How Always Being At Home Has Effected My Own Business In 2020:
By: Jacob Bates
Tags: Small Business Owner, Working From Home, Work Life Balance, Home Office, Entrerpreneurship

Working From Home Can Be Stressful.

Whether you are working from home currently, or were from home if you have returned to work, you might understand how hard it could be.

I have been self employed for about 5 years now, so I am always at home working. I have an office in our house, and only go in there to work. While I have been at this awhile, and work crazy hours, working from home during the pandemic shouldn’t change anything… Right?

Well you see, when I go into the office to work, it is 100% work time. Sometimes I may take a break and watch a YouTube video while I have a snack, or hop on a Zoom call with a buddy. For the most part though, work time is work time, and then once the night comes around, I allow myself to work & play.

Lets start with my “Work Schedule”.

Working for me is from about 10–11am until anywhere as late as 3–4am. My wife works night shift as a nurse, and because I have the flexibility to change my schedule around to somewhat match hers. I wanted to be sure I throw that in there before everyone jumps on saying it must be nice to sleep in.

So, with my wife being gone for 14 hours from dinner time until morning, I get caught working late, and sleeping in a bit past the “normal” wake up time.

With that being said, I have never really been one to go stir crazy sitting at home, and if I don’t go somewhere every few days, I am usually perfectly fine with that. But as the pandemic has set in, and things staying closed or being closed earlier, I have found myself going a bit stir crazy.

But why?

Over the past 5 years I have been at home, working everyday, doing my “thing” and not caring about leaving the house. Now that I can’t leave I want to.

Is it a mind game? Are we all just getting a little stir crazy?

While I do go out into the world, go to a few of our favorite restaurants and getting our groceries it just never feels like enough “outdoor exposure”. As time goes on, it has become a bit harder to work like I was, I still answer a ton of messages & emails on my phone, but I find my office time to be less. I find myself working from my MacBook Pro more than being in my office. I tend to keep office time down to when I HAVE to be in there, so conference calls, video chats & more.

Finding the solution to my problem.

Hobbies & Gaming… I understand exactly what you are thinking, I have no time to introduce any new hobbies into my life. Well you actually do, out of the 16 hours you are awake, lets assume 10 of those you are for work. That leaves you with 6 hours remaining in your day. Spending 4 hours with family, children, spouse etc… You are now left with two hours of your time. Instead of thinking about work, doing work, answering emails, checking messages, whatever it might, take that time to do something for YOU.

While I haven’t been using my 3D printer nearly as much as I was when I first got it a few months back, it has been a very fun hobby. It did cost about $200 for the printer, and another $30-$40 in plastic for it. So all in under $250 and you can make ANYTHING. There are numerous sites that already have items designed and it is just a drag, drop, print type of system, the real fun has been the designing part. Learning how to design 3d objects and actually watching them come to life is fascinating.

Wrapping it up.

Overall 2020 has been a year that nobody could have predicted. With the threats of WW3 at the beginning of the year, to the COVID-19 outbreak, to murder hornets being discovered. We have been put through a whirlwind of a year and 2021 can only get better. (Hello future self, please tell me 2021 was better).

Working from home can be a bit discouraging, mind numbing, and you might find yourself slacking a bit because you are in your house. The best piece of advice I can give you is to separate your work & home life. If you can’t set up a office in a specific room I understand, dedicate somewhere in your house that is meant to be in use only during work. It could be a fold up table in the corner. So when you walk to that area or room, you know what is about to happen, work time. Start to leave work at your “office space”, when you walk away the work stays there, it isn’t going anywhere I promise.

I just want to say thank you for reading my first post, hopefully this helps some of you out and I wish you happy holidays!