by Mary Beougher

Created on: December 19, 2010   Last Updated: December 20, 2010

A lot of people dream about being able to work from home, whether that means starting your own business or having the type of job that allows for that type of flexibility. However, if you have a family, it can also bring with it complications you might never have thought about. Maintaining a separation of your family time and work time will be important to both being able to do your work and making sure that your family doesn’t feel neglected at the expense of  your work. There are three easy things you can do to ensure that balance is maintained.

Have a dedicated work space.

Making sure you have space for a home office can be very important to maintaining a separation of work and family life. It can be as simple as a desk in the corner or as much as an entire room in the house. Whatever your situation calls for and the space in your home allows, if the entire family knows that when you are in that space you are working, then they will know when to leave you alone and you will be able to work much better without the worry of unwanted interruptions.

Set work hours.

Next to having a work space, having set work hours will go a long way to maintaining a separation of your work life and family life. After all, when you go to a job outside the home, there is a time for you to arrive and a time to leave. The advantage of being at home is that your work hours don’t have to be in one consecutive chunk. If you know that between ten and twelve and then between two and four, you have the most free time, then those can easily be your hours. Or if six to eight in the morning followed by eight to ten at night work best for you, then you can do that too. Setting specific hours prepares everyone for your unavailability and will help to set a routine for both you and everyone else.

Make family time.

It can be easy for a person working at home to forget to set aside time for family, simply because they are at the same place as their family all the time. Of course, being in the same place does not ensure quality time. With a job outside the home, it is easier to leave work behind and focus on your family life, but if you work from home, then work is right there waiting for you and it can be tempting to just do one more thing. Resist that temptation and remember if it’s not the work hours you’ve set for yourself and if you’re not in your work space, then you’re not working. In this way you will keep your family from feeling neglected.

By having a dedicated work space, setting work hours, and remembering to leave work behind to make time for your family, it will be easier than you imagined to keep your work life and family life separate.

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