So it has been a few months and my new routine is working out great – although, strangely, I seem busier than ever. I guess I expected that “going freelance” would mean working less hours, more time to do home and child related stuff to improve our quality of life. But I fit in the same number of hours as before, and have the added activities of running miles every week, sorting house out (how did I ever manage before?) and all the stuff which comes with school, which we are new to this year.
Most of my working week is at home though. I harass lovely little Elvis (her nick name, I hasten to add) out of bed, drink coffee, enter into some high powered negotiation relating to getting dressed and eating wholegrain stars, and then begin the extra long school runs (small child, short legs, long walk).
Then it is back to the “office” (read living room table) for 6 hours solid graft, then once again off on the 1hour round trip school run at 3pm. So far it suits me, although having done it for a little while now, I can see there are a few unexpected cons to working at home, even part time.
• IT problems – where is the nice man I can call over to fix my computer when it is playing games with me? Or printer? Or internet connection?
• Cold – I really feel the cold, and my house feels freezing to me almost all the time. So I am piling on the jumpers as I can’t justify getting the whole heating system fired up just for little old me sitting in the corner
• Quiet – now this is taking some getting used to. I always worked one day a week at home, so I should have known what to expect. But I can’t quite get over how quiet it is. And how grateful I am when a colleague calls me about something!
Still in my case the pros still definitely outweigh the cons. The fact that I now have enough time to be busy with other things (playing with child, running, cooking, sorting house) all mean that I really feel I have struck a good balance in life now.
And I am astounded how much I can get done in the school hours; no interruptions, no water cooler gossip, no distractions. I can really throw myself into the task at hand, and I find that really quite refreshing. Plus the not wearing makeup and living in jeans aspect is not bad either!
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Its great that it is all working out. I am looking to move to homeworking at the minute, but finding it difficult to find an employment site dedicated to advertising, any suggestions? My son has just started secondary school and my daughter has moved to the middle band of primary school. Life is getting difficult as the school run now starts at eight, so I have three different journeys through rush hour traffic before I get to work. My hours are only twenty five a week but with travelling music lessons rugby etc we do not arrive home until nearly five at night. Cutting out travel expenses and childcare costs and working from home would give us a far better lifestyle and maybe finding time to go for a run (which I have not been able to do for two years) would destress me any ideas on where to start would be greatly appreciated. Trish
Patricia Fraser | Report this comment