Working from home - how do you stay sane?

[Legacy]

Having left Corporate Life I have started doing this fairly recently. Have started my own business, which I run from home, but am finding it really hard to keep home/work separate.

I have a separate office, but calls are routed through a number to the home phone line.
All e-mails, work and personal, come into my laptop inbox, so I might be doing a Tesco shop online, but then get a work-related message, and think "Oh I'll just answer this" and then I get sucked in

And if the kids are occupied and happy I find myself thinking "I'll just finish that..."

And then the evenings.....

Are there any Top Tips from wise MNers running businesses from home please...

[clarinsgirl]

I don't run my own business, but do work from home. Over the years I have found the following works for me;

Separate laptop for work / PC for home stuff

Sticking to specific working hours / routine whenever possible (this might not be traditional 9-5, but definite cut off between working and not working). Set lunch / end times and stick to them.

Home Office door shut when not in use.

I usually work around 3 days at home and 2 days out and about. Even so, cabin fever sometimes sets in so on the days when DS is at nursery, I drop him off at 8, then go to a cafe in the city centre for coffee and to plan my day/week. I find that this makes me feel part of the 'outside' world.

Planning, planning and more planning. Be really specific about what you need to achieve in the day and prioritise.

It's probably a bit easier for me as I work for a large Company so have specific goals and objectives to work to which make planning much easier - but good luck anyway!

PS - still haven't mastered the art of not MNing when I should be working !

[Gobbledigook]

Hmmm, no top tips from me really - I'm the same as you so I'll be doing family or PTA stuff and dealing with work emails at the same time. Tbh, it doesn't bother me though. I just do what I have to do whenever I can fit it in - I'm not too bothered about work being a completely separate area.

However, because I have only short bursts of time that are child free, I have to work then so I don't find it that hard to just knuckle down to it. The alternative is to work at night and I hate doing that with a passion. If I can avoid weekend work I will so I just motivate myself during the week to ignore other stuff around me if I have to.

Not easy though.

[exbury]

Avoid weekends if at all possible.

Try and go out and meet people (work-related rather than child-related if poss) at least once every 3 days - cabin fever sets in in a big way for me if I haven't seen "real" people in that long - and then I find I am a lot less productive.

or..and I am about to do this before I go back to work in April....get a "garden office" (aka shed) so that work is not actually in the house!

[hoolagirl]

I work from home full time as well.
I have seperate email addresses for personal and work.
Seperate PC's for personal and work.
Work set hours and then its all turned off.
Also have 2 seperate phone lines, work phone is unplugged when im finished.

[snowleopard]

Definitely get into a routine - I work 10-5 three days a week, with DS at nursery. I do work some evenings and weekends too, but then that's the huge advantage of working at home - if children are ill or you have extra work, you can catch up. But if I work outside "work hours" I discuss it with DP (he also brngs work home) and we arrange it so we take turns with DS at weekends, or one of us will cook if the other is working in the evening, etc. in other words, evening and weekend work is not just automatic.

I ignore non-work emails during the work day, unless they're very quick and easy to deal with, and reply to them in the evenings. Likewise vice-versa. Have a good email folder system where you can store all the work emails separately. Also organisation, list-making and planning - I do this religiously. My work day is planned and I have to get a particular set of stuff done - then I work through the plan.

However i DO have a little dabble on MN when I'm meant to be working - witness right now . I see it as a little break.