The ups & downs of working from home

Working at home is always a roller coaster ride for me, and one of my goals this year is to fully enjoy it. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks just in the most basic sense—who wants to be at an 8-5 all day and commute home?! But as anyone will tell you, the lack of work/life balance, the restlessness, and for some of us, the lack of a space to even work from, are frustrating. I thought I’d kick off the topic of creative careers by sharing my experience so far:

The benefits (for me) of working from home

I’ve always gotten restless in an office. I do best when I get out and get air. Even when I worked at jobs that weren’t as stressful as my current jobs, I’d come home exhausted—just from sitting! Now I can go take a walk or head to a coffee shop if I need to, no questions asked.

It makes more sense. In my industry, it just makes more sense. For creatives, working from home means time to travel/explore for shoots or projects, to write in different places, to be inspired. It often doesn’t mean working at home at all, but just not working in an office.

The location is flexible. I can work from most places. I’ve explored LA more than I did when I first moved here and only got to know the Starbucks across the street from my office. I love this because a change of scenery works wonders for my mood and productivity. Hello from a café in Hollywood, btw!

It’s not awkward when I’m checking my blog at work. My blog is part of my work now. That doesn’t mean it’s bringing in the income my other jobs are, it means that I’ve committed to it. And also that no one is looking over my back. Really, one of my jobs once involved my bosses having desks directly over my back! Even if you have a full-time work from home job that doesn’t operate the way freelance does, it’s nice to be able to tweet your blog post super quickly if you need to. The general feeling of not having someone critique what I’m doing is also a perk. Sure, people will call me if I make a mistake or they want something, but it’s not a “come into my office” type of experience, which always made me feel like I was set up to do something wrong.

The drawbacks of working from home

I’m always on call. My cell phone is my business phone. My laptop is my work computer. Even when I tell people I’m busy or unavailable, it’s still hard to get away. I have to remind myself that I don’t actually need to check my email or voicemail on weekends. Most of the time, no one really expects me to, but it still causes anxiety knowing things are waiting, whereas before it was left at the door.

I still get restless. The truth is, no matter where you spend most of your time, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Working daily with no change of scenery creates a kind of routine that if not totally healthy—such as skipping breakfast and working from the couch all morning—is necessary but tough to get out of. I always

Productivity is… Different. Now that I have multiple deadlines and projects, I get a lot more done in a single day than I am used to. But there are a lot more distractions at home. Whether it’s the distraction of having multiple projects going on a once or knowing there are things at home to be done, it’s all about finding balance. Sometimes the day doesn’t end until 8… or midnight. But sometimes I leave in the middle of the day to do something else. So it can be easy to feel like I’m not being as productive, but I have to realize it’s different.

If any of you work from home, I’d love to hear your tips!