Time Management when Working from Home

By Kari Sebern, founder & principal at Vector Collaborative

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

I’ve heard lots of feedback when I tell people that I largely work from home when I’m not on construction sites or having client meetings: “I could never be productive if I worked from home,” “there are too many distractions,” or “I wish I could work from home, it would be so nice to not have to commute.”

In my opinion after years of  working successfully from home, your work situation has to fit your situation and personality type. No one else can tell you what’s best for you, but here’s what I have learned from working from home for nearly 10 years:

You can’t beat the autonomy. Some days, I get up at 5am and walk less than 30 steps to my office, coffee in tow, still in my comfy clothes, and work for a few hours before the rest of the people in my house wake up. Often, this is the most productive part of my day. I tend to be a morning person and my head is clearest in the morning, and I know this is different for everyone.

Many days, I leave my office at 3:30pm so I can get the kids from school and spend a little time with them. I typically get back to work by 4pm so I can finish up what I need to for the day. Relishing in the flexibility of my schedule so I can prioritize family, I try to sign up to chaperone my children’s field trips whenever I can. However, my boys are at an age where I am no longer invited to join as often. But when we were in that phase of life, I indulged in those activities as much as possible.

Sometimes, I’ll peel away from my actual office and set up at a park somewhere and work on client correspondence or even drafting a blog post like this one. A wifi connection and my computer are really all I need to make progress and sometimes a change of scenery does wonders for my mood and creativity. I wouldn’t trade this flexibility for the world. I cringe at the idea of sitting in an office cube for 9 hours a day, every day. I’ve done it before, and it was soul sucking and prohibitive to my productivity (not to bash it for everyone – it just doesn’t suit my personality type).

Yes, I admit that there are downsides to the flexibility of working from home. I often miss adult human interaction. Yes, I talk and email clients frequently throughout the day, but it doesn’t make up for solid workplace connections or work friends. You know, the people you share inside office jokes with and the ones that make April Fool’s Day so much fun because of the endless pranks that keep everyone laughing all day. (Although I don’t really miss the annoying guy that asks how my weekend was every Monday morning at 8:34am like clockwork.)

When I first started working from home, I found it beneficial for a few years and didn’t miss office life at all. But then I really started to miss having colleagues. So, I have now refined my working schedule to accommodate the pros of both methods: I now work from home two days a week. For another two days a week, I’m out for client meetings and site visits. And I recently started setting up shop at a coworking space in Des Moines once a week. The beauty of this is that I can come and go as I please: I don’t have anyone watching over me and I can still have the feeling of having coworkers that, by the way, are also at the “office” by their own free will. These people also tend to be dreamers and entrepreneurs which I find inspiring. Additionally, I joined a professional engineering organization and currently serve on the board of directors so that I can interact with other professionals in my field as well.

I think schedule refinement is always a work in progress but it’s important to realize when you’re not getting what you need. It’s amazing how this can affect productivity. At one point, I was trying to be in the office all day every day, grinding out design work as fast as possible, but I started realizing by about Thursday afternoon, I was getting distracted and my productivity was going down. That’s when I started having set days to meet with clients and it has done a lot of good to mix things up. The surge of energy from interacting with others is just enough to keep me motivated and efficiently on task when I return to my home office. (And my email Inbox is usually overflowing after being out in the field for a day.)

Distractions do pop up sometimes, just like they do at an office, but just slightly different. The random salesperson or political canvasser knocks. The neighbor drops in. The water softener guy has to do his job. It’s the first day of March Madness. Over the years, there have been some boundaries that I have had to set with myself to establish healthy habits during the workday. My workspace is a separate room and that is the only function of that room. TV is off limits during the day, even at lunch time. I don’t answer the door unless I’m expecting someone. Occasionally, I’ll put a load of laundry in because this helps my overall efficiency and that’s worth it to me. I rarely clean up around the house during the workday. Sometimes, I’ll maybe pick up a little after the kids leave but that’s pretty rare. I have to separate home life and work life or else I could get lost down the spiral of trying to achieve the ever-elusive clean house and lose precious work time.

I’ve found that you have to get into the mental mind space of work mode. For me, this means showering and getting ready every morning, just like I would if I had to go into the office. I’ve tried staying in yoga pants all day but that isn’t good for my productivity. Everyone will have different things that work for them but this is just what works for me. Personally, I also feel more confident when I’m put together and I know this comes through in my phone calls and emails, too. And more recently, I get clients who want to Facetime with me to ask jobsite questions and have occasional Zoom video meetings with, so I don’t want that to get all awkward.

In sum, working from home has some definite benefits but there are also distractions and a lack of human interaction that can affect productivity and overall mental well-being. It is important to check in with yourself and make note when things feel off and readjust. Overall, I wouldn’t trade this autonomy for the world.