iregular eating (not good for health), etc Discipline for me went right out the door. I am not pointing the finger any anyone else, as i realise I am responsible for this. However, I would like to read of your experiences if you have some method, attitude, ritual or whatever that helps you in demaraction and thus having a solid focus with work.

Thanks in advance.
Paul

[boris]

I don't have any ritual or formal distinction between working and not working. But I realize it will help.

A good thing is to track how long you actually work. You might find you work too much (or too little for that matter).

While you may not be constrained to specific work hours, you'll probably benefit from establishing ones.

[Jill]

I don't do much to separate the two because to me, my business IS my life. This doesn't mean that I don't have a life outside of my business, I do have a family and aren't always doing business stuff, but my business is so intertwined with my life that there's no real separation between the two.

That said, I do have specific times where I don't do any "work." There's usually at least a few hours a night where I stay offline and don't work.

But it is difficult for me to even know when I'm actually working or when I'm just playing online since my work has always seemed like my recreation too (nothing much I'd rather be doing most of the time).

[joshbickford]

I try to close myself into my office and shut the door. Typically this works, but my wife has her own rules about that, and they don't match up well with mine!

Personally I've worked at home for years and I plan on renting office space soon. I work too much and my hours are too strange anymore.